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Remembered Today:

Help Identifying Soldier


alantaylor2004@hotmail.com

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Hi there,

Can you help with tracing James Taylor a family member believed to have come from Durham. He was known to be serving as a professional soldier in Cork, Ireland in 1909/10.

He married Bridget Taylor (O'Leary) and had a daughter Mary in 1910. Can anyone help with any information that could put me in the right direction getting me onto the next step to find out what happened to him as he never returned from the war.

There was a barracks in Cork, City at the time, was he there? what regiment? was he killed? any help would really be appreciated.

Kind regards,

Alan

I have scanned 2 documents showing the 1911 census and the birth cert of his daughter. I have attached 2 more which are the other half of the birth cert as I could not get the whole on 1 page and the summary to the census. This is on a reply to this appeal.


The 2 files.

post-35764-0-10468600-1443881853_thumb.j

post-35764-0-82979500-1443881984_thumb.j

post-35764-0-96676300-1443883043_thumb.j

post-35764-0-83476600-1443883058_thumb.j

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Hi there,

Thanks for your input, Yes I have but there are 58 pages of about 10 a page. Who could it be?

Cheers,

Alan

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Have you looked for a Medal Index Card for him?

You might be lucky and find his NOK listed on his CWGC entry if he has one.

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Could be :

20365 : 9th Royal Irish Fusiliers : DOW 4.7.16 : born Gateshead. Co. Durham

(Formerly 23944 Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers)

BillyH.

(not him - married to a Mary Ann!)

Edited by BillyH
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All sorts of questions

1. I can find no record of the marriage between Bridget O'Leary and James Taylor. If you had that it may give you more about his regiment. I could not get it in Ireland or England. This is your best lead if it exists

2. There was a special register for forces births on Ancestry under " British Nationals Armed Forces Births 1761-2005" . Mary is not on that

3. Did James Taylor hang around until 1914 or did he disappear before that

4. Where was James Taylor in 1911 census. There are 4 J Taylors in Army in CO Cork - click But that only gives born in England without county. It would give you a choice of Regiments or units like RHA that he could have been in

5. When did he disappear, are there any grounds to sudpect that he was killed, or merely that he chose to abandon Bridget and child?

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And FWIW the 2nd Durham Light Infantry was in Cork and Fermoy at this time - click

And again another showing them to be in Fermoy until Jan 1911 - click

If you research DLI it cuts your James Taylors down to about 4 and you may be able to eliminate some of them

My feeling is that you can probably establish the most likely suspect, but difficult to prove on what you have given us so far

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I have found the service record to 20365 James Taylor on Ancestry but it is the wrong spouse.

I'm not sure if he was killed or not it was passed down that he never came back from the war?

I'm unable to find "personal effects" on Ancestry for any James Taylors, this may show the next of kin, so I would have to go to Kew to look these up.

Thanks for all your help, is there anything that I'm missing?

Regards,

Alan

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, is there anything that I'm missing?

Yes, a marriage certificate

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That was what I meant when I put in an earlier post, that I could find no evidence of a marriage.

James Taylor is not one of the male possibilities on either of those documents. In other words a Bridget O'Leary married one of the 4 men on each of those references, but none is James Taylor

You can do the same exercise with "James Taylor" in Irish marriages, and none syncs with a Bridget O'Leary

My conclusion was that they never married. Which makes your task "difficult"

If he was never legally married, then Bridget would have been unlikely to have been names on any of the documents as next of kin

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