Live webchat with the Imperial War Museum on researching family history, Wednesday 18 January 1-2pm

Hi Mel

Great to have you here.....I am intrigued by the interest which War Horse is creating. How can Imperial War Museum help people like me who are interested in what relatives did in WW1?

HI

I am really wanting to ask a question regarding obtaining my late father's movements in the royal naval commando's. Firstly hardly anybody knows that they even existed. My dad died in april and was 92. He did not speak much about being on hms liverpool and then italy and burma with h group
commandos. After reading beachhead commandos and beachhead assault i really know why. I suppose i would like to know how i find my father's movements as no luck with portsmouth. I know his friend charlie maylon h group commando's was mentioned in despatches . How do I see these despatches ? are they documented anywhere ? These books and the files at the imperial war museum regarding the author A CECIL HAMPSHIRE
have really been the only help. I know it was all top secret but when and can i access all the docs from dad's naval life ? I have his service docs just would love to know what really happened in burma on certain dates and Italy too.
I would love some help. I get really upset that when there are docs on all history channels etc nothing is mentioned in detail about the NAVAL COMMANDO'S it is all focused on the army. Considering they were the first in last out' and usually had to check for mines i just feel they are so forgotton sometimes. More info on naval commando's would be appreciated.
many thanks
leeanne mannering
father AB MANNERING SIDNEY
HMS LIVERPOOL AND HOWE GROUP NAVAL COMMANDOES

hello, where is the link for the web chat? thank you

Hello Mel,

I have in my possession my late father's service record. He served in the R.A.S.C., 8th Army in Palestine between 1940 and 1945/6. He told me when he returned he was then sent to Norway, but I do not know why and his service record does not mention it. Is there a reason for this?

Thank you.

Hi Mel,

I know this is a long shot and doesn't really have any ties to the military, but I hope you might have some insight regardless. Though my recent family roots are Dutch, Indonesian and French respectively, my surname is Irish and my grandfather was able to trace our family back to an Irish woman arriving in France with her son sometime in the early 1800s. This is where the trail ended, unfortunately.

I've been trying to figure out if there's some way of discovering more about this woman and her ancestry. From what I understand she made the journey from England to France; would that be a point to start, for example, or are there other ways of going about this? In addition, I would love to find out if I had family left in France during the Great War; the majority had moved to Indonesia by then as far as I'm aware, but if any stayed behind they would have no doubt been affected by the war.

Again, I realize the above is all fairly insubstantial and not a lot to go on, but any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Hi Mel

My grand father fought in the first World War ...I think I know the regiment ...I remember seeing a picture of him in uniform leading the horses that pulled the guns into battle. Unfortunately, I know nothing of his service record ...it was never talked about. Those who might know are sadly no longer around.

I have tried various web-sites to track his service record ...but unsuccessfully. I am aware that many records were lost during the bombing of London during WWII.

Please can you advise me of ways to tackle my search ...or is this part of the 100yrs privacy holding of records??

Hi Mel,

Please can you recommend any good blogs written by people researching their family history?

Especially if they are descended from the Huguenots, as I am?

Thank you! Je vous remercie!

Hi,
My question involves military history but is slightly unusual in that it is about my mother.
I know she was in the QAs and after she died I got a copy of her army record as someone said at her funeral that she had nursed surviviors from the Belsen concnetration camp. Nothing had ever been said about that during her life, not even a passing reference so I was somewhat taken aback.

The record shows that she was with a BGH in Ostend or Bruges at the relelvant time and she was certainly there in July 1945 as my parents were married there. Is it possible that she was seconded from the BGH to Belsen or that she nursed survivors who may have been brought to Belgium?

I would say that her service record is not accurate in some important respects and there may be other other discrepancies. Is there any other way of finding out if she went to Belsen or any other concnetration camp or will this remain one of history's unknowns?

