John Thomas Cunningham..Private Northumberland Fusiliers

[brown8348@fsmail.net]

Hi all,

I could do with some help in tracing John Thomas Cunningham. He married my Great Grandmother in August 1914, , however he died sometime before March 1917 as his widow remarried. All I have is that on his marriage certificate it states General Labourer ......Private Northumberland Fusiliers, aged 21 years old. I have no battalion or number to go on.

I have found that he was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in abt 1883 ( as his marriage certificate states 21) , however I have been unable to trace any details of him so far.

Anyone got any ideas????

Cheers

Chris

[danlyon]

You need to start by correcting the arithmetic. If he was 21 in 1914 then he was born in or around 1893, not 1883 !

If you look on http://freebmd.rootsweb.com you will find him straightaway, registered in the March quarter of 1894. That covers registrations from 1 January to 31 March, so he may well have been born towards the end of 1893 and registered a little while later. Using the reference you will find there (Births Mar 1894; Newcastle T. 10b 132) you can then get a copy of his Birth Certificate from the GRO on http://www.gro.gov.uk. If his father's name on the Birth Certificate matches his father's name on the Marriage Certificate you already have, Bingo.

That will give you his family, which you should then be able to trace all the way back to 1841 using the censuses on http://www.1901census.nationalarchives.gov.uk

(However, I'm a little worried that your man doesn't then appear at all on the 1901 Census for England and Wales. I've also looked in the 1901 Census for Scotland, at http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk, but he isn't there either. General Labourers didn't tend to be away on a world cruise on Census Day, but it does look as if he managed to slip through the net somehow).

That's just about the family stuff : I won't presume to go into the military stuff - the Pals out there are a lot more knowledgeable than I am about that.

Good luck.

Dan

[brown8348@fsmail.net]

Dan,

Thanks for the info, it seems that I made an error with the date of birth, it was as you say 1893 . I have now found him and the family.

It is the WW1 info that I am really intrested in though as I know nothing about him, his unit or where he served.

Thanks again

Chris

[Procat]

SDGW only records the death of two John Cunninghams in the Northumberland Fusiliers:

Northumberland Fusiliers, 27th Battalion (Tyneside Irish)

John Cunningham

Private, 27/849

Born Sunderland

Enlisted Newcastle-on-Tyne

Died 14 May 1916 of wounds

France & Flanders

Northumberland Fusiliers, 1/6th Battalion (Territorial)

John Cunningham

Private, 1930

Born Newcastle-on-Tyne

Enlisted Newcastle-on-Tyne

Died 09 May 1915 of wounds

France & Flanders

Doug

[brown8348@fsmail.net]

Doug,

Thanks for the info, I`ll look into it.

Regards

Chris