Grandfather John O'Donnell - No Paper Trail for 50 Years!

[hols92]

Other reasons?
Maybe he wasn't in England/Wales at the time?

Was his family Irish? He might have gone to Ireland.

Yes Maiden Stone, his family and himself are from Carrick on Suir, County Tipperary, Ireland but they all came over to the UK or unfortunately passed in Carrick so I would be surprised if he went back there when all his remaining siblings and father were in the UK you know?

[josey]

All electoral rolls are archived & publicly available, often at libraries; obviously not all digitised however. You have to search undigitised ones by address as well - as you probably know; the digitised ones are searched by OCR bots on genealogy websites. What about telephone directories - there are some on ancestry. They often only have initials though so very difficult to confirm an entry.

Are you talking about his entry on 1939 register being blocked, or his army one? As far as I know only blocked entries on 1939 are of people born less than 100 years ago when the register was scanned.

[MonicaL]

Have you viewed a copy of his death reg? If you have, what was his marital status? If he showed as married that could help with finding him with a family for the years you are looking to fill in.

Don't know if you have a subs to Ancestry and therefore able to view family trees?

There is this family tree (could well be yours  ) www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/171178106/person/162222659643/facts

It shows John in 1978 on the Electoral Rolls at Icknield Way 77, Luton. The original images shows a Patrick/John/Olive M. at that address that year (Patrick married Olive you mentioned?).

1979 shows just a Patrick and John O'Donnell at that address. No Olive.

Monica

[MonicaL]

Just adding this link to an old post of yours for background here www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=835768.0

Monica

[Jomot]

If I have the right man - originally enlisted 28 Jun 1919 - then it looks like he re-enlisted into the Royal Artillery Heavy Anti-Aircraft, 205 Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery (?), on 16 Apr 1942. Service number 11416849.

https://www.nam.ac.uk/soldiers-records/persons?ss=%7B%22q%22:%22john%20o%27donnell%22%7D

[hols92]

If I have the right man - originally enlisted 28 Jun 1919 - then it looks like he re-enlisted into the Royal Artillery Heavy Anti-Aircraft, 205 Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery (?), on 16 Apr 1942. Service number 11416849.

https://www.nam.ac.uk/soldiers-records/persons?ss=%7B%22q%22:%22john%20o%27donnell%22%7D

Blimey thank you so so much Jomot!!
I have been wondering what this meant and just assumed that it was a document reference but now I see it it seems so obvious!!

Thank you this is a huge breakthrough!
How can I access this record of his time in WW2??!!!

Thanks Monica, that is exactly my grandfather in luton that you have found, olive.. Patricks wife died in 1978 hence her absence in 1979.

Yes Josey I was referring to a blocked record on the 1939 register, it shouldn't be given his age etc but you never know a mistake?

[josey]

How can I access this record of his time in WW2??!!!

See my reply #16.