Hi fellow researchers.:hoteyes:
I just stumbled upon a Friends of the National Archives website which provides easily searchable text lists of Chelsea Pensioners (name, place of birth, discharge age and date) in the WO 97 Series. Go to bps.freehosting.net. It has the complete list of the names of footsoldiers, and other regiments, such as the Cape and St Helena, even the Royal Canadian rifles. More regiments are to be added.
For those interested in British Regiments, At Home and In India, I can also recommend a site which lists the location ie Stations of British Troops in India 1862-1904 as well as Distribution of the British Army. This Nafziger Collection contains orders of battle from 1600 to 1945 with over 7000 individual pdf files, including the American Civil War. www.cgsc.edu/CARL/gateway/
Use the [Search CARL] box in this way eg [British Army +1861 +12th foot ] for your regiment. The result will be the regiment's location in a year close to 1861, then other years.
This is a superb resource if you wish to research whether your ancestor's regiment was in a location At Home (and therefore maybe in a census) or on Foreign Service. It is surprising how often regiments returned to England. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the site, but it is easier than obtaining and looking through the book: "In Search of Forlorn Hope".
Lois
I just stumbled upon a Friends of the National Archives website which provides easily searchable text lists of Chelsea Pensioners (name, place of birth, discharge age and date) in the WO 97 Series. Go to bps.freehosting.net. It has the complete list of the names of footsoldiers, and other regiments, such as the Cape and St Helena, even the Royal Canadian rifles. More regiments are to be added.
For those interested in British Regiments, At Home and In India, I can also recommend a site which lists the location ie Stations of British Troops in India 1862-1904 as well as Distribution of the British Army. This Nafziger Collection contains orders of battle from 1600 to 1945 with over 7000 individual pdf files, including the American Civil War. www.cgsc.edu/CARL/gateway/
Use the [Search CARL] box in this way eg [British Army +1861 +12th foot ] for your regiment. The result will be the regiment's location in a year close to 1861, then other years.
This is a superb resource if you wish to research whether your ancestor's regiment was in a location At Home (and therefore maybe in a census) or on Foreign Service. It is surprising how often regiments returned to England. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the site, but it is easier than obtaining and looking through the book: "In Search of Forlorn Hope".
Lois
