Our expert Stephen Rigden, pictured, answers your questions.

From Edward James Pace:

‘I’m having problems trying to find details of the death of my grandfather and, naturally, his parents. I have submitted his details in various searches and can get no results:

William Frederick Pace, born in 1876, joined the army in 1893, left the army in 1911 and rejoined in 1914. His service no. was G/27234 and he served in the Middlesex Regiment as a Sergeant.

William married Henrietta Mann in 1904. Their children were William, Thomas, Edward, Alice, Millicent and Emily. He died in 1918 – he was killed or wounded in France/Germany and cremated in England.

One would think that there is sufficient detail to find all about him easily but I’ve had no joy. I’d really appreciate if you can assist me in my frustrations.’

Steve says:

‘With other ranks – NCOs and privates – it is always a good idea to consider possible variations on given names, especially the loss of a middle name. I found that your grandfather died not in France and Flanders but here in the UK – in fact, his death was registered as plain William Pace in Croydon. This is good news in the sense that it means you can use the reference given in the March quarter 1919 civil death index to order a copy of his death certificate.

He appears on the official Commonwealth War Graves Commission website simply as W Pace; he died on 13 February 1919 and is buried in Islington Cemetery. The fact that he died in England also explains why he may not appear in some of the other WW1 record sources such as Soldiers Died in the Great War, available on findmypast.co.uk

Interestingly, the individual I believe to be your grandfather appears on the 1911 census as William Edward (not William Frederick) Pace. He is with the 2nd Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment at Guadeloupe Barracks, Bordon, near Aldershot. He is aged 36 and his birthplace is recorded as St Pancras. As you may know, soldiers and their wives and children ‘on the strength’ are on separate ‘military establishment’ census returns in the 1911 census.

In your grandfather’s case, his wife Henrietta (born in Clerkenwell) is shown together with three children William, Edward and Emily respectively born in Thayetmyo (Burma), Kassauli (India) and Alderney (Channel Islands), which shows something of your grandfather’s military career in the years up to 1911.

Your grandfather, however, does not appear to have been born in St Pancras as there is no corresponding entry in our fully indexed births nor, for that matter, an obvious entry for a person of his name born in St Pancras in the 1881, 1891 or 1901 censuses.

Further research shows that he married in July 1905 and was born in Shoreditch to parents Edward Pace, a carpenter, born in Shoreditch circa 1844/45, and Emma Burchell, born circa 1853/54 in Kentish Town, who were married in June quarter 1872 in St Pancras registration district. Hopefully with this extra information, you will be able to start researching your family tree further back in time more successfully.’

If you’d like to send your question to Steve, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account.

We’ve picked the winner of our August competition in which we asked you to tell us the first names of the only person with the last name ‘Doctor’ in our Medical Register 1913.

Congratulations go to Rita Pettet from Poole who correctly answered ‘John Alexander’. Rita wins a copy of Pitfalls and Possibilities in Family History Research by Pauline M Litton. Congratulations Rita!

Thanks to all of you who entered - you’ll find September’s competition question in our newsletter this Friday.

If anyone else out there would like to buy a copy of Pitfalls and Possibilities in Family History Research, please visit www.pitfallsandpossibilities.co.uk to order your copy now. This book is ideal for anyone having trouble finding their ancestors as it suggests lesser-known resources and avenues to explore which could solve your family history puzzles.

Another weekend and another family history fair for findmypast.co.uk! Fantastic to see so many of our customers at the Bristol and Avon Family History Society Open Day on Saturday - hope you all had an enjoyable day.

Thanks to everyone who entered our competition. We can now reveal the names of our three lucky winners…

Winner of a 12 month Full subscription: Maggie Hammett

Winners of two 6 month Full subscriptions: Garry Checksfield and Lorraine Clark

Congratulations!

A big thank you to all of you who came to visit the findmypast.co.uk stand at Saturday’s National Family History Fair in Newcastle and to those of you who entered our competition. We’ve rummaged around in our competition box and can now reveal our lucky winners!

Winner of a 12 month Full subscription: Peter Salter

Winners of two 6 month Full subscriptions: Joanna Drewery and Judith Hulme

Congratulations to all of you and we hope you enjoy your subscriptions!

Find your ancestors in 223,395 new burial records for Devon on findmypast.co.uk

The records cover the period 1813-1837 and were supplied by the Devon Family History Society.

