When researching any generation of your ancestry, you must always locate and examine any additional sources that can provide you with information about your ancestor's occupation/profession. A good example is Army, Navy, Merchant Seaman, Railway and Police records. If your ancestor served in one of the above then there is a good chance that you will be able to trace his date and place of birth, service record and date of death. It is also possible that you can trace a record of his marriage and the names of his children.

Army Records

There was no standing army in Britain before 1660. This section will only deal with records pertaining to the army post 1660, subdivided into commissioned officers and other ranks.

If you believe that your ancestor was a commissioned officer, you must firstly consult the following: "English Army Lists and Commission Registers 1661-1714" and "George I's Army 1714-1727" , by C Dalton. Post 1714 an index of commissioned officers can be found at the Public Record Office, Kew. This can be supplemented by official Army Lists which begin in 1740. Commission Books were kept by the War Office and run from 1660 to 1873.

Correspondence relating to the purchase and sale of commissions can also be found in the Public Record Office from 1701 to 1858. Regimental service records begin in 1755 but most start in the nineteenth century. The most useful records to help you to trace pension payments are the ledgers of payment which run from 1737 to 1921, these give the date of death, or sale of the commission. From 1737 to 1841 they are arranged by regiment and are unindexed. From 1841 they are in alphabetical order.

Lists of widows of officers killed on active service run from 1713 to 1892 and registers of payments have survived from 1735 to 1920. In addition to the above, there are also records of many army officers' baptismal certificates, they run from 1755 down to 1908.

All of the above can be supplemented by a series of records entitled "Army Births, Marriages & Deaths" held at the Family Record Centre, Clerkenwell. The register of births/baptisms and marriages run from 1761 to 1987, marriages from 1761 to 1987 and deaths from 1796 to 1987. Overlapping with these records are Army Chaplains Returns 1796 to 1880 and Army Returns 1881 to 1955. This section on records of other ranks covers enlistment, service, discharge and pensions. In Civil Registration births post 1837 you will nearly always find that the name of the regiment in which a soldier was serving, is given on the birth certificate of his child. As a result you can then go straight to the appropriate records of that regiment. If his birth is not recorded in England and Wales but you know from his marriage certificate that his father served in the army, you should search "Army Births, Marriage & Deaths" and "Army Chaplains Returns" at the Family Record Centre.

In order to trace the service record of a soldier serving in the ranks you should consult the "Royal Hospital Chelsea Soldiers Documents" which run from 1760 to 1913. Before 1873 they were arranged by regiment and after that date in four alphabetical sequences by surname.

After 1883 they are arranged in one alphabetical sequence. These documents give age, birthplace, trade or occupation, a record of service, date of discharge and or death and in some cases place of residence after discharge. If you do not find any record of your ancestor then you should consult "Chelsea Regimental Registers" at the Public Record Office, Kew, which run from circa 1715 to 1857 and list discharges to pension by regiment.

If you are unable to trace a record of your ancestor in any of the above then you should consult the two main series of "Description Books" and "Depot Description Books" covering the periods 1778 to 1878 and 1768 to 1908 respectively. These records give a description of the soldier, his age, place of birth, trade and service details.

Pension records for soldiers of other ranks can be found in a number of sources. Petitions by disabled ex-soldiers for places as almsmen in royal church foundations from 1660 to 1751 can be found in the records of the "Signet Office" in the Public Record Office. Kew. Post 1681 in England there are records of in-pensioners and out-pensioners for the Royal Hospital at Chelsea and post 1679 in Ireland for the Royal Hospital at Kilmainham, near Dublin. The out-pensioner records for Kilmainham run from 1698 to 1822, when the out-pensioners were transferred to Chelsea. Records for Chelsea Hospital run from circa 1715 to 1857. Each hospital also has "Admission Registers" , for Kilmainham in and out-pensions they run from 1704 to 1922, whilst Chelsea has records for disability pensions from 1715 to 1913 and long service pensions from 1823 to 1920.

The admission registers give, amongst other things, the pensioner' age and place of birth.

In addition to the above there are also school records for children of soldiers. In 1801 in England the "Royal Military Asylum" was founded at Chelsea for children of serving or dead soldiers and there are "Admission and Discharge Registers" from 1803 to 1923. In Ireland "The Royal Hibernian Military School" was founded in 1769 but unfortunately most of its records were destroyed by enemy bombing in 1940.

Helpful Hints

1) Always remember to search those records that will give you the vital information you need, e.g. date and place of birth, date of marriage and death, number and names of children.

2) If you do not know the name of regiment in which ancestor served, examine those records that enable you to determine which one was stationed in the place where he is known to have lived and search the appropriate records.

3) Always remember that the survival rate of some records is very patchy.

Chapter continued on next page

Burke's Peerage & Gentry
the complete reference guide
to the UK and Ireland's
titled and landed families