Family legend has it that Alfred Hunt and his wife Mary Ann perished on their way back from somewhere possibly Malta in 1939 (probably) when their boat was torpedoed. I know this is very vague but I don't know where to start looking. Where would their deaths be registered? They do not appear to be in the GRO records. I have found several journeys for him when he was listed as an engineer working for the government so not military I think. If they were coming back from Malta in '39 would it be on a civilian ship or military? Any help much appreciated.

JessM A lot of WW1 army records service were lost in a fire. I think they have been trying recently to decipher the remains. Hope they succeed because my grandfather's seem to be amongst them.

He too survived being gassed but suffered from bronchitis every winter, until he died of lung cancer at age 59. It did not help that work was scarce and he ended up painting the outsides of council houses for a living, in all weathers. He had to report for work each day and hang around until someone decided it was too bad to paint, then go home cold and soaking and did not even get the full day's pay.

I have heard that many of the WWI service records were destroyed in the WW2 blitz. Is this true? My grandfather was from South Wales and was gassed in France is all I know. He survived but suffered chest problems which apparently led to his death in middle age. There must have been a lot of men who died of after effects.

This thread has set me off again on a little research, so further to the message I posted yesterday about my mother and her Polish ancestry, I have discovered that she was in fact born in Hull in April 1904 rather than in Poland. However, I believe she was born very soon after the family arrived in the UK, so I am still at a loss as to how to find out more about their earlier history in Poland.
Any advice gratefully received.

I had an uncle who was very involved in the second world war with" secret" high security issues for the government. I believe he worked at Bletchley, but having gone there can not find his name in the register they have available there. He was of German origin, was sworn to secrecy so would never - even until his death in 1991 - talk about what he did. It is also possible he interogated high ranking Germans captured during the war, as he was bi-lingual. But I do not know. His name was Rudolph Edler, but I know he changed his first name during the war to Bruce, I think Eldon was his surname at that time.

Is there any way I could find out more about his role during the war?

I have struck a brick wall in trying to research my grandfather's details during the Ist World War. I remember him telling me that he cried when his mule was killed, but I know nothing of his regiment etc. His name yielded nothing from the records, but many of those were destroyed. Strangely, I couldn't find him on the 1911 census either. I have his birth, death and marriage certificates.
Would there be anything at the Imperial War Museum, or at Kew?

I have been trying, without much success, to trace information about my great grandfather Patrick Joseph Leary, a.k.a. Learey or Gannon-Leary who served with the 11th Hussars around 1880. Although he married under the name Patrick Joseph Leary, he seems to have taken his wife, Elizabeth Bridget Gannon’s surname at some time.
There is a census entry for 1881 for Private John Gannon, 11th Hussars and, in the 1891 census, the head of the family is James J Gannon, Sergeant in the Reserve Force Cavalry. However, I know my great-grandmother had a brother James Gannon and am unsure if this is her husband or brother. She herself is not listed in this census but many of the children are listed as sons/daughters of James J. Gannon.
Patrick’s children are listed in the Army Births and Baptisms – and all are recorded under both names Gannon and Leary apart from the youngest, Charles, born 1888, who appears only under the name Gannon. All entries are for a father serving with the 11th Hussars.
I made a freedom of information request to the National Archives who searched WO 97/3274, WO 97/5324 or WO 97/6371 under the name Leary or near variations and 1880s muster books without success. Earlier muster books list one 1864 Private J J Gannon, who enlisted at Hounslow on 14th September 1880. The last entry TNA were able to locate for him was as Lance Sergeant in E Troop in the muster dated 1st April 1890 at Aldershot.
I located a Patrick Leary, Grenadier Guards in document WO97/1864 in FindMyPast. He was discharged from the guards on medical grounds. I am wondering if, having been discharged as not fit for service in 1879, he could have re-enlisted using his wife’s surname? Nothing within the records confirms this. However, his occupation is given as ‘musician’ on his daughter Norah’s baptism is not inconsistent since this was between Private Patrick Leary’s discharge and Private J.J. Gannon’s enlistment and Patrick was a drummer in 1873-74. I thought the number 1864 might be significant as a service number as it appears in the Leary Grenadier Guards record and the
Gannon Hussars record but TNA say this duplication of the number is just coincidental.
TNA didn’t think it worth my while to search earlier musters since there was no evidence of a soldier named Leary or Gannon at the time when his first child, his daughter Kathleen’s birth was registered (1876). Also they were unable to help with respect to records for the Reserve Cavalry given as James J. Gannon’s regiment in the 1891 census.
I am wondering if you are able to give me any further advice with respect to this, especially as I am unclear on who provides information to the General Register Office for Army Births and Baptisms. Is this done by the soldier himself, by his unit or by the priest? Why would both the names Gannon and Leary be on the children’s records if Patrick had changed his name to Gannon and why, indeed, would he feel the need to change his forename as well as his surname?
As you can imagine this is very frustrating for me as Patrick Joseph Leary/James J Gannon just seems to disappear off the planet after 1891. Family rumours abound, e.g. he hit an officer, he deserted, he headed off to the US during the gold rush but, unfortunately, older family members who might have less apocryphal information about great grandfather are no longer with us.

