Author Topic: Can I find someone whose name I don't know?  (Read 2585 times)

Offline Forfarian

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Can I find someone whose name I don't know?
« on: Monday 20 November 17 21:58 GMT (UK) »
I am helping a friend who wants to know the name of her great-aunt's fiance who was killed in the First World War. She knows that he was a teacher in a school in Edinburgh before the War, and that he was an officer in the Royal Scots.

Can anyone point me at any lists of officers in the Royal Scots who were killed in 1914-1919 please?
Never trust anything you find online (especially submitted trees and transcriptions on Ancestry, MyHeritage, FindMyPast and other commercial web sites) unless it's an image of an original document - and even then be wary because errors can and do occur.

Offline KGarrad

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Re: Can I find someone whose name I don't know?
« Reply #1 on: Monday 20 November 17 22:27 GMT (UK) »
A search on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website turns up 11,578 soldiers of the Royal Scots!

(Advanced search with regiment set and WW1 dead)
Garrad (Suffolk, Essex, Somerset), Crocker (Somerset), Vanstone (Devon, Jersey), Sims (Wiltshire), Bridger (Kent)

Offline KGarrad

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Re: Can I find someone whose name I don't know?
« Reply #2 on: Monday 20 November 17 22:39 GMT (UK) »
23 x Majors
9 x Lt. Colonel
109 x Captains
153 x Lieutenant
6 x 2nd Lieutenant

and probably some ranks I have missed?
Garrad (Suffolk, Essex, Somerset), Crocker (Somerset), Vanstone (Devon, Jersey), Sims (Wiltshire), Bridger (Kent)

Offline Forfarian

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Re: Can I find someone whose name I don't know?
« Reply #3 on: Monday 20 November 17 23:07 GMT (UK) »
Thank you. That does look a bit like a needle in a haystack! I'll pass it on to my friend.
Never trust anything you find online (especially submitted trees and transcriptions on Ancestry, MyHeritage, FindMyPast and other commercial web sites) unless it's an image of an original document - and even then be wary because errors can and do occur.


Offline Rosinish

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Re: Can I find someone whose name I don't know?
« Reply #4 on: Monday 20 November 17 23:32 GMT (UK) »
Forfarian,

This may have narrowed things down...

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_q=royal+scots+edinburgh

or this...

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_q=royal+scots+teacher+

There's a mention of a Teacher Norman McDonald (seem to be all the same person)? but I can't make out the meaning of the wording although there's no mention of 'Officer'  :-\

Annie
South Uist, Inverness-shire, Scotland:- Bowie, Campbell, Cumming, Currie

Ireland:- Cullen, Flannigan (Derry), Donahoe/Donaghue (variants) (Cork), McCrate (Tipperary), Mellon, Tol(l)and (Donegal & Tyrone)

Newcastle-on-Tyne/Durham (Northumberland):- Harrison, Jude, Kemp, Lunn, Mellon, Robson, Stirling

Kettering, Northampton:- MacKinnon

Canada:- Callaghan, Cumming, MacPhee

"OLD GENEALOGISTS NEVER DIE - THEY JUST LOSE THEIR CENSUS"

Offline Ruskie

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Re: Can I find someone whose name I don't know?
« Reply #5 on: Tuesday 21 November 17 00:30 GMT (UK) »
Would there be any records of teachers employment records which could be cross checked with Annie's finds? Newspaper reports?

Offline Forfarian

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Re: Can I find someone whose name I don't know?
« Reply #6 on: Tuesday 21 November 17 08:19 GMT (UK) »
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_q=royal+scots+edinburgh
Thanks, Annie.

However once I have refined the dates to 1914-1919 and eliminated those in the Royal Scots Greys and those on the ship Royal Scot, there were only 8 left, none of whom seem to fit (2 from Manchester, 2 other ranks, one too late, one too early, one a police instructor and one who wasn't killed in 1914-1918).  :(

Quote
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_q=royal+scots+teacher+

There's a mention of a Teacher Norman McDonald (seem to be all the same person)?
This looks like someone whose full name is Norman McDonald Teacher, rather than a teacher named Norman McDonald.  :(

Back to the drawing board.

