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[topas37]

Sent for Alfreda's birth cert today lets see what that tells us if anything

[Wendy111]

Wendy have you had any contact with the Chatterton's or Blackwells would they know anything or would that just complicate matters more

No, I've got quite a lot on Ancestry about the Chatterton/Blackwell families but I haven't delved into them because I'm not directly descended from Helena.  In the early days of my research my main interest in her was how she managed to marry two of my Gt Gt Uncles. When I figured that out - as best as anyone probably ever will - I abandoned the Chatterton/Blackwells.

[apwright]

Also, there have been no army records found under the name of Alfred May,

Well no, there wouldn't be. The records on Ancestry are for men discharged or died up to 1921. Alfred May was obviously still serving in 1923, so (as explained in the other thread on Armed Forces!) his records should have survived intact and be available to order by next-of-kin from the MoD.
Info & forms etc. at http://www.veterans-uk.info/service_records/army.html
Cost £30 and 6-12 months' waiting.

The only thing we can't be 100% certain of is whether 9318 Alfred May is YOUR Alfred May. However, if Alfreda's birth certificate shows her father to be a WO2 (sergeant major) or higher with 1st West Riding in Constantinople (or GibraltAr if you insist; maybe she was born en route but the birth wasn't registered until they reached Turkey - who knows?!), and if the photo kindly posted by Ady in Reply#13 on the other thread resembles any photos of Alfred May that topas may have, then I'd say that was good enough evidence to risk ordering the service record.

Note that, if there's a service number on Alfreda's BC, it won't be 9318. All soldiers were renumbered in 1920, so it will be a 7-digit number starting with 46 for a man in the West Riding Regt.

Adrian

[topas37]

I have ordered Alfreda's birth cert will wait and see what that tells us, and then I will see if its worth spending £30 to get his military records or one of my cousins if I get to contact them might know more, I sent for some military records for my husband's father and was told I had to wait at least a year for them I thought that was because his records were WW2 but from what you say it's any records, but we might have a trip to Halifax and see if they hold any records there that we can check

[MargP]

Hi Topas

Do you know if your cousin in the IOW as any medal's ect that belonged to Alfred

Marg

[topas37]

I won't know until I get in touch with them, the cousin who I spoke to at the weekend is Alfreda's son and has been out of touch with his sister and our other cousins for many years, and I don't have any contact details for them, although he is going to try and get contact details for me, if not when my brother returns from Atlanta he may have their phone numbers or addresses as he actually started this tree and went over to the Island to visit the cousins, but he didn't get very far with the tree so I took it over

[topas37]

Got any email back today from GRO they can't process Alfreda's birth cert not enough information given, I gave all the info Margp posted which I also checked on Find My Past so not sure what to do next although GRO have given me a phone number and I will ring later and see what the problem is

[groom]

I wonder if it's to do with the fact that she was born abroad in Turkey? Probably it is registered differently with the GRO.

[MargP]

I wonder if it's to do with the fact that she was born abroad in Turkey? Probably it is registered differently with the GRO.

I think that could be it Jan, but I do find that the GRO are not as diligent as they were year's ago.