Need help on tracing an Argyll and Sutherland Highlander

[Joesniece]

Hello everyone!

I am totally new to genealogy study and would be really grateful if some of you more experienced people could help me. Please, pretty please!

I am looking for details on my g-g-g uncle Joseph Stevenson. The old family story about him was he ran away to join the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders as soon as he was old enough, took part possibly in the Boer War, and also fought in the First World War (from which he never returned - but not necessarily due to death as he was not close to his family and had talked about emigrating).

I have a photograph of him in his full dress uniform (by a photographer P.G. Banks, Piershill, Edinburgh), dating from around the turn of the century and as it is just like other Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders soldier's uniforms I have seen, I believe the family story to be correct in that respect. After finding his older brother's age on the 1911 census recently, the dates seem right too. He was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, around 1881, therefore would have been 16 at the start of the Boer War. I also know he was a piper and possibly joined up as a band boy. I don't know whether he remained in this regiment up to and during WW I, or  whether he left the regiment and possibly enlisted again in the same or another regiment for WW I. He is nowhere to be found in the Belfast census 1911, which makes me think he didn't come home between the two wars at all.

Now I've hit a brick wall and desperately need help from any of you who can!

I can't find any record of him in any on-line sources, and having limited resources and living in Northern Ireland I can't afford to travel to Kew or Stirling on the off-chance that they might give me any more information. So, do any of you have any suggestions how I could go about finding out more? What should my next step be? And is there anything more I can read from the photograph I have - any signs of possible position that might be on his uniform that I might have overlooked?

In advance, thank-you, thank-you, THANK-YOU for any help you can give me!

[atom12]

Hi 

The National Archives at Kew may well provide you with some chance of success for your soldier if he was in the army pre-WW1.

You say you have checked- out online sources, and go on to ask whether you might glean any other info from his photo.  It might help you if you posted the photo you have of Joseph on here!

[Joesniece]

Thanks for your help atom12!
I just don't have the money to travel to Kew though, so perhaps my search will have to stop for now. Just hope Kew makes more files available on-line some time in the future which would be great!
Hope to post Joe's photo here sometime in the future....

[atom12]

Hi

Have you tried contacting the Argyll's museum to make an enquiry to see if he is in their Boer War medal rolls?  You'd need to give them as much information as possible, and hopefully you might get his regimental number, etc:

http://www.argylls.co.uk/contact.php

There are lots of soldiers called Joseph Stevenson in WW1 on the medal index cards, but these do not help you any unless you know his regimental number.  I haven't came across Joseph among the Pension records, etc, but there are three men called Joseph Stevenson on the  Army Roll f Honour from Belfast area.  They are:

L/Cpl 13512 Joseph Stevenson, 9th Royal Irish Rifles
born Belfast
Killed in Action
1st July 1916

Pte 5639 Joseph Stevenson 1st Royal Irish Fusiliers
born Shankhill
Died of Wounds 27 March 1918, France,

Rifleman 13646 Joseph Stevenson, 9th Royal Irish Rifles
born Belfast
Killed in Action France, 20 September 1916
 

[Joesniece]

Hello again atom12

I've managed, thanks to the WW1 records on Ancestry.com, to rule out all three of those J Stevenson's in Irish regiments although I did find a Joseph Stevenson in the Argylls in the WW1 medal roll. I don't know his regimental number though, so I can't tell if that's him.

Thanks for your suggestion regarding contacting the museum - I'll try there next. It says on their website that all their regimental records are at Kew so they cannot answer queries, but there's no harm in asking 

Thanks again for your help!

[atom12]

Hi 

Good elimination.  Did you mean this Argyll.  I had spotted him too if it is, and  it has his regimental number:

[Joesniece]

Hiya 
Yes, that's the one I found, but without any other info on the card (like his age or where he was born) I'm stumped as to whether that's the Joe from my family. Would be nice if it was the one I'm looking for as according to the notes on the card he seems to have survived the war.
Just seem to be going round in circles and not getting very far! But hey-ho, I suppose a lot of people have the same problems when tracking down family.

[atom12]

Hi Joesniece

Yes, it would be good if this was your Joe, but you will need a bit more to go on to ensure it is him!  Have you checked to see if this Argyll has a Service Record on Ancestry as that would provide more information address, age, etc, for checking out.

Yes, we all have problems when checking out family, lol.  It can take a long time to progress in some cases, whilst others find their folks quite quickly, but then they have often more information provided from their family, to go on.

Happy hunting meantime.

Anne 

[Joesniece]

Hello Annie!

I tried to look up the Joe Stevenson from the medal roll, but couldn't find anything on Ancestry.com on him Of course, that doesn't mean that definitely his file isn't there - I'm just finding it a nightmare to try and find anything on that site. It just seems to give me the same few people's files over and over again when I try to search.
I'm going to our Northern Irish Public Records office in a few days which will hopefully give me his precise birth date so that will give me a good piece of info when I ask the Argyll museum to help me.

Your help has been greatly appreciated, thanks!