Find Ancestors

After searching for many years for my father's birth certificate under the name of King, a friend found him by looking for King in other nationalities in GR, as a result I joined the Anglo-German Family History Society and received a letter from a lady who lives about 3/4 hour away by train and was a first cousin,we met and she provided me with photos of my grandparents and other family members and included a potted family history written by one of my uncles. I now have many cousins, four of whom were able to visit my home last year for a get together and two of whom had not seen each other for 40 years.
It seems in WW1 my father (who was a joiner by trade and didn't change his name from Kunz to King until 1916) was in the Army and working on the Isle of Lemnos helping to build a hospital and (Army?) huts. I cannot make any headway in getting further information and wondered if any of you had relatives who were there as well and may know if there is photographic evidence and where it could be found. Also which Regiment he might have been in.
Thanks to GR ,I am most grateful to you for helping me find my German family, my grandparents married in Battersea, London in 1883 and all their children were born in the East End.

Beth

If you give his Christian name and DOB & place of birth, and if you have his service number i will have a look on Ancestry ww1 records, unless of course you have done this already.

There are two listings for Kunz but may not be yours.

Beth

Been out all day only just seen your reply, dont worry about it, you have taken the appropriate action.I have not had any notification, so it will be ok.

Weve all pressed the wrong buttons at some time or other.
As i said dont worry about it.
I will have a look at the info you have given me, to see if i can find anything and let you know one way or another.

Regards George

Beth

The 2 Kunz names listed in the WW 1 Pensions records do not match with the details you gave me.
I have searched through the both the WW1 pension and service records for both Kunz and King , unfortunately there are no matches.

I have also looked in the medal rolls records initially for Kunz no record found.Now under King there are over 400 listed but without his service number it is not possible to find a match, but the medal rolls do not give a lot of info anyway, but would mention where he served

Just so you know only about 40% of these records survived the bombings in WW2 so it could be they were some of the ones destroyed.

Sorry but i cannot think of anywhere else where you may find the info , but i will keep looking or perhaps someone else may have some ideas.

Regards George

Beth
Thinking about it now you must have pressed the "request review " link which is at the top of each post, which is what you do if you are reporting anyone for whatever,

At least i am now in the "HALL OF FAME" being reported for something nice LOL

Keep smiling

George

I'll try and avoid that box again. I had awful visions of you being elderly with a bad heart and dying from a heart attack from the stress of my misdemeanour, so relieved you are still alive and in touch.
Can smile now!!
Beth

After not doing any research for quite a while I am back at the helm again as it were. Still trying to find details of dad's time on isle of Lemnos building hospitals and huts,guess this was c.1916 (as he was abt 27 when he joined up so I believe). Remember (when I was a child) seeing him in army uniform, think it was a professional photo, wearing peak cap and leather strap across. .? Left shoulder and ,I assume down to wait. I have come across a very small badge with what looks like a man on a horse with a sword, it is blue metal with a .bronze belt around the edge with a buckle and I have been told it might be connected to the MIddx Regiment wich could fit as his brother was in that regiment, they were considered as offspring of enemy aliens as although they wee born in the East End of London and were British citizens, their parents were German. Any help or advice would be very much appreciated. Thank you. Beth

I don't know, but I would have guessed hospital construction on Lemnos would have begun in mid-1915. Lemnos would be the nearest secure location to Gallipoli, and the campaign there was 25/4/1915 (April 25 is ANZAC day in Oz/NZ) thru 9/1/1916. Lemnos is midway between Gallipoli and Salonika - the 3 fingered peninsula sticking down into the Aegean. A front was also opened in Salonika in Oct 1915, but after the first month, the majority of hospital cases were of disease, not woundings.

Salonika
Greece was obliged by treaty to come to the aid of Serbia in the event of an Austrian attack, but King Constantine of Greece was married to the Kaiser's sister, so this didn't happen. With Russian pressure on Austria's NE border in Galacia, Serbia was able to withstand 3 separate Austrian attacks. Bulgaria, who hated Serbia, especially after the Balkan Wars. (In the 1st Balkan War (1912), Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro and Serbia combined against the Ottoman Empire, and kicked the Turks out of the Balkans; in the second Balkan War (1913), Bulgaria was dissatisfied with its share of the territory in Macedonia, and war broke out between Bulgaria and Greece-Serbia. Roumania and Turkey saw an opportunity to gain/regain territory, so they joined in against Bulgaria, too.) Anyways, Bulgaria had stayed out of WW1 but, by Oct 1915, it was clear that Bulgaria had nothing to fear from a British front in Gallipoli, so it started massing troops on the Serbian border, in conjunction with Austrian and German troops massing on their Serbian border. An Anglo-French force was rushed to Salonika. 7/10/1915 A-G invaded Serbia, 11/10/15 B invaded, 12/10/15 A-F forces moved north, but B was able to prevent join up before defeat of S, and A-F retreat back to Salonika. Abt 40% of Serbian army is able to retreat across mountains and evacuate from the Adriatic coast, initially to Corfu where it reorganized, and then on to Salonika. The Salonika front was mostly pretty quiet, with 2 exceptions. On 28/8/1916, Roumania entered the war on the allied side. 10/9/1916, an attack on Bulgaria is launched from Salonika - the left (Serbian) wing makes good progress, but the other is stalled. The offensive ends 19/11/1916 with limited gains. Roumania is knocked out of the war less than a month later, and quiet returns until the closing stages of the war. In Sept 1918, an offensive against Bulgaria is launched from Salonika, and within the month, Bulgaria is knocked out of the war.

Many thanks for your reply and the information .

Hi Beth,

I am just wondering if the Wartime memories Project might give some more information on this such as photographs and stories.

It you Google Wartime Memories Project - you will see WW1 and WW2. Try searching that and finding your way around the site. I have had great success on there with tracing my uncle.

It really is worth a visit.

Good luck

Sappho

Sappho
Thanks for this information, somewhat belatedly I am afraid. I will look into it.
Beth