Find Ancestors

One last try while it is on top.
Cheers Kevin C

Thanks everyone who has replied .
I have a few leads here in Australia that have appeared over the last few days. I will look into hiring a researcher once I have a few more concrete details.
Cheers Kevin C

No, you have to get someone to go for you.

AnnieLaurie thanks for the reply.
I think it is looking more like I will have to get someone to pay a visit to Kew on the of chance that he was on a pension. If the pension payments are alpha and not regimental I should be able to find him as you say.
Do they have a lookup service that I can use from Australia?
Cheers Kevin C

If he may have got an Army pension from the British Army - although unlikely if the family story is true!, the easiest way to find his regiment would be to search the records for pensions paid to those living overseas. These are held at Kew - not online - you'd have to go there or get someone to go for you.

I don' t think you will find him named anywhere on line Kevin, you're right they just did not get their names in print.

I had the papers of a rellie who was in the Anglo Boer War found at Kew but you have to actually physically look for them there. If you could identify all the imperial military units that were in NZ at the time you would have to find what records there might be for them and search by hand I fear.

Having a deserter for an ancestor is a pain too as they did not stick around to pick up whatever medals may have been awarded for the campaign so they do not appear in medial records. It happened to me with a rellie who deserted and while there are lovely medal lists for that campaign easily searchable, he isn't there, lol.

Thanks Bruce
I am bogged down in some of the address's you mentioned. I think this will be a long search.
If he was an officer I could find him in a flash but alas he was only a lowly "other rank" and they are not always listed.Hard to believe as they did all the work.
Cheers Kevin

You probably know this part but this seems to be the period you are looking at

http://history-nz.org/timeline.html

1860 War in Taranaki, resulting from the Waitara dispute.
1863 War recommences in Taranaki.The New Zealand Settlements Act is passed to push through land confiscation.
1864 The Waikato war ends. Land in Waikato, Taranaki, Bay of Plenty and Hawke's Bay is confiscated.
1865 Māori resistance continues.
1868 Māori resistance continues under the leadership of Te Kooti Arikirangi and Titokowaru.
1870 The last of the British Imperial Forces leave New Zealand.

I wonder whether something like the document accessible here would name the British regiments involved

http://www.doc.govt.nz/publications/conservation/historic/by-region/waikato/the-waikato-war-of-186364/

This site refers to the 65th regiment being there 1846-65 but implies that there were others

http://hicketypip.tripod.com/history.htm

also referred to here

http://www.newzealandwars.co.nz/
Invasion of the Waikato 1863-64
"The defining war of the New Zealand Wars. Massive British Army invasion in July 1863 of the Maori King Tawhiao’s ancestral home area, the Waikato. Commanding the British was Lieutenant General Duncan Cameron, a veteran of the Crimean War."
and there is an email contact address at that site for someone who could possibly help

Australians who enlisted, doesn't help you

http://www.hughesmob.id.au/Waikato/c_waik.htm

Another regiment here the 58th

http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~garter1/lepper.htm
"After considerable service there, the 58th was shipped to New Zealand in 1863 to participate In the Waikato War against The Maori. "

It might be worth getting hold of a copy of the book "The Colonial New Zealand Wars"

http://hicketypip.tripod.com/pictureg/nzwarscover.htm

or just doing a lot more googling to find out what regiments were there, lol.

David was born in Albourne ,England 1846 he died at Quakers Hill NSW in 1938, according to his death cert he had been in the "colony of NSW "for 75 years!!!!! this would put him in NZ around 1864 give or take a few years. I have no idea where he enlisted. Was it possible to enlist in Australia, for the fight in NZ,in the British army ?
He lived at Glen Innes for years, and in those days that was a long way from anyone looking for deserters from the British army.
As I said this is only a piece of family folk lore at this stage. The only reason I am following it up is because it keeps cropping up from other sources that have less info than me.
Without a regiment or # I realize it will be hard to prove this one.
Cheers Kevin

It would help if you could say where and when he was born,and where he might have enlisted.
Also by adding OZ and or NZ to your title it will attract our friends down under to try and help.

How do I find a regiment/regimental # of the above person .
Family tale is that he fought in New Zealand in the late 1800's and jumped ship in Australia and was granted a pardon prior to his death in 1938 in NSW.
I just go around in circles on the National Archive site is there any easier sites to find his regiment and #.
Cheers Kevin Comber
Perth, Australia