9th Foot, Quebec

[kesaunders79]

I have just discovered an ancestor who is recorded as a soldier in baptism records for his children in Dartford, Kent and have found reference when his daughter was born in 1815 in Quebec that he was of the 9th Foot. How do I go about finding out more information now?

He was James Lawrence and died around 1816.

Many thanks

[markmccormack667]

Hi,

I am researching the same issue for one of my ancestors.  Here is what helped me so far:

• Make sure he was in the 9th (British military) versus the 9th (Canadian military);
• Find the web site for the regiment and search there;
• Find your ancestors attestation papers (use the pension roles, they mention regiments he served in);
• If you are lucky, the regiment was British army and had it's own chaplain - they sometimes registered at the local church as well;
• If he died between 1814-1816 in Canada, the battles of Chippewa, Lundy's Lane, Siege of Erie etc.  have listings of casualties, not many casualties after the end of 1815 though.  I found my ancestor got shot in the jaw helping to take back the 2nd battery at the siege of Fort Erie;
• Archives Canada has scanned thousands of documents for soldiers who served in Canada during that time, unfortunately your ancestor has a common name - don't you sometimes wish their name had been Sheradne Duckduck?  On a quick look, there were dozens of soldiers with the same name as your ancestor
• If he was an officer, the standard google search for yearly almanacs will tell you if he died;
• If he was an NCO, you may get lucky with almanacs;
• If he was a standard grunt like my ancestor, you probably have to go deep into the dusty KEW ; and finally,
• The Drouin collection is quite comprehensive, if the birth was recorded in Canada at all.  If you need help with french translation, I can help you there.

Good Luck!

[Mean_genie]

Try

Canada, British regimental records of service records on Ancestry http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=3253

and

British Army Service Records 1760-1915 on Findmypast

http://www.findmypast.co.uk/search/army-service-records/all

[kesaunders79]

Thank you everyone for your help.

Regards
Kieran

[t mo]

hi
I,ve checked service/pension records and he,s not in those so as far as the british army goes you won,t find anything for him only if a soldier didn,t make it to pension his record was destroyed approx. 20 yrs later also what records do exist for such an early period have no real info on them especially of a personal nature .
have you tried collections Canada there national archive site .
regards
trevor