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Can I please ask for some help with the "Reason for Discharge' column on this record. Does 'off' mean 'paid off'? If so, does this mean a sailor leaving one ship for another is paid by the ship rather than from some central administration? Does 'off' mean something completely different? I can read 'invalided' but what is the abbreviation below it, and what does it mean? Similarly, what is 'Mod' at the foot of the column and what does that mean?

Grateful thanks for any assistance.

Ken

I'm hoping someone can help me find any descendants of Jock Young who married Mary Ferro in Malta in 1943 (give or take a year).

Jock was in the RAF and a member of 137MU (maintenance unit). His wedding photograph, which may be the only one to survive, is in the photograph album of my late father in law, Vic Oldridge. Jock and Vic were in the same unit servicing Spitfires and Hurricanes during the darkest days of Malta's history in WW2. I'd like to get a copy of the photo to Jock's family, but first I need to find them.

After the war, Jock (the photograph album doesn't tell me his real name) returned to Scotland bringing his bride, Mary with him. Mary was the daughter of Joseph and Grace Ferro. Joseph worked as a mechanic for the military during WW2 and also owned a bicycle sales and repair shop in Malta. After Joseph died his widow, and Mary's mother, came to Scotland to live with Mary. Her name was Grace and she would have died in Scotland as Grace Ferro, probably in the late 1900s.

Mary's brother, Charles, and sister, Doris, also came to Scotland and married there. It is probably their descendants that I seek. I have no idea which town/city they came to but I would think they lived close by one another in the post war years.

I do know that Charles Ferro who married Joanna in Edinburgh in the 1990s is not a member of the family.

I am grateful for any more clues.

Thanks

Ken

Many thanks for that response TCDrog. It seems to fit with what we have gathered from a variety of sources. Just for the record I'll outline the family here.

John Connor (1811, Rogerstown - bef May1876) married Ann Mellsop nee Robinson (c1820-?) in Tralee in 1847. John was a recruiting sergeant in the army and travelled widely in Ireland; he also fought in the Crimea with the 43rd Connaught Rangers. Their children were:
Richard Connor (bp1848 Tralee - 1898 Dublin) married Bridget Ford
John Connor (bp1850 Castlebarr - bef 1851 census)
William Connor(b1851 Bury, Lancashire)
Michael Connor (b1853 Weymouth, Dorset)
Edward Inkerman Connor (b28Jan1856, bp 3Mar1856 St Mary Drogheda - married Margaret Naughton in Westport Co Mayo in 1886); he had a twin
Mary Anne Alma Connor (b28Jan1856, bp 3Mar1856 St Mary Drogheda - ?)
John Connor (bp 10May1858 St Peter Drogheda - ?)
Lawrence Patrick Connor (b28Oct1858 Tullyallen - 9Oct1911 Edmonton, London); on the 1911 census he gave his birthplace as " 'Louth' 'Dundalk' "
Joseph Connor (b1860 Drogheda Co Louth - ?)
Thomas Connor (b1865 Bansha in Tipperary - ?)


Lawrence Patrick's date of birth or baptism is not definitively known. The ages he gives throughout his life are such that they calculate back to a birth date between October 1855 and October 1858. Lawrence declares upon joining the army that he was born at Tullyallen, Co Louth but no birth or baptism record has been found. It is possible that he had given a false age upon enlistment to the army which continued through his army career and thereafter to protect his pension arrangements. The 1861 census shows Lawrence as a two year old and 1858 is the more likely birth date, making him eleven when he was enlisted into the army.

He enlisted into the British Army into the 88th foot on 28 or 29 Oct 1869 in Dublin by "special authority", apparently on his 14th birthday, according to his army record. He is shown as being 4' 3" tall with a fair complexion, hazel eyes and light hair.

He is shown as Roman Catholic. His next of kin is shown as his father, John Connor (Dublin).

Irish genealogy is difficult enough without them being in the army and leading a nomadic life! If anyone reading this would like to see more of the family, it's on my website at http://www.kenripper.co.uk/paf/connor/pafg02.htm#1836C .

Do you have any observations on the baptismal dates in 1856 at St Mary's? You mentioned that no records before 1880 exist.

I've been having some second thoughts on this.

When Louisa Clark married on 3 Oct 1880 her age was given as 20 but her husband's age was given as "full age". If she had been of full age and over 21 I would have expected to have seen "full age" against both names. I suspect that this means that she was under 21 and therefore born in late 1859 or in 1860. A birthdate in 1857 seems a bit early to me.

I am aware that some of these "facts" need to be taken with circumspection but it also concerns me that she cited her father as William Clark a bricklayer. Had he died before the 1861 census and Louisa marrying 20 years later I wonder whether he would have been recorded as deceased in the occupation section of the marriage certificate.

All this assumes that I am not the descendant of inveterate tellers of tall tales.

Any views on this before I venture off into deepest Steeple Bumpstead?

Ripperware

No! George is probably the clue to his father's death!!