Genealogy Chat

Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you Derek!!! Just in time as I was down to my last 2 credits! Thank you so much. Though my partner will be surprised to find out he had Yorkshire relatives....! Kate.

From my Soldiers Died in the fist world war, I have found him. In addition to the information you have it says he was born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire and enlisted in Leeds. At the time of Enlisting he was living in Goole, Yorks. Hope this is what you wanted. Derek

Derek - like I said, there are loads of Charles Dawsons about, and the only way I can see of finding out which is ours is going to be that 'Soldiers who died in the Great War' database on military genealogy website, but it just annoys me that I might have to spend so much money finding the right entry on there. But thanks for your offer anyway. Janice - if I started asking people to look stuff up at Kew for me, I don't know where I'd stop!! That one would be way way down the list anyway. I have a great-grandfather who was a master mariner and his son who had a very mysterious First World War career, and a great-great-grandfather who was in the Royal Navy but must have joined before the start of those records that they have put online, and various great-great-uncles who were master mariners, so I would ask for all those before starting on some distant relative of my partner's! As for that 1914-1918 website, whenever I have put requests for help on there before I haven't got anything useful out of it, but I suppose I could try again with this one.... Thanks everybody for your suggestions. Kate.

Hi Kate, Try putting a lookup request on records office board. Some kind person who is going to Kew might be willing to look him up for you. Janice

Kate Have you looked at this site? www*1914-1918*net/died*htm It might give you some clues or links to other places you might be able to search Lou

Kate - if he was killed in 1917, and had been promoted to lance-corp, I would have expected him to have been in 1901 census. I know lots of young men were anxious to do their bit and lied about their age, but even if he was born a month after 1901 census, he would only have been 16 years old! Jay

No, I think his death was listed in the 'War deaths' in the overseas section. Unfortunately his age isn't given in the war deaths index. I was assuming that he started as a private and was promoted to lance corporal before his death in 1917. By the way, would this have been possible if he was born after the 1901 census, or do you think he must have been older than that? In which case, he must be a more distant relative than we thought...! And if I could only find out his details, it might open up a lot of that part of the tree. Kate.

Kate - can't help much, but read your thread with great interest. Is it Charles’ death recorded on died overseas index? I thought there was a special index for war dead – as you know regiment, service no & year of death, this may help you identify Charles & would, presumably, give you AGE at death but not place of birth. That may help you narrow it down a bit. Like me, you have a soldier recorded with different ranks, according to whether you look at CWGC or medals card list. (Mine is sergeant on CWGC but private on medals list - however the private had 2 diff service nos & 1 is same as sergeants so think mine are one and the same man.) Perhaps someone could give us both some advice on how to deal with rank discrepancy! Good luck Jay

I don't know whether anybody can help me with this, but... my partner says his father (now deceased) once told him that a Charles Dawson who was somehow related to them died in the First World War and was in the Cameron Highlanders. I have found the entry on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website: Casualty Details Name: DAWSON, CHARLES Initials: C Nationality: United Kingdom Rank: Lance Corporal Regiment: Cameron Highlanders Unit Text: 5th Bn. Date of Death: 12/10/1917 Service No: S/25497 Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead Grave/Memorial Reference: Panel 136 to 138. Cemetery: TYNE COT MEMORIAL We downloaded his medal card from the National Archives, which doesn't add much to it except it gives his rank as Pte. I found out about a website called Military Genealogy, which gives extra details of soldiers who died in WW1 including place of birth and place of residence, so I bought 10 credits on there for £5, searched for Charles or C Dawson, and it came back with more than 30 matches. The matches are listed giving name, birthplace and residence but not date of death - you have to use a credit to view each one and then you will see date of death! Even if you exclude those with a middle name there are about 20. All the Dawsons in the family tree that we know of came from Cumberland or Northumberland, but there are none from those places on the website except one from Northamptonshire who is listed as Northumberland in error. I've looked at all the Lancashire ones but none matches for date of death. If I look at all the rest I will use up all my credits and have to buy another ten. It seems ridiculous, since date of death is available free on the CWGC anyway. I sent them a query about it last week but so far I have just had a reply from a member of the technical staff saying he will pass it onto somebody else. We also looked it up on the overseas deaths on 1837 online and found the entry but it was no help. I don't really want to buy the death cert if I can help it. My partner's ancestor was Mary Dawson, and she had 3 brothers who were all unmarried in 1901. All their names are too common to pick out their marriage, and looking for Charles Dawson births is also pointless as there is no way of knowing which is the right one. I just wonder if anybody knows how to find out his birthplace and / or residence (without going to Kew?) Sorry it has taken so long to type all this in! Thanks if you have persevered with reading it all! Kate.

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