* 18th of Light Dragoon Guards

[gwilym'smum]

Hello,
I hope it is ok but actually this is not directly concerned with FH. When I registered with Find My Past and started using the hints I found a link to Staffordshire banns and think I discovered why one of my ancestors is listed in 3 census returns as "born in France, British Subject". This had always made me wonder how I find out about her birth. In the hint her father, John Upton is given as "corporal in the 18th of Light Dragoons" He married Ann Shingler on 11 July 1807.
I then looked on Ancestry and found "Canada, British Regiment, Registry of Service 1756-1900 for John Upton, 18th Dragoon Guards, birth date abt 1782 military date 7 Oct 1803". There followed a brief description. From this I presumed it was his enrolment date.
There was another entry with the title Ireland Region Hospital Kilmainham Pension Discharge Docs 1724 - 1924. Discharge age 39. Date 10 Sept 1821. Place Dublin Leinster Ireland. His rank was Sergeant.
Then there was a mention of a pension again with the Irish reference.
Strangely I only have a couple of ancestors who had anything to do with the military (1st WW death) and do not know the ins and outs of military research. Any help with what to infer from the information I have and possibly how to and where to find more information would be gratefully received. For example how do I find out if the regiment was in France at the time of Margaret's birth and was it usual for wives at this time to accompany their husbands. Also how will all this information be entered into FH please?
Regards Ann

[mjashby]

Ann,

If you do a Google Search for "18th Light Dragoons" you will find a wealth of information, including the role of the Regiment in Ireland; and in the Peninsula War in 1808 when it was posted to Lisbon.

For actual records the starting point should probably be The National Archives: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help ... p-to-1913/ which is probably the original source of those records you've come across so far.

Yes, families (and others) did often follow Regiments on the overseas postings; and even into military action. A relatively small number were there with full Regimental 'support'; but they were generally expected to provide services to the troops in return, such as cooking, nursing, laundry etc. Again a Google search for "Camp Followers" should yield a variety of background information.

Mervyn

[AdrianBruce]

Well, here's a starter:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/18th_Royal_Hussars
That gives you a very high level but I suspect quite useful history.

The 2 Ancestry discharge documents seem to point to Fold3 (boo, hiss) - one is from WO119 and the other WO118 - however, the WO119 set is on FindMyPast. Be warned, it is very faint. I got suspicious of the Ancestry indexing being all over the place with the names - got nowhere reading the FMP image other than a vague suspicion that it said Hussars. Wikipedia indicates that at this time, the regiment was the 18th (King's Irish) Regiment of (Light) Dragoons (Hussars) - classed as a Hussars regiment. That sort of confused set of names (Dragoons and Hussars were, I thought, different types of cavalry) might explain the indexed regimental names being all over the place. Finding that lot in Wikipedia was a bit of just trying every combination in Google that I could see.

[AdrianBruce]

I think, by the way, that the one name that it isn't, despite Ancestry's indexing, is the anything Dragoon Guards. Ancestry describe the Canadian related piece as WO 25; Class Title: 18 Dragoons; Piece Number: 281; Piece Title: 18 Dragoons, but then stick Guards on the end in the indexing. The Dragoon Guards were another set of regiments again and Wikipedia simply doesn't have that many.

The reference to Canada simply means that those regiments were in Canada at some point in their history - they are UK records from Kew.

[AdrianBruce]

how will all this information be entered into FH please?

There is a military fact set but I have never used it, since I prefer to concoct my own.

I have created a Military Service attribute, with the value of the attribute set to the name of the unit. In a case like this, I'd use one fact, dated from 1803 to 1821, value set to "18th (King's Irish) Regiment of (Light) Dragoons (Hussars)" and record the story of where the regiment went during that time, in the Note for that fact. I'd also put his ranks in the notes (the Canadian page has his enlistment date, and the dates of his promotion to corporal and serjeant - oh yes, if you really want street cred, use the old-fashioned spelling of "serjeant").

Other people will have multiple Military Service attributes for different places, and might have a Rank attribute as well, but frankly it all gets a bit much splitting it all up for just one chap. (Depends how you've done your WW1 stuff, I guess).

[themoudie]

Aye Ann,

May I suggest that you have a read through his blog and make contact with Paul Nixon (http://armyservicenumbers.blogspot.co.uk/) ? Paul's insight into military records, their location and potential availability, even though your research maybe outwith his more usual area of research can be very helpful.

I was against a 'brick wall' in my research and he offered an insight to where I might find further information, which I did. Alternatively, if you asked him, he might for a fee, agree to assisting your research of the 18th of Light Dragoon Guards .

I have no personal or business connections with Paul, I am just appreciative of the time and effort that he took to assist a fellow researcher, for which I am very grateful.

My regards, Bill

[gwilym'smum]

Hello,
Thank you so much to Mervyn, Adrian and Bill for their detailed answer to my query. I have a great deal to work on there. It will keep me busy for a while!
Regards Ann

[Jane]

The Dragoons were the "Light Horse" paid less than the "horse". In the early 19th several regiments changed name. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavalry_r ... th_century

At the time most regiments both of Calvary and Foot were know mainly by the Number and not by the names in official documents.

[gwilym'smum]

Thank you Jane. Already I am getting a clearer picture of what happened to my ancestor. I am really grateful to everyone for the help. To add to my questions, were there any records of births for army personal families?
Ann

[Jane]

According to the National Archives
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help ... ed-forces/

British Army regimental registers of births and baptisms start in 1761 in England and Wales and around 1790 in other countries, and continue to 1924. They include births in the United Kingdom and abroad.

[AdrianBruce]

Jane - thank you for that Wikipedia link to "Cavalry_regiments_of_the_British_Army" - I'd not found it before but it gives a good overview of how the different types were altered into others - which is a story virtually impossible to discern from reading, say, Wikipedia articles on Hussars.

Don't hold out too much hope for "British Army regimental registers of births and baptisms" - they seem quite intermittent. The FIBIS pages are, as often happens, very good for understanding stuff about the British Army in general - these records are referred to on http://wiki.fibis.org/index.php/Chaplains_Returns.