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General => Armed Forces => World War One => Topic started by: mebe on Sunday 27 April 08 06:09 BST (UK)
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I have been looking for information on my great uncles war service records, we have solid evidence that six of them served in WW1, I have contacted the Australian war memorial, who have said that some of the records may have been destroyed over the years.
I have found records from the National Archives of Australia for four of the brothers WW1 service:
Darcy. George Edgar Service Number 1628
Darcy. Francis Patrick Service Number 3344
Darcy. Percy Service Number 5635
Darcy. Thomas Raymond Service Number V10848 served WW1 & WW2
I can not find the other two, I have found Darcy. John Service Number V395313 can only find his WW2 home service record, apparently he may have changed name on WW1 enlistment. We do have postcards and pictures that they sent back whilst serving overseas, in the postcards they refer to each other by nick names so we are not even sure of the sixth brothers name, as all up there were nine brothers. Has anyone got any suggestions of where to look or what to do next that may help.
Cheers and thank you for taking the time to read
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Hi Mebe :)
Welcome to Rootschat!
Were the brothers all born in Victoria? You could try to find their birth records on the Victorian BDM site:
http://online.justice.vic.gov.au/bdm/home
You should be able to search using the surname and parents' first names, which should bring up all their children.
It's true that some WW1 personnel files have been lost over the years, but you'd have to be unlucky to want two that are missing - I think they are hiding somewhere under a different, or mis-spelled, name :)
Prue
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Hi Mebe, I noticed you said you had been to the Archives but did you see site called" A Gift to the Nation" which was released in 2007 which has all the World War 1 Records of the servicemen.
If you google in should come up I have downloaded some of my family some have at least 50 pages,military service, letter from Government to family etc
regards
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Thanks for replies PrueM and vowgirl
John Darcy, is actually my grandfather and my mother had no idea that he had served until last year when we came across some photos of him in WW1 uniform (no indication of unit etc to be seen) and letters (no given names just nick names), that had been sent to his other brothers, but just cant seem to find any service records for these last two.
I have birth, death and marriage certificates for all of the brothers, and I know who they all are, but no one knows which one was called by what nick name, my grandfather was only referred to as Woolly, but only by his brothers! my mother had never known of his nickname.
I have tried looking for Darcy in various spelllings, while looking for service records but have come up empty, I will try the "a gift to the nation" site,
I'm sure I can hear the two of them laughing !!!
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Mebe - do you have more information about John Darcy? His date of birth, was he married, where was he born etc. that might help us find him?
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Hello Mebe, I had a quick look in site Gift to a Nation one is listed as Dacey so just put Darcy surname in as soundex comes up with the variations has there addresses and next of kin etc when the names come up,one for sure has parents names as next of kin so is worth going into files the information is very good,
cheers
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Thank you once again to PrueM and vowgirl :)
I looked on "A gift to the Nation" site, have tried sound ex and still find nothing that is available on line, so that might mean a trip to Canberra for me, a few files that have matched eg: family names as next of kin etc, have not been examined yet!
John Darcy was born around 1880-1885 depending on which source it comes from, he was married to my grandmother Sophia Simpson on 26 Oct 1928, but there is a small chance that this may have been a second marriage.
The only other boys that that could have served as the sixth brother are Fredrick Gordon Darcy b1888 and Edward Charles Darcy b1898, all boys were born in Lauriston/Kyneton/Victoria to James Patrick Darcy and Jessie Darcy (nee Christie).
If it was Edward I can understand why I may not be able to find the records, as he would have been under 21 and I don't think that my ggrandmother would have willing let her youngest son be the sixth to go of to war, but at the same time she may not have reported him if he did (long story).
All service records have now been found for the following:
Darcy. George Edgar Service Number 1628
Darcy. Francis Patrick Service Number 3344
Darcy. Percy Service Number 5635
Darcy. Thomas Raymond Service Number 7221 & V10848 served WW1 & WW2
Any suggestions are greatly welcomed!
Cheers:)
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Hi Mebe, You didn't see the one listed as Dacey then, all the records are free to look in online
regards
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No sorry vowgirl,
I think slamming my head into the brick wall is starting to do damage to my sight, I came up with 111 WW1 records and have gone crosseyed looking at then, plus I'm on dial up so it took most of the morning!
Can you point me in the right direction, as I can't seem to see it for looking!
Cheers
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Hi Mebe, You have found the site in Google search
A Gift to a Nation just hit Australian search button, the hit the site
When the site comes up should be
Australian World War 1 records online,
Then it says surname etc search
see if you find that and let me know
regards
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Hi vowgirl
Got it in favorites, already there, take off exact spelling? and type in Darcy?
Cheers
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Hi Mebe, Great you will see from drop down bar you can search other things as well, apparently they are going to do the same for World War 2 as well probably a long way off,
Good luck
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Thanks vowgirl,
will have another look, as for the second world war they have started some. Unfortunately it looks as though they are only going to release Unit War Diaries on line from the larger corps, which is a shame as they can shed so much light on the where's and when's of a units, therefor a service persons military history.
Cheers and thank you once again for your help :)
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I'm aware that you posted your note a while ago but I'm the grandson of Edward Charles Darcy . I'm the son of Betty Darcy. We still have the family home at Lauriston where all the Darcy's were born and we have a large number of photographs of the whole family. I have very fond memories of driving around in Percy's truck while we delivered poultry to different places in Kyneton. My mum stayed with Grandma Darcy Jessie Christie) often at Lauriston If I can be of any assistance please contact me.
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Hi Darcy,
Trying again to get into contact with you. mebe is my sister, so we're both chasing the same lines. I've got some wonderful stuff that no one's seen for 40+ years that i'd love to share with you, including a 15 page letter from Tom that was written from when he signed up, to when he got to his first posting, a lot of other letters too, especially from Percy to his Aunt Em and Uncle James. You're the closest connection we've come across yet to share these things with, would love to send you copies of everything! Please get back into contact.
Victoria
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Hi
have found a record for John Darcy whose next of kin is his wife Sophia. He was rejected for duty in the first world war and enlisted in the second world war at the age of 53.
Year of birth 1888.
Also Darcy, Frederick Gordon; age 27; born - Launceston Vic
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So either John signed up under another name or it's between the following brothers that remained:
Frederick Gordon Darcy, Edward Charles Darcy or Albert James Darcy.
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Hi Vic
Darcy names in Victoria http://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/search?type=search&name=Darcy&surnameOnly=y®Num=&place=Victoria