RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: andrewalston on Saturday 02 September 17 16:43 BST (UK)
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I've just been going through the WWI army personnel file of someone in my ONS who emigrated to Canada in 1903.
There are SEVENTY NINE non-blank pages, covering everything from his attestation to his discharge, his dental chart and even a mention of his death in 1956.
Much of it is his medical history - he suffered from rheumatic fever and deafness caused by concussions. There's even a temperature chart.
When you compare that with what survives in even a well-preserved service history from the Burnt Records, we are missing a lot. :(
Now if only he had told the truth in the records I have found, he would be easy to follow. On joining up he claimed to have been born in 1884 in Dumfries; he was actually born in Liverpool 9 years earlier. When he boarded his ship to emigrate from Liverpool, he was a 25-year old stonemason. 12 days later he disembarked as a 30-year old plumber. ;D
He even stole his brother's middle name. Luckily he names two sisters in his army records, so I know who he really was!
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I've just been going through the WWI army personnel file of someone in my ONS
Sorry if I appear a bit thick (yes you are, everyone shouts) but not being au fait with all the terminology used on here can you please explain ONS. Very interesting thread by the way.
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Sorry, One Name Study.
My aim is to know everything about anybody in the world with the surname Dunbabin and its many variants.
The chap concerned is down as George Henry Dunbabbin, though he was born without the Henry and with only a single b in the second half of his surname.
The records are on Ancestry if you have the relevant sub.
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Thank you Andrew, now I know and understand. I will follow this thread with interest.
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I'm confused?
You mention WW1 records and then mention the blitz - which happened in WW2? ???
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Didn't a lot of records from WW1 get destroyed in the Blitz? I think that's what he may be referring to
but I can't answer for him.
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The majority of the British Army's service records from WWI were destroyed in the London Blitz. The remainder suffered greatly, but were filmed by the National Archives as WO363, and are referred to as the Burnt Records. The films have been digitised and are available on Ancestry.
There's a description of what is available at: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/service_records/sr_soldiers.htm
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Yes I know what you mean. I've got a distant Canadian WW1 soldier relative and his record has 52 images in it. Free access too.
Blue
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I can't beat 52 pages but have a great number of images for my great grandfather who was regular Army and went on to serve during WW1 reaching the rank of RSM.
Also, images for my late mother's foster father including letters he wrote in 1927 querying his pension rights. He was in hospital at the time suffering from various ailments brought on from being a victim of mustard gas in the trenches. These letters are very poignant especially when he mentions that his health will improve when the better weather arrives. Sadly, he passed away a few months later.
I am very lucky that both sets of records survived the Blitz.
Dorrie
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Sorry, One Name Study.
It can also mean Office of National Statistics, no direct relevance to Family History, but I have seen the term in a Family History context more than once.