Hi Mel,
I have a copy of my grandfathers discharge documents but it's not very easy to read. It would appear that he was discharged from M.J.C. (motors) Basra, 21.3.1919 having only served 1 yr 125 days. but had previously been in the Russian Armoured (Car?) unit R.N.A.S. If RNAS Is Royal Naval Air Service can you tell me how Russian armoured cars fit in please? and how can I find out when he joined and if he was conscripted or a regular soldier? Thank you.

I am trying to find out more about my father's army life, he was a regular soldier until 1938, then he served in WWII. His regiment, the York and Lancs have been disbanded and whilst I have a copy of his service record, I should like to know how he was ambushed and shot in Norway, which hospital he was taken to, etc. He was then sent to a number of Prisoner of War camps in Germany and although I have the letters he wrote home from the Camp, the Stalag number does not seem to be traceable!!

Hi Mel
Would love to know how to research Military History apart from Family history often able to find the person but would love to be able to look up their Military
history...is their a way?

Hi Mel - My mother, who died in 1983, was born in April 1904, of Polish parentage. I have never been sure whether she was born in Poland and came over when she was a very small baby or was born in Hull, where her family eventually settled. I have her maiden name - both the original Jewish one and the one it was changed to when the family settled in England. However, I have no idea where in Poland the family came from, so I don't know how to go about researching her side of the family. I don't have her parents' christian names either. I do know her younger brother, who was in the RAF, was killed in World War II and I have the names of her three other brothers, although they are obviously now long gone and in any event she was not in contact with them. I have tried in the past to start off on this research, but got nowhere fast. What is the best way to proceed bearing in mind most of the early family history will be from Poland? My parents were in their early forties when I was born and both my grandparents on my mother's side had already died. My other Scottish grandparents were very elderly and died when I was about 10. I am an only child, as was my father, so I have no living relatives as far as I am aware. I know virtually nothing about any of my ancestors and would very much like to fill this gaping hole my doing some research.

My grandfather fought in the trenches in the first world war. I have tried to trace records on line but could only find his conduct record. He had a terrible time like many of his generation and only ever told his mother about it. The story was that he was a machine gunner and was wounded and left in shell hole for dead. He was partly gassed, I presume a lot of the gas went over the top of the shell hole. He was picked up by a German soldier who asked his name and turned out to be his Piano teacher who had taught him in London as a boy! The German soldier made sure that he got some medical help. Grandad then got taken to prison in a stadium in Minden Germany.It was very cold with snow and he had given his coat to someone else who was sick or wounded. When peace was declared he had to walk back to where the British troops were which was a long way.
I would like to find out if this was all true and to find out who his piano teacher was. Is this possible? I know that some records were lost in the blitz inWW2.