Mini research update - World War I and family

[untonuggan]

Since I'm hitting a paywall on Ancestry (which apparently holds most of the UK military records on WW I but I may be able to access through a local library), I thought I'd take another route to try to determine which regiment my g-grandfather was in. This is also useful since he had a fairly generic Irish name, and it will help narrow things down once I *do* get access.

I am actually kind of proud that I think I figured it out?

I know from oral history from several relatives several battles he was in, that he was injured, and bits and pieces of the name of parts of the branches he served in. (He was in a fusilier branch, for example, that was from Northern Ireland. Not sharing too much atm because don't want to doxx myself.)

Anyway, I basically figured out that he was in the Irish Guard, then narrowed it down to which of the three branches he was in at the time. Then I figured out which battalion was present in each of the battles family oral history accounts states that he was in.

Now, caveats of course: oral history is unreliable, and he also could theoretically have been switched around between multiple battalions due to injuries etc.

But I'm pretty sure that if family info is accurate and he was in one unit the entire time, I've got it narrowed down.

Doing some reading of first person accounts of those battles, I can totally understand why he would *never talk about the War*, why he wouldn't mind my mom cutting up his medals' ribbons for doll clothes, and guess there were a lot of complicated survivor guilt feelings not unlike friends I've known who lived through the AIDS crisis. This is part of why I'm doing this research -- not so much "what things did my family do" but "how did the events my family lived through likely shape intergenerational family and behavioral patterns?"

(Also, wow, that type of information is *super* scattered across the interwebs. It was also hard to find on websites I find "reliable", though that could be because I haven't done enough research in this area to know which ones to look in. Still, win!)

I also couldn't help thinking that finally all those school math(s) problems of, "If Anna sits next to Bob and Susan sits next to Derek and..." actually were paying off.

In some of the letters we have, I found out that another Great-Grandfather fought in WWI. He's the one where there was a huge family rift over a will and a second wife, though, so I have no information other than "he fought in WWI and then he was a coal miner and then the family rift over a will and a second wife." Digging may have to wait til Ancestry access.

Comments

[chalcopyrite]

This all sounds really interesting, and go you for your detective skills!

(You're rekindling my desire to do some familial digging of my own; perhaps I need a winter project. Also, if you run into anything that might be easier from in-country or at least on-island, lemme know and maybe I can help, even if I *am* at the absolute furthest end from NI.)

[spiralsheep]

I'm confused about how someone could be a fusilier in the non-fusilier Irish Guards, but it's not my area (in any sense).

[spiralsheep]

P.S. Guards regiments sometimes had height requirements so that's another personal detail you could hypothetically check if necessary.

[davidgillon]

Same thought occurred to me. Though it would be possible to be in a fusilier regiment, then transfer to the Irish Guards when they formed in 1900.

Irish Fusilier regiments:
Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers
Princess Victoria's (Royal Irish Fusiliers)(which becomes Royal Irish Fusiliers (Princess Victoria's) after 1920)
Royal Munster Fusiliers
Royal Dublin Fusiliers
And just to really confuse things, the four Tyneside Irish battalions fall within the (English) Royal Northumberland Fusiliers wrt regimental tradition.

And in some circumstances the Fusiliers and Rifles Regiments might be considered together as they're both part of the Light Infantry tradition, which would add in:
Royal Irish Rifles
London Irish Rifles
Liverpool Irish

[untonuggan]

Y'all are trying very hard to foil my "vagueness on the internet", aren't you? :P

[sporky_rat]

familysearch.com has some cool stuff. I've used them before.

(Important information: It is run by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and they do ask for a log-in and some very basic information. It does have an awful lot of information there.)

[davidgillon]

If you have any pictures of your grandfather in uniform then they might be useful for confirming his regiment, the fusilier regiments would have a hackle (short plume) on the headgear, while the Irish Guards would have buttons in groups of four. There are probably other details that could be used, but you would need a real uniform expert for that.

[spiralsheep]

I'm not an expert but I believe the Irish Guards have also worn hackles as part of their uniform.

[davidgillon]

Good point, but I'm not sure if they wear it on any headgear but the bearskin and the piper's caubeens,

[untonuggan]

Yeah, as far as I know, I don't have *any* photographs of him. :/

[whereisirisnow]

This is so interesting! I hope you will figure a lot more out!

I have also tried to dig into my family history a few times, but I always ended up horribly confused and with a family tree that wouldn't even fit on a A0 sheet. This inspires me give the family tree one more shot though :)

[untonuggan]

There's an open source program I'm thinking of installing called Gramps. It's distributed for Linux, but looks like it will run on Mac/Windows if you fiddle with it and look at community how-to's. (Something I *so rarely* get to say as a Linux user.)

I like that they seem to have good "keeping track of where you got your source material" features.

[whereisirisnow]

Lucky linux user! :)
That is a very good suggestion, thank you! I think I am going to play with that a little!

[rainbow]

i currently have 3 more months of a 6 month free trial of the ancestry world edition; i'd be happy to look things up for you iffn you want to msg or email mail.