Looking for traces of my Grandfather's 2 brothers

[DavidWW]

Hi Jean,
I am a neophyte at this research. I have only been finding my way around scotlandspeople for one week. I had missed the fact that deaths as late as the 1950's were registered. With your help I went straight to it. It has given me quite a few new clues. Thanks ever so much. alysone

Hi Alysone

You could usefully also have a look at The Great War forum at http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forum ... hp?act=idx

You'll find everyone there as helpful as here!!

David

[alysone]

Hi everyone,
It really is amazing what one is capable of with the right encouragement! I found the National Archives site bewildering when I went in the past searching for my G Uncles. Today I just kept on until I found them. (Money well spent, if I ever saw it.) Now the next step might be to try the Great War Forum and see if all those little notations on the index cards may say something about their campaigns and where they fell?
Thanks to Jean's point in the direction of death certificates on SP, I found both my Great Grandparents. Sadly, I also now know that James left a young wife and a daughter, who he never saw. She died at 11 months of meningitis, 2 months after his own death. Sigh. Somehow though there is comfort in knowing all this, isn't there?
You folks are whizzes. Thanks a lot. alysone

[JustJean]

Hi alysone

It's wonderful to hear that you're getting along so well.

As for uncovering the past and the heartaches that sometimes go with it....we've all been there! It takes courage sometimes when in the short time span of one evening you can go from the joy of a birth to the tragedy of an untimely death....virtually re-living an ancestors life and realizing the associated impacts it had on the surrounding family at the time. Family history isn't an easy sport!......but it does have enormous rewards......and it's especially nice when there are places like TalkingScot where you can hang out with other folks from around the world who are just like you

Keep up your good work!

Best wishes
Jean

[DavidWW]

Hi everyone,
It really is amazing what one is capable of with the right encouragement! I found the National Archives site bewildering when I went in the past searching for my G Uncles. Today I just kept on until I found them. (Money well spent, if I ever saw it.) Now the next step might be to try the Great War Forum and see if all those little notations on the index cards may say something about their campaigns and where they fell? ...........

They do, they do!

I'd suggest posting the medal card images here (you can use the Adobe "Save As" function to save them as a TIFF image file, then resabe as a JPEG file if you need to get below the 100kb Great War Forum image file size limit) but if the medals are are for anything other then F&F (France & Flanders) then you're better on the the TGW Forum.

David

[Pandabean]

but if the medals are are for anything other then F&F (France & Flanders) then you're better on the the TGW Forum.

Most medals were given out for service on the western front. Depending on when your Great Uncles served. If they joined up in 1914 and were in France and Belgium before the end of 1914 they would be entitled to the 1914 star. For the 1914-15 star they could have served anywhere during the war for entitlement to this medal up the end of 1915.

The most common medals awarded to soliders were the Brittish War Medal and the Victory Medal. Usually these are together.

The next most common medal form is the "Trio" which is the 1914-15 star, BWM and VM.

The little numbers on the Medal Index Card (MIC) relate to the pages within the medal rolls, which as far as I am aware can be looked at at the NA and detail where the medals were sent.

[LesleyB]

Hi all
This page is quite good for a summary of the likely contents of a medal card:
http://www.1914-1918.net/mics.htm

Best wishes
Lesley

[alysone]

Hi everyone, I have uploaded both brothers index cards. Alysone

http://talkingscot.com/gallery/displayi ... ?pos=-1187
http://talkingscot.com/gallery/displayi ... ?pos=-1188

Gallery URLs added - AndrewP