The Lemon Fool

I would like to trace my maternal grandfather and don't know where to start.

He was born in Ireland probably over 100 years ago and came from County Longford. He lived most of his adulthood in Scotland. I only met him once as a kid and only know that he was in the army for a very long time. He served in the Inniskilling Dragoon/ fusiliers (?}, the Scots Guards and the Seaforth Highlanders. That's all I know.

He came from a poor rural background and I understand birth certificates as we know them were not common.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

TP2

TahiPanasDua wrote:I would like to trace my maternal grandfather and don't know where to start.

He was born in Ireland probably over 100 years ago and came from County Longford. He lived most of his adulthood in Scotland. I only met him once as a kid and only know that he was in the army for a very long time. He served in the Inniskilling Dragoon/ fusiliers (?}, the Scots Guards and the Seaforth Highlanders. That's all I know.

He came from a poor rural background and I understand birth certificates as we know them were not common.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

TP2

Well the usual way to do these things is through existing certificates for people you do know.

So in this case your Mam and Dad's wedding certificate should give you some information about both of your grandads and then your mothers birth certificate should give you more.

From there you would be looking for you maternal grandparents wedding certificate and also, given the date, access to the 1939 Scotland register.

The main website for researching in Scotland is https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/

The above could well give you his date and place of birth, but once you get over to Ireland, I have no experience at all.

Libraries often have access to online services such as Ancestry and Find My Past which may will have records to help you.

I'd also recommend getting a piece of family tree software, like Brother's Keeper http://www.bkwin.net/ which will help you to record what you find.

Hope that is of some help
Slarti

I assume you have used Ancestry.com or something similar? If not I am happy to look up on Ancestry if you post (or DM me) the details you know.

My great great Grandmother (born 1839) left County Cork in the mid 19th century (potato famine probably) and I have had some limited success in tracing her and some of her ancestors. There are an increasing number of parish records in Ireland being posted on line.

MM

TahiPanasDua wrote:I would like to trace my maternal grandfather and don't know where to start.

He was born in Ireland probably over 100 years ago and came from County Longford. He lived most of his adulthood in Scotland. I only met him once as a kid and only know that he was in the army for a very long time. He served in the Inniskilling Dragoon/ fusiliers (?}, the Scots Guards and the Seaforth Highlanders. That's all I know.

He came from a poor rural background and I understand birth certificates as we know them were not common.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

TP2

There are army websites that may cast a little light on his military career.

https://www.iwm.org.uk/research/tracing ... ce-records

Some are pay services but if you chase through some of those mentioned they may assist. Do beware that these records can be a bit hit and miss e.g. my Grandfather has two records as during his early army career (he served 1908-1946) he was recorded with his middle name , Kendal, as his first name, he actually did not know he had a different name than that used by his family, his "proper" name being George.

Scottish records are actually pretty easy to use and available online (you pay but it is pretty modest), if you find his death certificate to start with that should give you his age and the names of his parents and his spouse as a good starting point.

https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/

Maybe a bit too early but on the 1911 Census there are approximately 45 families in Scotland with a birth in County Longford .

This site might be useful if he was still in Co Longford in his younger years.

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/

I would recommend the forum http://www.rootschat.com
They have specific sub-forums for Ireland (specifically County Longford) and Scotland/military research and plenty of people offering expertise and free look ups on paid for family history databases such as http://www.ancestry.com etc

MM

Charlottesquare wrote:Scottish records are actually pretty easy to use and available online (you pay but it is pretty modest), if you find his death certificate to start with that should give you his age and the names of his parents and his spouse as a good starting point.

https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/

That will give you what the person supplying the information thought was his age and the names of his parents and his spouse.

That sort of information, after death, is often wrong.

Slarti

Slarti wrote:

Charlottesquare wrote:Scottish records are actually pretty easy to use and available online (you pay but it is pretty modest), if you find his death certificate to start with that should give you his age and the names of his parents and his spouse as a good starting point.

https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/

That will give you what the person supplying the information thought was his age and the names of his parents and his spouse.

That sort of information, after death, is often wrong.

Slarti

I quite agree about not relying on death certificates as gospel. Treat them as no more than good indications of the likely truth, for two main reasons. First, the informant may not known for certain things such as the exact age or the name and occupation of the deceased persons father, and is quite unlikely to know his mother's maiden name (all of which is asked for in Scotland, though exact requirements varied over the years). And secondly, the informant is quite likely to not be in the best frame of mind to accurately recall things they know after the death of a close relative.

Marriage certificates tend to be more accurate, though it's not uncommon for the age of the husband or wife to be "adjusted" a little, especially if the wife is a little older than the husband.

In my experience, birth certificates tend to be more reliable, but even then, the fathers name can't, of course, be guaranteed accurate...

What I would say with regard to the OP's question, it is perhaps fortunate that Scotland is one of the places of interest, because although civil registration started a little later than England and Wales, the information asked for in Scotland is far more than that asked for in England. At one time, when a birth was registered, they needed names and ages of all other children, but this was soon deemed too onerous and dropped after some years. And with the Scotland's People website, you get to see all the details, with scans of the original entries, rather than just getting (buying!) a copy certificate.

Slarti wrote:

Charlottesquare wrote:Scottish records are actually pretty easy to use and available online (you pay but it is pretty modest), if you find his death certificate to start with that should give you his age and the names of his parents and his spouse as a good starting point.

https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/

That will give you what the person supplying the information thought was his age and the names of his parents and his spouse.

That sort of information, after death, is often wrong.

Slarti

I agree they can sometimes be wrong, but they are possibly more error prone re earlier records (19th century) rather than 20th century, well certainly in my experience.

Maybe we are just lucky but we have found our families reasonably accurate re 20th century registrations ,and that is after we have now pretty much constructed three reasonably deep and broad family lines (mainly in Scotland though my wife's has some "Irish issues" in one of her lines and I have extensive English records in one of mine)

My sisters have recently just launched into a fourth major line (my maternal grandmother's, another Scottish pursuit) so we will soon see if we encounter any age/date issues with this one.