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General => Armed Forces => Topic started by: seasider53 on Friday 18 March 16 22:03 GMT (UK)
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Could anyone help please. I'm trying to trace Joseph SMITH, a pipe major serving in India around 1813 and his wife Sarah
The marriage certificate reads: Joseph SMITH Pipe Major of the Artillery, Batchelor & Sarah BROWN, Widow were married by permission of Col Horsford July 15 1813. No parents are listed
I am having real difficulties tracking down these two. Help please!
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You should check the London Gazette for the Colonel to discover if it was one of the Indian artilleries - Madras, Bombay and Bengal - or the Imperial Royal Artillery who also sent batteries to India.
Ken
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can you give us josephs year and place of birth as they may help find something .
regards
trevor
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A likely candidate is Colonel Sir John Horsford who commanded the Bengal Artillery from 1805. Gazetted to Maj Gen 7 Aug 1813 effective 4 Jun 1813 retired 1817. So still carrying a Colonel's rank in June.
So a pipe major in the Bengal Artillery?
Minor addition - Family Search has the marriage Joseph Smith/Sarah Brown 15 July 1813 Fort William Bengal.
There are also some births to Joseph and Sarah Smith in Bengal in the years just after the marriage that might be worth a look?
maxD
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Yes he would have been HEIC not British Army.
I think the register says "Fife Major" rather than Pipe Major
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Thank you for the information.
Now without seeming dim.....where is the best place to obtain his service record?
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Agree with ShaunJ, http://indiafamily.bl.uk/ui/NonTabBriefDisplay.aspx?SearchType=QuickSearch
Looks like a job for a rainy day, Guide at:
http://www.wiki.fibis.org/index.php?title=Beginners%27_Guide
Good luck!
maxD
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Your Joseph Smith is of interest to me, he may be the Father of Samuel born 1821. "My" Smiths were in India 1780-1900 at least, many were musicians, fife-majors, bandmasters, trumpeters, drummers and drum-major.
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Evening. Re the SMITHS in India. I believe that my 'Joseph' is the Father of Samuel born 1821.
Do you have any further details on the Mother, Sarah?
I have seen the marriage cert and she is noted as 'widow' but unfortunately there are no details of the Father. Its a needle in a hay stack!
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Hello, many of my Smiths were musicians, bandmasters etc. Samuel born 1820-1825 was a bandmaster with Madras Native Infantry, I believe his brother Edward was a fife major with the same. I am still trying to prove all this. Samuel's suspected half-brother Robert Henry gave his father's name as Joseph. Since beginning my tree I have found that bandsmen were almost always Indo-Britons which means the original Joseph was probably the son of a British soldier and an Indian Lady.
No information on Sarah but some other surnames of interest are Taylor, Rebeiro, Carthy, Prout, Wallis and Kingsley and Earl. My lot seemed to travel between Madras and Moulmein in Burma and two of the later Smiths (1880's) joined the Duke of Cornwall's light Infantry as buglers/musicians.
Could you send any surnames that you are interested in? I have many more than the above, since there were so many deaths from cholera, childbirth, war etc many of mine married more than once.
Yes, needle in a haystack, a dreadful name for researching is Smith (or Smyth) it seemed to be interchangable according to who was filling out documents.
Elizabeth