Dilemma: Keep looking for a possible Chelsea pensioner, or set aside?

[straea]

Hi everyone,

I haven't been on RootsChat in a bit, and thought I would provide an update on my search.  I ordered John Kinsman Evans' death record from the GRO.  I had last found him on the 1851 census but he didn't die till 1873.  The death record did turn out to be him (easier to locate with his full middle name!) and he was living at 1 Old Town in Bideford when he died, his death reported by William Copp, who listed the same address.  I used FindMyPast's census address search to discover that he was living with the Copps in 1871, but listed on the census as John Kinsman.  Both the death record and the 1871 census also list his occupation as "Chelsea pensioner," so I am now about as sure as one can be in genealogy that he really was one.  However, I still have not located his file.  I did use the new records to determine that John's daughter Jane was William Copp's wife.

I had also been unable to locate him on the 1861 census, and I used this new information to determine that he was not living with the Copps then.  A general search for John Kinsman also turned up no candidates.  So I remain unsure where he was in 1861.

Thanks again for all your help on this, everyone.

[straea]

Hi again, everyone,

I have another update on my search for John Kinsman Evans's military records. This past weekend I found an obituary and a death notice for him in different newspapers. They also describe him as a pensioner, and provide a good deal of new-to-me information: According to the obituary, he enlisted when he was about age 15 (he was 'illegitimate' so would not have needed his parents' permission since legally he had no parents) and was in two of the "engagements" of the Peninsular War, the first under "General Graham" and the second under "Marshal Sir Wm. Beresford." It also says that he was shot in the leg while serving and "was invalided on sixpence a day." If he did enlist at about age 15, it would have been around 1811. I know that he was back in Devon by 1821 as he married there then and began baptizing children. I have been going back through the FindMyPast military records definitively ruling out people one-by-one now that I have a lot more information. Does anyone have any further suggestions for what I can try? Would there be likely to be records about him at the National Archives that aren't on FindMyPast to date?

Thank you.