RootsChat.Com
General => Armed Forces => Topic started by: lorna llan on Tuesday 15 May 12 14:27 BST (UK)
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I have found a missing ancestor in the most unexpected place: died at Lucknow 8 May 1858. (And he's not on a list I've seen of those killed in battle belonging to the 93rd.) He is on the Indian Mutiny medal list for the Relief of Lucknow and Lucknow itself. Born in Glasgow in 1824, he isn't found on the 1851 census. If he was in the military, would he be findable on a census? What is the best way of finding out when he enlisted? Would I expect to find an enlistment record for a private soldier in the 1850s? When his probate was filed in 1863, he was said to have been a sergeant in the commissariat.
I'm not sure how to proceed. Ancestry and Find My Past have both drawn a blank for military records.
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died at Lucknow 8 May 1858.
Can I ask what the source of that information is? I can't see him on a casualty list either and the medal roll doesn't list him as dead.
If he was in the military, would he be findable on a census?
If he was in England/Wales/Scotland (delete as appropriate) at census time then yes he would.
I believe the 93rd were in Scotland in 1851.
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This is the source of his death date, a probate record:
Brocket, Andrew, otherwise Minto, Andrew Brocket, Effects under 20 pounds.
26 July 1864. Letters of Administration of the Personal estate and effects
of Andrew Brocket otherwise Andrew Brocket Minto late a Sergeant in the
Commissariat Department of Her Majesty's Indian Army a Bachelor deceased who
died 8 May 1858 at Lucknow in India were granted at the Principal Registry
to Esther Sutherland (Wife of James Sutherland, Druggist) of 1 Dalhousie
place Glasgow in the country of Lanark in North Britain the Sister and one
of the Next of Kin of the said Deceased she having been first sworn."
Now I see I might have made too big a jump in assuming that the Andrew Minto who got the medal with Relief of Lucknow and Lucknow clasps and who belonged to the 93rd Foot is the same as the man who died at Lucknow in 1858. There were no other possible Mintos (or variants, or Brockets) on the medal roll. Would the Commissariat Department have belonged to a regiment, or would it have separate records somewhere else?
It's interesting that the medal roll index you have notes if a recipient had died. Might he have been awarded a medal before his death?
This is the first military man who has come up in my researches--really appreciate the help.
I have had a look on the census for 1851 in UK with no luck.