Six Cumming brothers from near Inverness

[wulliam]

My great-grandfather was the oldest of 13 children of whom 7 were male. They were William, Donald, Alexander John, James, Thomas, Colin & Charles Cumming. All bar Thomas served in WWI - he had weak eyes and was rejected for service.

They all survived - and yet I know nothing of them. I have tried searching the MIC and yet there are no obvious results that are them. There is one Alexander J. - but nearly 50 plain Alexander's .

Has anyone got any ideas as to where I can start? I don't know the location of any medals or family legend saying which regiment they might have served with.

Bright ideas please!

Thanks,

William

PS I joined this forum just a few days ago and am amazed at the welcome and useful information that people have been willing to dish out so generously. Perhaps one day when I've learned a little I'll be able to return the favour...

[welshdoc]

Hi try looking at the 1901 census on the national archives online. If you know where they were in1901 then you have a chance of getting some initials its a question of simple cross checking. Once you have extra initials if any you will have a hope of limiting the numbers on the MICs. You can then try the London gazettes to see if they were awarded honours. This can be tough to do but theres only one way to learn by getting stuck in. Do what you can and come back to the expert hunters on the forum (Im not one Im afraid ). good hunting WelshDoc

[Nigel Marshall]

Hi William, welcome aboard.

You might want to try getting hold of birth certificates. Then at least you will know all their names in full which might help narrow the results of the MIC check.

Is there a parish council or local history society that might have minutes of meetings from that period? They sometimes turn up information about local men who served. might be worth a try. Also have a look at archived newspapers for the area, your men all survived, but one or may have been wounded or captured and these things generally were reported, even when casualty lists were heavy.

Stick at it my friend, every headache brings a golden egg!

Nigel

[Guest granty]

Hi Wulliam,

I'm also a new poster here and like you have been delighted by the help many people have already offered.

I looked at the WW1 medal index cards at the national archives and there are only two Colin Cumming listed.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documen...r=1&querytype=1

Both Royal Horse Artillery.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documen...Spec=score+desc

The above link is for Charles Cumming. There are 23 listed. Some in the Highlanders which could be a possibility given they were from Inverness but, interestingly, on the 3rd page there is a Charles Cumming who served in the Royal Horse Artillery also. A coincidence? Perhaps they joined the same regiment?

It's only 3.50 to download the image (6 cards per image I think) so you could download both Colins and all 23 Charlies for 17.50.

This might give you a start.

Incidentally, I downloaded my Grandad's medal card but it only told me his service number and regiment - not the battalion he served in however it's all a step in the right direction!!

Good luck, hope this has been of some help!

Regards,

Grant Thomson

[Guest granty]

Wulliam,

Just looked again at the medal cards.

There are over 80 James Cummings listed and over 70 William Cummings however there are only 15 Donalds so maybe starting with Colin, Charles and Donald would be the best idea.

Within these lists there may be some you can rule out (I think some of the names listed are from Canadian regiments so you can eliminate these straight away. Others are London Regiments and other English Regiments and while it's not impossible they could have joined these perhaps the law of probability would suggest the Highlnd Regiments first as there are loads in there.)

P.S. I also only found 1 Alexander J and he was listed as a Seaforth.

Good luck!!!

[shaymen]

Hi try looking at the 1901 census on the national archives online. If you know where they were in1901 then you have a chance of getting some initials its a question of simple cross checking. Once you have extra initials if any you will have a hope of limiting the numbers on the MICs. You can then try the London gazettes to see if they were awarded honours. This can be tough to do but theres only one way to learn by getting stuck in. Do what you can and come back to the expert hunters on the forum (Im not one Im afraid ). good hunting WelshDoc

Did the 1901 census cover scotland ?

[Guest granty]

Did the 1901 census cover scotland ?

Yes but it is not available on line as far as I'm aware.

The reason I know this is I was using it last week for England and Wales to trace my Grandmother however the information on the national archives site says you need to travel in person to Edinburgh to search the archive for Scotland.

Regards,

Grant

[wulliam]

1861-1901 is online at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk

I think it's quite expensive - 30 units cost £6 and to look at a page of searches costs 1 unit whilst an image costs 5 units. But it's there!

Unfortunately, neither the 1901 census or the multitude of birth certificates that I've got give any middle names - apart from Alexander being John.

Thanks for your replies - I'll have to start digging.

Kind regards,

William

[gnr.ktrha]

Hello,

It's interesting that a couple seem to have been in the Royal Horse Artillery. there was a Terratorial Horse Artillery unit raised in Inverness-shire, they wore a shoulder title which read T/RHA/HIGHLAND.

I have a book called ''The Swords of the North'' I am sure there is a chapter on them in there. The book mainly covers the Caithness area, but there are a few named photographs in it, so I will have a look and see.

It is very possible that one or more may have served in a Canadian unit. Many Scots moved to the 'New World' before and after the war. Some for a few years others for life. On many a war memorial, in the Highlands, you will see that there is always a good percentage of names listed to men in Canadian, New Zealand, South African & Australian units. If you think it is possible that one of the men might have served in a Canadian unit, you can view his enlistment papers on line. These give his date and place of birth and various other details.

The good thing about the Scottish people web site is the fact that you can search a few of the names before downloading a copy of the census. This way you do not need to download lots of pages to find the one you are after. Also if you do find the correct page, they family is all listed together, so one page should be enough, unless members live in other houses, away from the family home. You can check to see if there is a family history group in your area, if there is, it might be worth seeing if they have the 1901 census on CD-rom. Some do. I'm sure there is also a family history group in the Inverness area, with a web site.

All the best, I had better go to work now,

Stewart

[gnr.ktrha]

Hello,

I've had a look through the book ''Swords of the North'', but cannot find any named photo's of any of the men you are looking for. There is a short chapter on the Inverness shire battery, though. Would you like me to post information on where they served?

All the best,

Stewart

[Guest geoff501]

Has anyone got any ideas as to where I can start? I don't know the location of any medals or family legend saying which regiment they might have served with.

have you checked to see if there is a local newspaper microfilm archive? My local papers published a series of Rolls of Honour, for all who enlisted, from around November 1914. It gave regiment and sometimes Bn., but after 1916 they were not allowed to give battalion or theatre data in case the enemy was reading the paper.

[barrieduncan]

None of the cenus' give middle names or initials as far as I am aware, all you will get from that is the names, ages, occupations and place of birth of every resident in the household. I would however use the 1901 cenus as a starting point, for once you have ages, you can look for birth certificates which are more likely to give you middle names. As far as scotlandspeople goes, it is quite pricey, so you have to use your credits wisely.

If you are looking for six people, chances are at least a few of them will be on the same census return, so, here is what you do. You search for one of the brothers and note down the reference number of the most likely result (if you have an idea of where they lived or what age they were than this helps). Now check the returns for another brother, and look to see if any of the reference numbers match (remember, they will be on the same return) and so on and so forth. Doing this may take time but it saves you looking through each certificate only to find you have the wrong man.

Once you have found the census return you can use the age and place of birth to help you find a birth certificate. If there is a middle name, there is a good chance it will be on the birth cert (in my experience anyway). If you find one, it will help narrow down the search for the MiCs.

If you can get to Edinburgh you can search the census and birth certificates for nowt, alternativly, check the web for any family history centres around inverness, some nice person might help you out or know about the family.

Barrie