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Help with my Great-Grandfather

H

heva_27

Guest
Hello Everyone

Im a new member here but I'm already amazed by the vast amount of knowledge you all have, so thankyou everyone for sharing.

I have only recently decided to research my family history so am new to this and unsure on where to find certain information. At the moment I am interested in finding out more about my Great-Grandfather Samuel Waters (b.6/9/1878 - d.1942) I know that he was born Queen Street, Coventry and at some point moved to Slade Road, Birmingham. His parents were William Ebinezer and Louisa. His first wife was Annie and his second Rosa Chapman.

I know he was in the WW1 because relatives have his medals, however I would be interested to find out any information about his time in the war and if there are any records of him at all. Any advice about how I should go about this would be much appriciated!

View attachment 25952
This is a photograph that we think is Samuel, but not sure about that.
 
Nice photo, heva. The uniform is from well before WW1 but Samuel was old enough to have served in the Boer War (1899-1902) or before.

For tips on finding out about WW1 his service, have a read of "Researching a soldier" at www.1914-1918.net.

One thing it will tell you is to find out as much as you can before you start. If your family has his medals, have an look round the rim. It will give you his WW1 regiment and number - really vital info. Good luck!
 
Hello Everyone,:)
Thanks for replying chris!

Thankyou for the advice, I contacted some members of the family and found out samuels regiment and number: Linc R (which im assuming is the lincolnshire regiment) 28848 A.Sjt. From this I found his WW1 Medal roll index card from the ancestry website, but all this has told me extra is that he was also in the Labour Corps. I couldn't find any other information on ancestry website about him, so am wondering if its worth looking in the national archives or not?

Also, now you mention Samuel prehaps being in the Boer war, I am very interested to find out more about that! I have another picture somewhere of a man that looks like Samuel in uniform on a horse which may be related, and I can't find Samuel anywhere on the 1901 census which would match up with him being away at war. Any ideas where I should look for records of the Boer war, are there even any available?

Thanks everyone for your time,
Heather
 
As Ancestry are only up to surnames beginning N, you could be waiting a while to see a service record online - if it exists at all. Certainly worth a trip to Kew to have a look though. When you're there you could also search the WO97 collection for any record of his service up to 1913*, and also view the medal roll entries that the index card gives you.

*If you find his Boer War details, there are two (Queen's and King's South Africa) medal rolls for that too.
 
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