My friend thinks the man in question was a Major but a search on CWGC didn't turn up any majors in the Royal Scots.

I am hampered by not understanding the differences between different regiments/battalions/units of the army - Royal Scots, Royal Scots Greys, Royal Scots Fusiliers, Royal Scots Rifles and other variations on the theme  :-[
Never trust anything you find online (especially submitted trees and transcriptions on Ancestry, MyHeritage, FindMyPast and other commercial web sites) unless it's an image of an original document - and even then be wary because errors can and do occur.

Offline Forfarian

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Re: Can I find someone whose name I don't know?
« Reply #7 on: Tuesday 21 November 17 08:27 GMT (UK) »
Would there be any records of teachers employment records which could be cross checked with Annie's finds? Newspaper reports?
Probably, but my friend doesn't know which school he taught at, and there are an awful lot of schools in Edinburgh!

I've tried various newspapers in vain for an announcement of the engagement to Jessie Ann Nairn. She was from Stirling and it is possible that there might be something in the Stirling Observer - I haven't managed to find that online yet.
Never trust anything you find online (especially submitted trees and transcriptions on Ancestry, MyHeritage, FindMyPast and other commercial web sites) unless it's an image of an original document - and even then be wary because errors can and do occur.

Offline KGarrad

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Re: Can I find someone whose name I don't know?
« Reply #8 on: Tuesday 21 November 17 10:08 GMT (UK) »
Using Advanced Search on CWGC; Regiment = Royal Scots; WW1; Rank = Major

(Name, Battalion, Date of Death, Residence from Notes)
Major John Wood Adams, 6th Bn, 3/9/17, of Portobello
Major F Anderson, 2nd Bn & 12th Bn, 28/1/17
Major John Russel Bruce, 15th Bn, 1/7/16, of Edinburgh
Major James Chalmers, 5th Bn, 23/3/18
Major George Deas Cowan, 9th Bn, 23/4/18 (Wife mentioned)
Major John Douglas Dawson, 7th Bn, 28/6/15 (Wife mentioned)
Major William Herbert Evans, 11th Bn, 14/8/15 (Wife mentioned)
Major James Ferguson, 9th Bn, 55/7/16, of Kinmundy, Aberdeenshire
Major Robert Finlay Gerrard, 4th Bn, 18/4/17, of Edinburgh
Major J Gray, 1st/4th Bn, 28/6/15 (Wife mentioned)
Major A J Gray, 10th Bn, 7/11/17, Native of Lochee, Dundee
Major James Dundas Lawrie Hamilton, 7th Bn, 22/5/15, of Edinburgh
Major James Norman Henderson, 1st/4th Bn, 28/6/15 (Wife mentioned)
Major George Denis MacPherson, 13th Bn, 26/9/15, of Blairgowie, Perthshire
Major A A C Nelson, 2nd/10th Bn, 20/5/16
Major N M Ross, 18th Bn, 5/1/20
Major A W Sanderson, 7th Bn, 28/6/15 (Wife mentioned)
Major J C M Scott, 1st Bn, 29/3/17
Major Thomas Stewart, 8th Bn & 5th/6th Bn, 12/9/17, of Edinburgh
Major Harris Lawrence Stocks, 15th Bn, 1/7/16, of Kirkaldy, son of Provost
Major David Mitchell Tomlinson, 13th Bn, 13/5/16, parents in New Zealand
Major Alexander White, 5th Bn, 9/9/15 (Wife mentioned)
Major H F M Worthington-Wilmer, 2nd Bn & 13th Bn, 11/5/16

As you can see, 7 of them mention a wife. That leaves 16! ;D
Garrad (Suffolk, Essex, Somerset), Crocker (Somerset), Vanstone (Devon, Jersey), Sims (Wiltshire), Bridger (Kent)