Army records from the early 19th century

[paulalou]

Hi,

I've recently found out that one of my ancestors was a soldier during the early 1800's, certainly for at least 15 years. My question is, if i obtain his records from the PRO does anyone know what information i'm likely to obtain? For example, will there be a reference to a marriage if he was given compassionate leave to get married?

I'm just intereted in knowing how much personal information other people have found from these records, and if they have proved to be interesting reads.

Regards

Paula

[mickgall]

Hi Paula
You will get a lot of useful info. I've got quite a few ancestors in the army in the Victorian period and their records show such things marriage, children's births, medical records, promotions, training, N.O.K, any relations in the army, medals, addresses.
It is definitely worth getting a copy.
Mick

[M.T.H]

Hi Paula,

I agree with Mick as I also have ancestors with a military background and obtaining their service papers has enabled me to discover all sorts of personal information that I've not found anywhere else!!

Researching military ancestors can be a very rewarding and interesting thing to do BUT it can and does involve a lot of research which can be frustrating at times,but when you find the papers that your looking for, the rewards can be great.

I would certainly suggest that you look into it.A good place to start for information about tracing soldiers records can be found here at the National Archives;

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/militaryhistory/army/

Good luck,Mick

[suttontrust]

Having got military records from the late 19th century and World War I, with loads of information,  I was disappointed when records from the early part of the 19th century contained so little.  Nothing about marriages or children, for instance.  Be prepared for the information to be rather sparse the earlier you go back.

[M.T.H]

Hi Paula,

You might like to have a look at this site,which has been put together by an experienced military researcher.If you look at the bottom of the first page,there is a section detailing the service of some of the men he has researched and it gives a good idea of the type of information that can be found in service papers over different years.

Suttontrust is quite right,early records didn't contain as much information as later ones,but if you take a look at these soldiers profiles it will give you a better idea of the information that can be gathered from the available records at the PRO.

Here's the link;

http://hometown.aol.co.uk/kevinasplin/home.html


Hope this helps a bit,

Good luck,Mick

[paulalou]

thanks for all your comments and help everyone, much appreciated.

Paula