We add thousands of new records each month to our exclusive parish records collection.

This unique record set has been made available on findmypast.co.uk in association with the Federation of Family History Societies member societies and other organisations and contributors.

Search our Devon parish burial records today to find your ancestors.

I joined findmypast.co.uk in August after seven years in India managing a team of software engineers. That’s probably about as far detached from family history as it gets. On the other hand, I have over 25 years’ experience researching British military history and have a number of military-related blogs including one on army service numbers between 1881 and 1918, a subject very close to my heart.

Paul Nixon with son Tauran

Findmypast.co.uk’s publication of the Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records (WO97) opens up a vast new range of military records dating from 1760 to 1913. What’s more, the records are in excellent condition and have been scanned in colour, which really makes them come alive.

The beauty of the WO97 series is that the records encompass many different numbering systems. My own data has focused on the numbering system introduced in 1881 as part of Cardwell’s reforms, but WO97 goes back a full 120 years before this, enabling today’s patient historian to really study British military history in depth. In terms of military campaigns, in this series alone you’ll find records of men who fought at Waterloo alongside those who fought the rebels in the Indian Mutiny; Egypt and Sudan campaign veterans, Boer War veterans; in fact records of ordinary soldiers who took part in virtually every British military campaign between 1760 and 1913.

I list below sample records for the 1st and 2nd (regular) battalions of The King’s Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment). The regiment was formed on 1 July 1881 from the 4th (King’s Own Royal) Regiment of Foot and was established as the newly formed regiment for North Lancashire. It started numbering from 1 in July 1881.

Use the information below to narrow down the date on which your ancestor joined this regiment. For instance, if he had the number 444, and was soldiering with the King’s Own in the late 19th Century, he must have joined between 2nd June 1883 and 21st March 1884.

A word of warning, however. Numbering in the British Army is far from a simple matter and regiments could and did start new number series for other battalions - or indeed the same battalions - within the regiment. For instance, by 1908, the King’s Own had five battalions and the number 444 had already been used four times, once for the 1st and 2nd Battalions, once for the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion, and once each for the 4th and 5th Territorial battalions.

The King’s Own - Regular enlistments 1881-1913

10 joined on 9 July 1881
271 joined on 16 December 1882
397 joined on 2 June 1883
599 joined on 21 March 1884
1012 joined on 12 March 1885
1632 joined on 22 July 1886
1923 joined on 1 January 1887
2300 joined on 19 January 1888
2561 joined on 15 January 1889
2981 joined on 11 June 1890
3244 joined on 24 June 1891
3506 joined on 31 January 1892
4061 joined on 24 July 1893
4317 joined on 17 February 1894
4650 joined on 12 January 1895
5019 joined on 29 January 1896
5311 joined on 3 May 1897
5671 joined on 14 April 1898
5923 joined on 24 March 1899
6288 joined on 2 April 1900

The 1st Volunteer Battalion, The King’s Own, sent over 150 of its volunteers to South Africa to serve with the 2nd Battalion. Such was the number of men wishing to serve with the Volunteers that a 2nd Volunteer Battalion was formed and its headquarters was set up at Lancaster. Those volunteers who made it to South Africa fought in several actions and guarded prisoners at Ladysmith.

Numbers within the range to 7200 to 7352 were issued to men serving in the 1st VSC. Numbers 7353 to 7448 were issued to men serving with the 2nd VSC. Numbers 7449 to 7468 were issued to men serving with the 3rd VSC and - as stated on the QSA medal roll - the Volunteer Service Section.

6665 joined on 4 January 1901
7003 joined on 17 February 1902
7652 joined on 5 January 1903
8079 joined on 11 January 1904
8489 joined on 9 January 1905
8847 joined on 9 March 1906
9134 joined on 1 January 1907
9800 joined on 20 August 1908
10076 joined on 21 April 1909
10178 joined on 14 February 1910
10439 joined on 20 April 1911
10649 joined on 3 May 1912
10836 joined on 3 January 1913

I hope you enjoy searching findmypast.co.uk’s Chelsea Pensioners collection for your military ancestors.

Actor Alan Cumming featured in the final episode of Who Do You Think You Are? last night. Alan’s maternal grandfather, Thomas Darling, had always been a bit of a mystery, a ‘black hole’ in Alan’s family history. The family story was that Thomas had died in a shooting accident but Alan had heard a rumour that his death wasn’t an accident at all. Alan embarked on a journey to discover the truth.

