Posts tagged ‘India’
My Great Grand-uncle Thomas Hall
My next goal with this blog is to research and document the lives of the children of William and Lydia Hall and of William and Mary Cumming Hall. I am going to start with William and Lydia’s first child, Thomas, who was born in Bangalore, India, on March 24, 1866. Thomas was to be the brother of Jane Isabella Hall Gray, my great grand-mother.
After returning to Perth from India, Thomas (14 years old) is listed in the 1881 Scotland Census, with his parents, his siblings who were also born in India, James and Jane, and his two sisters who were born in Perth, Louisa and Lydia. The family was living at 39 Cross Street in Perth, Perthshire, Scotland. Thomas was a scholar, as were James and Jane.
In the 1891 Scotland Census, Thomas was 24 years old and living with his father William, his step-mother Mary Cumming, his siblings James and Jane who had been born in India, his sisters Louisa and Lydia who had been born in Perth, and his step-sisters Isabella and Elizabeth who had also been born in Perth. Thomas was unmarried and was a railroad telegraph clerk. He is listed as born in India and also as a British subject.
Thomas is not found in the 1901 Census. He is found in the 1911 Census living with his sister Jane and her husband John Gray, but more about that later. The Google map below shows Cross Street in Perth where Thomas lived with his family in 1881. The red teardrop with an A on it marks the Hall house. Before enlarging, look on the right hand side to see the Tay River which runs through Perth. Click on the plus sign to the left until you see the name Cross Street. You should also be able to Promarium Street, which is where the Halls lived after Thomas joined the army.
Early Assignments
In an earlier post, I listed the places where William was stationed before his regiment (69th Foot) went to India. The Nafziger Collection adds more detail to the information I found in William’s pension records and also contain a few contradictions.
Remember that William attested into the Army in Perth in 1854 when he was only seventeen years old. The rest of the information in this paragraph come from the Nafziger Collection. Since he was underage, he did not receive his first assignment with the 69th Regiment until 1855 when he went to Barbados in the West Indies (part of the British Empire). His regiment then went to the Madras Presidency in India from 1857 to 1859. From September, 1859, to 1862, the men were in Burma, living in the cities of Tonghoo (or Toungoo or Taungoo) and Moulmein. Rangoon is mentioned in the history of the 69th Regiment but not in the Nafziger Collection.
An Important Find – Private William Hall
As a beginner in genealogy, I have not done a lot of research on my own. I have cousins on both sides of my family that had already researched 
most of my two family trees. But today I think I may have made an important discovery on my own. I found what might be the military service record of my great great grandfather William Hall. William was serving in the British Army in India when he married my great great grandmother Lydia Selina Ramsbottom.
I found the record on Find My Past UK. This is a site on which you have to pay for records, but they are not too expensive and you can buy credits using your American credit card. It costs about $15 for 60 credits, and to download William’s service record (6 pages) cost 5 credits.
At first I wasn’t sure if I had the right William Hall, but as I carefully looked at the six pages that seem to be William’s discharge papers, I found so many correct names and dates that I became sure the record was his. The records listed all the dates he had been at various assignments in India. When I looked at the birth records (found on Family Search) of his four children, the dates and places of their births matched the dates of his military assignment. I’ll have much more to share about William as I continue to examine his records, but for now, I am just basking in the joy of discovery!
