Seeing our ancestors

[JustJean]

How about this one....a little twist on finding a photo.....how about finding a long lost cousin who owns an identical photo to one that you own.....only she knows who it is...and you don't....and it turns out to be a photo of your GrGrGrandfather.

That happened to me after finding a distant cousin in Australia and I decided to scan off a lot of the photos I had inherited that were unlabeled. My GrGrGrandfather, Robert Sturgeon, age 34, died in in Ayr in 1879 and now I have his photograph properly recorded.

Best wishes
Jean

[Scozzie]

I'd love to find photographs of my grandfather - he was in the Cameronians (Hamilton Rifles) in WWI - any idea where I could get photographs? I have no idea of which regiment.

[DavidWW]

I'd love to find photographs of my grandfather - he was in the Cameronians (Hamilton Rifles) in WWI - any idea where I could get photographs? I have no idea of which regiment.

Scozzie

The Cameronians were the regiment, more correctly known in WWI as The Scottish Rifles (Cameronians), formed in 1881 by the amalgamation of the 26th of Foot - The Cameronian Regiment, and the 90th of Foot - Perthshire Volunteers Light Infantry.

A further complication is that although the Cameronians were raised on a hillside just outside Douglas in 1689 at Castle Dangerous, their regimental HQ had for long been in Hamilton, so maybe some confusion here creeping into the name of the regiment as it has come down to you (sadly the Cameronians were disbanded at a conventicle at the very place of their raising some 279 years earlier on 14th May 1968, after the regiment had decided to refuse the opportunity to amalgamate with another regiment in line with proposed army reforms, as it was considered to be impossible for the traditions of the Cameronians to be maintained under such conditions. The conventicle ended with the commanding officer, Lt-Col L.P.G. Dow approaching the General Officer Commanding, Scotland, Lt-Gen Sir Derek Lang, and asking for permission to disband his regiment with the immortal words "We have to go now, sir. It is time for us to go")

There is no better site on the web than http://www.regiments.org for info on the British army, and, in this case,
http://www.regiments.org/regiments/uk/inf/026Camer.htm for the Cameronians.

The complication in your case is that The Scottish Rifles, then still often referred to as The Cameronians, had 27 battalions serving in WWI

I suspect that "Cameronians (Hamilton Rifles)" were one of these regiments based initially, at least, on volunteers and/or reservists from the town of Hamilton. Which one?, - don't know.

Your 2xggrandfather's regiment may also have been a pre-1914 Territorial battalion, either the 5th, 6th, 7th, or 8th Bn The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) (Territorial Force), based in turn on the earlier late 19th century Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers.

But a browse on the www.regiments.org site will take you to http://www.1914-1918.net/scotrif.htm which appears to be a detailed listing of the battalions in WW1. There may other such useful links on www.regiments.org, - I didn't explore them all.

Via the medal cards, - now on line at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/docu ... medals.asp, - searching is free, but it costs to view the results of a search, i.e. to see the image of a medal card - or other records at TNA in Kew, or the regimental museum in Hamilton, it should be possible to establish the battalion in which your 2xggrandfather served.

David

PS The traditions of the Cameronians are strongly maintained by the Cameronians Association who hold an annual conventicle in May at Douglas. I was priviledged to be present at an "extra" conventicle held at Greyfriars Church in Edinburgh a few years ago to commemorate the hundreds of covenanters held in a prison there.

Sadly, the numbers of members of the Association who served with the regiment are decreasingly few.

As is always the case at these conventicles, the "Cameronian Psalm" - "I to the hills will lift mine eyes", - Psalm 121, - was sung.

dww

[Bertha]

We have a lovely family photograph of my gr gran with all her children and her first grandchild taken just after my gr grandfather was killed in WW1. There is also one of my gr grandfather in his khakis and plinth helmet. We think he was in the army prior to WW1 and this may have been taken in India/Africa sometime before 1910.
We have also seen a photo of my gr uncle who served in the Royal Scots and we didn't even know existed until a researcher contacted my mother.
Another heirloom is one of my husbands grandmother as a clippie on the Edinburgh Trams during WW1, the picture was taken by the Edinburgh Evening paper of the day.
Someday we will phrame these lovely old black and white photies.
Bertha

[Scozzie]

David - thank you SO much for all that info. =D> I know my grandfather was wounded and spent some time in hospital, maybe I'll find information about that too.

