attestation papers of 1821 - COMPLETED

[lorrainec]

Is it possible to find the attestation papers from 1821?  I am looking for Ralph Clewes who joined up in 1821, was sent to India for about 8 years, then in 1833 or 1834, was sent to Canada.

Thanks!
Lorraine

[kob3203]

Was your ancestor an officer or an enlisted man? Sources are different.

Do you know his regiment? It may makes thing easier.

Regardless, start here - http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/militaryhistory/army/?WT.lp=mh-33483 which shows that they have some papers dating back to the 1760's.

I found the original 1881 attestation papers for my great-grandfather via the research guide linked to above. It pointed me to the WO97 series (soldiers records) at The National Archives, Kew.
Unfortunately they're not available on-line, and I had to wait until I paid a visit to England. But after carefully sorting through boxes of 100+ year old papers, I eventually came up trumps.

Good luck!
Pete

[km1971]

Hi Lorraine

You appear to have what survives of his papers - http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/displaycataloguedetails.asp?CATID=-4059879&CATLN=7&Highlight=%2CRALPH%2CCLEWES&accessmethod=0

If not, you can REQUEST THIS, and keep your fingers crossed that the NA don't cry off doing the work. If you are looking for information about wives and children you will not find it in army records of the time - apart from regimental BMDs on Findmypast. The best you can do is look through the muster books (WO12 in Kew) and then the church records of all the places he visited. The musters tell you in which town or fort he was on the 1st of each month. His records will only say 'Home', 'East Indies' or 'Canada' etc.

One problem is that the RA were a 'corps' so they were spread thinly around the Empire, and will therefore have a number of muster books covering each year. So you need to know his battery/brigade from his papers. Even then researching using the musters is very time-consuming, and therefore expensive if you cannot do the work yourself.

Ken

[lorrainec]

Thank you gentlemen, for your help.
Ralph was a Gunner with the 4th, 6th and 8th battalion.
I have requested the info from the NA but they won't do it - I think because of the current digitisation project.

Oh, well.  Will have to wait!

I'd love to visit the NA but I am in Canada!

Cheers
Lorraine

[kob3203]

Maybe you could put a request up here with all the information you've got?
Worth a shot, perhaps...
Pete

[km1971]

I have requested the info from the NA but they won't do it - I think because of the current digitisation project.

It's nothing to do with the digitisation project as these records are on microfilm already and have already been scanned. It's because they cannot be bothered to do it for 40p a page any more, and they are too lazy to come up with another price.

But from the information you give, I think you have all that is available anyway. You will have to wait for FindMyPast to publish what they have.

Ken