Help Needed to find Army & BMD Records for Alexander Walsh in Ireland & India

[DavidJP]

Hi all,

Hope I've put this in the right place, not sure as it covers several different records as well as countries. I also apologise now for length of post as it might be a bit long, but I need to get all info in to avoid duplication of info already found.

I am helping my godmother with her family history & one ancestor in particular is giving us both a headache as we have been unable to locate records in general for this ancestor.

The ancestor is the above mentioned Alexander Walsh b1809/10 in Ireland.

To start with my godmother has a photocopy of an original document showing Alexanders army service, with details as follows:

The original document was on the old foolscap size paper & unfortunately when photocopied it was copied onto an A4 sheet of paper, thereby chopping off the top & bottom of the document!

It has the word Register at the top middle of the page & then within 2 rows, divided into numerous columns it has the following details:

General Number: 434 (This number is incomplete & may actually be 734 or 737, but not sure)
Corps: 2nd Battalion Artillery
Rank: Gunner
Name: Alexander Walsh
Age: 19
Height: 5 ft 5 inches
Country & County: Ireland, Westmeath
Occupation: Servant
Ship arrival on or from where received: Minerva, 12th Aug 1829
Where & when enlisted & reenlisted: Dublin, 19th Feb 1829
Nature & date of casualty: Discharged 9th June 1848

The document then shows:

Adj (Adjutant) Genls (Generals) Office Fort St George 29th June 1857

True copy H Humphry (Signed by) Lieut Commander "F" company

signed W G Gibbs, Major, Dy (Deputy) Adj General of the army.


Was the general number his regimental number or just a record number?

We have as yet been unable to locate his army service record.

We have as yet been unable to locate either marriage or death records for Alexander.

Alexander married Catherine (maiden surname unknown) (1814/15-1900). Catherine according to family legend was born in County Cork, Ireland, but I have not found anything to back this up at all.

Only one child of the marriage is known, a daughter Margaret, from her baptism record I have gleaned the following:

Margaret daughter of Alexander & Catherine Walsh was baptised 26th March 1858, aged 4 years (therefore born 1853/54) at Madras. Abode given as Madras. Alexander Walsh shown as "Discharged Gunner, Artillery".

We have all detail re Margaret's life, marriage death etc.

Catherine died in Madras, India in 1900 described as widow of Alexander Walsh, Gunner Artillery.

Where & when did Alexander & Catherine marry?

Where & when did Alexander die?

I have used/checked the usual places re India research, namely FindMyPast, Familysearch & Fibis but turned up absolutely nothing!

Any and all help in hopefully breaking down this brickwall will be gratefully received.

Many thanks in advance.

Kind regards

David

Edited to add:

What type of document is the document that my godmother has a copy of & why would this document have been produced & required 9 years after he left the army?

[despair]

I don't think this really helps,but does it suggest his "service number" was 2015?

https://search.fibis.org/frontis/bin/aps_detail.php?id=164095

Regards
Roger

[jim1]

What type of document is the document that my godmother has a copy of & why would this document have been produced & required 9 years after he left the army?

Proof of identity with regard to his pension.

[Daisypetal]

HI,

I found this,

Embarkation Lists of EIC Recruits to India

https://search.fibis.org/frontis/bin/aps_detail.php?id=787601

but it shows a different birthplace. Unfortunately this is just a description and their is no image to check.


He is in the East India Company army, this picture shows what he would have looked like,

http://www.davidrowlands.co.uk/gallery/gal_detail.asp?varPaintCode=159


Regards,
Daisy

[DavidJP]

Hi Despair, Jim1 & Daisypetal,

Many thanks indeed for your replies, very much appreciated indeed.

Despair, many thanks for the courts martial info, much appreciated. Don't think however that his service number is 2015 though as the only 2015 in the 2nd battalion, Artillery is a chap named James Williams born Wrexham, Denbighshire who enlisted in 1836, here: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C12681550

Jim1, many thanks for explanation of what the document is & what it was for, very much appreciated.

Daisypetal, many thanks indeed for the links & East India Company info , very much appreciated.

How on earth did I miss those Fibis entries?! Never would have thought of East India Company as an avenue of research either. Perhaps, should have done though as I was aware of the EIC!

My thanks again.

Kind regards

David

[grahamyapp]

Let me first of all check that this is still a live thread. I have stumbled across this today. I've spent a lot of time investigating Alexander Walsh - I am a direct descendant - many hours in the British Library and a trip to St George's Fort in Chennai!

I don't think I have anything of substance to add to the evidence trail, but I can confirm that I have reached most if not all of the same conclusions independently. However, there is a bit of oral family history, and a suggestion from my own DNA analysis, that has kept my interest alive.

GY

[DavidJP]

Hi grahamyapp,

My apologies for my non response until now. The major reason being that my PC died on me which left me offline for quite some time. Was unable to do anything about it until fairly recently due to financial constraints. Even now I'm only using a laptop but it is better than nothing!

We (my godmother and I) are no further along as regards Alexander Walsh unfortunately. Do you descend from their (Alexander & Catherine's) daughter Margaret or from another (unknown to us!) child!

We would be interested to hear about the oral family history if possible?

It is great to hear from you! My apologies again regarding the delayed response.

Kind regards

David

[grahamyapp]

Yes, David - what a nice surprise to pick up a reply after this time! - I am indeed descended directly from Margaret McConnell née Walsh, daughter of Alexander and Catherine.

Margaret Walsh married William McConnell at St Mary's, St George's Fort, Madras in 1870. William was in the regular Army. They had a daughter, also Margaret, who married my great-great grandfather George Saul in Madras in 1890. He was also there with the regular army (i.e. not East India Co). They returned to England, to Oldbury in the West Midlands, after the birth of their first child. Their second child, Martha, is my great grandmother. My parents have a recollection of Margaret, known as  "Granny Saul", as being of Indian appearance, and that links to a 1% incidence of Indian DNA on the first occasion that I submitted my own DNA sample for analysis. I actually spent a week in Chennai a couple of years ago to try to see some of the relevant sites.

I need to check what the rules and methods are about sharing contact details (it's been a while since I've been on here) but in principle I'd be happy to fix a Zoom or Skype chat sometime to share my findings and scanned images with you via email. I haven't been actively searching for a year now, having reached a practical limit, so I would need to have my notes in front of me to add any more detail.

For Alexander Walsh himself, the Loughree that is repeatedly given as PoB in his service records (2015 is correct by the way) is an oddity. An Irish expert explained to me that there is a body of water of that name in Co Westmeath, but the town is Loughrea and is in Co Galway. I seem to recall just one document with that county against his name, and at the time I thought it was an error. Now I wonder whether that was the original, and that the Co Westmeath connection is a repeated error on successive copied documents. Who knows? It would be unlikely for anyone to give Loughree as a place of birth. If he was illiterate (quite likely), this could conceivably just be a bureaucratic error and really we need to look at Co Galway, but of course that is only my speculation.

Best wishes,
Graham Yapp