Alan Cumming

Alan was born in Scotland 1965. Growing up he was close to his mother Mary Darling and her mother Margaret Noble. Alan started his journey by visiting his mother in Dundee to find out what she knew.

Tom Darling was Mary’s father, Alan’s grandfather. Alan found out that he left home and joined the army when he was 17. Tom was stationed in Inverness where he met and married Margaret. Tom then went to France and Burma as a courier. Alan read Tom’s service record which described him as ‘an excellent type’.

Alan travelled to Edinburgh to find out more about his grandfather’s early military career. Tom worked as a cook and was described as a ‘reliable worker’, another testament to his excellent service.

When Tom was 24 he served as a despatch rider in the army in France, acting as a crucial line of communication between battalion headquarters and the front line. He was awarded a military medal in 1940 for his great courage and the fact that he showed no regard for his own personal safety.

Alan travelled to France to find out exactly what his grandfather did to win the medal.

Alan read Tom’s battalion report which described the many journeys he made on his motorbike along a ‘fire-swept’ road. This road had no cover and Tom risked his life repeatedly among the mortar and machine gun fire to get the message to the battalion headquarters.

Tom was eventually evacuated from Dunkirk, leaving behind many comrades who were either trapped or dead. Alan thought that this experience must have psychologically damaged his grandfather.

Back in London, Alan looked for clues about what happened to Tom when he returned from France. Tom served in times when post-traumatic stress disorder wasn’t recognised, let alone treated, and Tom had no real chance to recover. Two years after returning from France, Tom was sent to India where in 1944 he fought against the Japanese army in a fierce battle.

Alan read Tom’s medical history and found out that Tom was admitted to hospital for a gunshot wound after this battle. Tom was ill for many months, and his medical history didn’t make it clear what had actually happened to him. Alan thought it was possible that Tom was admitted to a psychiatric ward during this time, as it was common for these records to be deliberately destroyed. There was such a stigma attached to mental illness at this time that it was covered up wherever possible.

Alan’s next stop was to visit Bristol to meet David, a soldier who fought with his grandfather in 1944. David said that the soldiers all looked up to Tom as a kind of mentor. David described Tom as big, strong, tough and someone you didn’t argue with. David said he genuinely respected Tom.

In 1945 Tom returned to Britain from India to visit his wife and children. They didn’t know it at the time, but this would be the last time they ever saw him.

Tom left the army in 1949 then joined the police force in Malaya, now Malaysia. Alan learned that his grandparents were recorded as ‘separated’ at this time and felt that this could have been the reason that Tom decided to go to Malaya. Tom sent money home to the family but didn’t visit them again.

Within seven months of being in Malaya, 35 year old Tom died in 1951. No records of his death existed in Britain so Alan travelled to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia to find out once and for all how he died. The official record of Tom’s death from the Malaysian National Archives stated that Tom died from a gunshot wound to head. Alan wanted to know if it was suicide or murder.

Alan travelled to Cha’ah, south of Kuala Lumpur, for more answers. He spoke to Roy, a police officer in Malaya at the same time as Tom. Roy wasn’t there when Tom died but he told Alan the story he’d heard - that Tom died during a game of Russian roulette. Roy believed that Tom wouldn’t have deliberately killed himself and that either he got careless or ran out of luck.

This revelation deeply shocked Alan and he questioned Tom’s state of mind to play Russian roulette on what Roy described as a regular basis.

Alan then spoke to two brothers who had been children when Tom lived in Malaya. They said the people loved Tom very much and that their father, Tom’s friend, named a park and a road in Cha’ah after him: ‘Darling Walk’. The brothers took Alan to see this road and to the place where Tom played Russian roulette the day he died.

A police telegram confirmed that Tom died during a game of Russian roulette. The letter the police sent to Tom’s wife described his death as a terrible accident. She never knew what really killed him, and Alan finally located the source of the family legend that Tom’s death was a shooting accident.

We’ve been busy publishing 303,594 new parish records on findmypast.co.uk to make it even more likely that you’ll find your ancestors in our records. Read on for more details…

271,193 new Devon marriage records added to findmypast.co.uk

Following the 360,000 Devon baptism records recently published on findmypast.co.uk, we’ve just added 271,193 new Devon parish marriage records to the site.