[joette]

I had the delight of seeing for the first time a photo of my Grandpas beloved older brother"the red-headed butcher" who was KIA in 1917.My Granpa was only 12 when his brother was killed by sniper fire when trying to recover a wounded comrade.When he had a few"wee haufs" on a Saturday in November he cried & described how the "blood was running down his kilt". I had never seen him cry before & this had a profound effect on me.
My other Granny recalled how good-looking he was as she used to eye him up on the "monkey parade" on a Sunday after Church stroll.My Grandpa was the "bairn" of the family so he had no photo of his brother.
I decided to check the local library in Clydebank for any Death Notice in the Archives.Within five minutes the Librarian could tell me that she had two notifications for him but not to get too excited as it could be a duplicate entry.I was there with bells on(luckily I was visiting Dalmuir at the time.)
There I was looking up the 1901 Census when she said"Here you are" holding out two photo-copied papers.I am not ashamed to say that I booed my eyes out when finally I looked at this handsome young man.He looked like my brothers & particularly like Ross my elder sisters youngest
son.
My Mother & I had a good"greeit" over it & we were finally able to prove to his namesake, my Uncle that he had been killed exactlly how my Grandpa described & that it wasnt him in his cups being maudlin.
As we approach Rememberance Day may we remember all those young Men & Women who gave their lives that we might maintain our freedom.
I also have photos of my Grandpas niece whom I never met but it is like looking at me in a flapper dress.I can see where my sisters got the rubbish legs from & a photo of my Mums Maternal Grandmother shows where the prominent cheeks & huge eyes come from.
There are lots of photos from my Dads side that we no clue who they are.This has encouraged me to label exactly who is who on all my photos- in the future they will hopefully say "oh theres old Auntie J. she lived to be 140 you know"
So try your local Archives you never know you might get lucky like me

[Rab]

Great stuff. Lots of brilliant finds!

@joette- That was a cracking anecdote. It must have been a very emotional find indeed.

@David- Thanks for that information too. My grandfather was in the 7th btn Cameronians between 1939 and 1942 before joing the Merchant Navy. I'll be looking into that soon so I'll keep those links in mind.

@Tracey- What a great stroke of luck. It's amazing how just a small bit of information passed down can lead to something great.

@catbug- That is a pity about the burnt photographs. I had a similar case in my family too. At least some photos were passed down though.

@ASGROOMBRIDGE- The pouches are organised by name and number but also list the sailor's brithplace and birthdate. This made be pretty sure I had the right person despite the christian name only being an initial letter. As long as you know those details it should be easy to find if it is there.

I just searched the pouches and found these 10 possibilities. Hopefully one is a match although it looks unlikely unfortunately:

R82742 MCGOWAN A 27/11/1906 LIVERPOOL
R287228 MCGOWAN A B 26/04/1924 SHREWSBURY
R336070 MCGOWAN A W J 10/12/1918 BELFAST
R339926 MCGOWAN A C 10/02/1920 GLASGOW
R596258 MCGOWAN A 02/11/1932 GREENOCK
R649849 MCGOWAN A 25/01/1940 LIVERPOOL
R727883 MCGOWAN A 26/04/1944 GREENOCK
R740650 MCGOWAN A A 05/05/1931 GLASGOW
R747288 MCGOWAN A C 03/02/1944 CHELMSFORD
R845387 MCGOWAN A 10/12/1949 LIVERPOOL

More information on the merchant navy seaman's pouches can be found here.

[ASGROOMBRIDGE]

Hi,

Thank you for that unfortuately his date of birth is 9/4/1884 but I will keep looking.

Must admit it would be worth £100 to see his picture.

regards
Audrey

[Rab]

Hi,

Thank you for that unfortuately his date of birth is 9/4/1884 but I will keep looking.

Must admit it would be worth £100 to see his picture.

regards
Audrey

Yeah I know the feeling. That are plenty of relatives I would pay good money to see a picture of. Good luck in your search.

[ASGROOMBRIDGE]

My husband has just said he has plenty he would pay good money to see the back of. lol
Audrey