16 year old from Paisley ragged school in the Indian Rebellion 1857.

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hi, I recently got quite a few updates on my family.  One was William Menzies 16 years who is noted in Parish aid records in 1857 still in ragged school and 1858 shows him in India in the army,  what I know is the Sepoy mutiny erupted around this time.  Has anyone got any info on how this young a lad got into army, and any other info on army in Paisley, I know about the barracks on Glasgow Road, very interesting, was it regular for boys from ragged school to be enlisted, any other info would be great.  cheers

[ShaunJ]

There is a William Menzies on the Indian Mutiny medal roll http://www.dnw.co.uk/resources/medal-rolls/entry.php?medalroll_id=4&entry_id=36467

1st Bengal European Fusiliers

[ShaunJ]

The only one on FIBIS was from Stirling http://search.fibis.org/frontis/bin/aps_detail.php?id=774049

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thanks so much, checking these out,  isn't it funny this family search, I hit a brick wall about 3 years ago, and all of a sudden I've found so much new info, thanks to transcribers of websites of course and a bit of investigative work, cheers again,

[GrahamSimons]

Worth a check - at the time of the Indian Mutiny there was an army run by the East India Company, which was entirely separate from the British Army. Many regiments of the British Army served in India at the time - so you may need to chase both sources up. After the Mutiny, the Esat India Company's army was absorbed into the British Army.

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thanks graham, yes i  found this out, i still have to have an indepth search as this is a new area for me, thanks so much for your advice, as always this is the place to find help.  cheers

[GrahamSimons]

I have done a small amount of research in the BL and found it hard going; more recently I've paid to have research done and it turned out good value - for the price of a couple of days' travel the researcher had sorted everything out for me.

Peter Bailey's book, Researching Ancestors in the East India Company Armies, FIBIS 2006, ISBN 0945711610 is a good guide to what's available, alongside help on the FIBIS website.

I've found a distant connection who joined the Telegraph Dept at 15 in 1857 and must have been one of the last survivors to have taken part in the Mutiny: he died in 1924. My great-grandfather left the East India Army in 1857, just missing the Mutiny (he was on furlough from 1856).

[CaileanMac]

I had an ancestor who served in India but just missed the Indian uprisings. I found his discharge papers on the national archives website, then purchased them through 'find my past'. Might be worth a try.

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/s/res?_q=WO+97+