Lex,
Sorry you've had trouble with the PRO site. It is a bit difficult to
navigate at first. They have so very many different documents from different
departments and different eras, it make sense that that whole thing ends up
a bit of a chinese puzzle. Searching here can feel a bit like fishing, but
the pond is big and full of interesting fish - if only you can find the
right bait (or search parameters)
The key I have found is to narrow your search to a limited time period and a
limited department or section and then to be creative about how the doucment
might be catalogued. I try different spellings: for example very old
records for someone called Robert of Benton might also be stored under
Robert de Benton. If I can't locate the person by full name, I try last
name and limit the dates. If they are not there by name, I try to bring in
any other information I have such as job, location, the name of a country
house. For soldiers it helps a great deal to know the branch of service,
the regiment, or the rank. I have had mixed success. I did locate the war
record of a WWI soldier, a letter written by an ancestor, and also a 1773
letter mentioning my relative's government appointment. I also got several
wills from their online document center (you pay several pounds per will by
credit card and you have two weeks to download a PDF image of the original
handwritten probate record). I have not yet located any record pertaining to
an eighteenth century soldier whom I am researching, but I've finally found
his regiment and I am confident I'll be able to locate him.
Note: however that I found the letter on the government appointment in a
very round about way. Although the letter mostly covers my relative's
appointment, she is not mentioned in the description - instead it mentions
the woman she replaced. I actually found the letter by searching on "Dublin
Castle" knowing that she was housekeeper there and a general period when she
might have held the position. The description of the letter mentioned it
described candidates for the position of housekeeper. I took a chance and
ordered a copy and it turns out that the letter WAS about my relative. I
was lucky - and persistent. Even though it pertains to Dublin, this letter
was in the British PRO rather than the Irish PRONI because it was sent back
to the British goverment and was therefore stored and archived there.
If these ideas do not help, tell me what you know about your soldier and
maybe I can give some more specific advice.
Good Luck
Anna Hopkins-Arnold
----- Original Message -----
From: "kcam7375(a)bigpond.net,au" <kcam7375(a)bigpond.net.au>
To: <CHAPMAN-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 2004 4:07 PM
Subject: [CHAPMAN-L] asvice
To Anna ,
Thank you for your helful advice and sites to research my Irish Chapmans.
I have opemed the
www.genuk.org.uk/ site and I am sure it will be helful.
I have already been trying to handle the PRO (Nat. Arch>) site re soldiers
records and find it the most complicated and frustrating site I have ever
researched.
To all researches on site, please forgive my typing mistakes as I am
seriously site
impaired in my ripe old age. Regards,
Lex Campbell
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