The records cover the years 1754 to 1837 and were provided by the Devon Family History Society.

Add to your family tree by searching our parish marriage records now.

32,401 Calderdale baptism and burial records added to findmypast.co.uk

We’ve also just published 32,401 baptism and burial records for Calderdale on findmypast.co.uk

Here is a breakdown of these records:

Calderdale Family History Society provided findmypast.co.uk with these records.

Find your ancestors today by searching our parish baptisms and burials.

Parish records are essential when trying to find your ancestors and you can view records from as far back as 1538 on findmypast.co.uk

The findmypast.co.uk team are committed to regularly adding thousands of records to our parish records collection. We hope you enjoy searching these records.

Don’t miss the last episode in the series of Who Do You Think You Are? tonight at 9pm on BBC1.

Tonight actor Alan Cumming traces his Scottish ancestry and learns about the mysterious circumstances surrounding his maternal grandfather’s death. Alan’s grandfather was only 35 when he died in Malaysia and tonight Alan discovers the unexpected truth behind how his grandfather actually died.

Alan Cumming

Hugh Quarshie’s extraordinary journey into his past last night was intriguing. His evocative story began after discovering that he might have Dutch ancestry. Naturally, he was curious to find out where the bloodline originated from.

Hugh Quarshie (copyright wookie1138)

The Holby city actor was born in Ghana in 1954 and moved to Britain with his parents when he was three years old. His father was a diplomat and his mother was a school teacher. His mother often called herself the Duchess of Abii and nobody in the family ever knew what she meant by that, or what the Royal connection was. It had remained a mystery for many years.

Hugh travelled to Ghana to find more about his mixed heritage. He began by visiting his uncle Jimmy on his 88th birthday. Jimmy is the son of Hugh’s maternal grandfather, William Reginald Phillips. Hugh was shown an intriguing wedding photograph which depicted the Phillips family as being quite wealthy and well dressed in English attire. The image was starkly contrasted, showing an exotic African family looking entirely Edwardian. William Reginald Phillips, it turns out was a successful businessman. Hugh was puzzled as to where William might have got the money to set up a business. He also discovered from Jimmy that William’s mother was called Anna Kamerling. She was half Dutch and lived in a small town called Elmina.

Hugh then travelled to Elmina to find out more about Anna Kamerling. He met some new relatives there, including his Aunt Gertrude who told Hugh that his grandfather’s half brother had been the Chief of Abii. Hugh was astonished that there might be some truth in his mother’s royal claim after all. He then visited the village of Abii to delve deeper. Hugh was told that the village Chieftancy was in dispute and that he must tread carefully. He was introduced to the acting Chief, who told Hugh that a Pieter Kamerling bought the village of Abii for his wife and children. Pieter Kamerling, a Dutch civil service Commander, had married local woman Efua Jensch. The Chief informed Hugh that as he is a ‘son of Kamerling’, he has a right to the stool and claim to the Chieftancy. Hugh politely declined.

After uncovering the Dutch side of his family, Hugh decided to travel to the Netherlands to take his research one step further and find out more about Pieter. Michel Doortmont, an associate professor in International Relations and Africa Studies at the University of Groningen, revealed that everything Hugh had been told by the Chief in Abii was true. Pieter did apply to be a civil servant in what was then called Equatorial Guinea. The records show that he did arrive in Almina in 1856, where he lived for 12 years. After falling seriously ill he returned to the Netherlands but left his family behind. Hugh was shown another record in which Pieter listed the name of his wife – the crucial bit of the puzzle. Her name was listed as Ellen van der Spek rather than Effua, though Michel informed Hugh that it’s likely that Ellen and Effua were in fact the same person.

Hugh was then put in touch with Pieter’s relative Eric Kamerling to shed some more light on Pieter’s life. To Hugh’s astonishment, Eric was able to show him the same photographs he saw in Ghana and also confirmed that Pieter did marry Effua but that she had used a different name. Hugh was shown a photograph of her and told more about Pieter’s life, including the fact that he left everything in his will to his children. This was clearly what helped them set up their trading company and also explains why the family were so well dressed in the wedding photograph.

Overall, it was a thrilling story in which all the dots were vividly connected. We’d love to know what you thought of the episode too!