Oops - I goofed!

I goofed. I assumed something when I should have known better. And my goof almost made me miss out on something genealogically important.

Several years ago I found a record for my 5th Great-Grandfather Thomas Blanden. He was recorded in Royal Hospital, Chelsea: Discharge Documents of Pensioners as being discharged from the British military in 1787 and was listed as a Chelsea Pensioner. 

Discharge Certificate Thomas Blanden
Royal Hospital, Chelsea
Discharge Documents of Pensioners

 I sent for the record and wrote about it on Olive Tree Genealogy blog in Ordering Documents Online from National Archives in Kew England - a Comedy of Errors Part 1 and Ordering Documents from National Archives in Kew - a Comedy of Errors Part 2 

The record consisted of his Discharge Certificate and it recorded him as age 48 and having served as a Drummer in the Suffolk Militia for 28 years. 

A few days ago I wrote about Thomas in a post called 52 Ancestors: 5th Great Grandpa Ordered Out of His Parish with Wife and Family in 1778 After reading the article,  Martha W. wrote to tell me that she found Thomas in Ancestry.com's online Chelsea Pensioner records. I knew Ancestry had these records but I had never searched them. I assumed they were the same records I'd already obtained from the National Archives in England. 

That's right. I'm an experienced researcher but I pulled a novice mistake by assuming two record sets were identical instead of going and checking.
 
You probably know where I'm heading with this story. Martha had kindly provided me with a direct link so on a whim I clicked through. I was positive I would find the same discharge papers I already had.

Royal Hospital Chelsea Pensioner Registers of Soldiers Who Served in Canada, 1743-1882

To my surprise (and delight!) the Ancestry records are not identical. In fact they are a set of records called Royal Hospital Chelsea Pensioner Registers of Soldiers Who Served in Canada, 1743-1882. And there was Thomas. He  is recorded as a Drummer,  age 48  and being pensioned after 28 years because he was "worn out" and had "bad eyes". These records gave me new information - that he had at some time been sent to Canada during his military life as a Drummer. His place of birth in Suffolk England was also recorded. It also gives me more detail to add to Thomas so that I have a better glimpse of him as a person not just a name.  

And now I have a new area of research open to me - to find out more about the movements and battles of the Suffolk Militia from 1759 to 1787 which was when Thomas served. I would really like to find out when he was in Canada and what battles he might have been part of. 

I am still reeling from having pulled such a bad mistake - that of assuming I knew what was in a set of records. It's not like I'm a novice genealogist. I've been researching for over 35 years and have been published in scholarly genealogical journals. One of the traits I pride myself on is being meticulous in my research and leaving no stone unturned. 

I goofed this time. This was a big rock and I am not sure if I would have turned it if Martha had not written. I hope I would have, eventually. In any case I have learned a valuable lesson (which I thought I already knew) - never assume! 

Credits: "Oops" by digitalart on FreeDigitalPhotos.net

52 Ancestors: 5th Great Grandpa Ordered Out of His Parish with Wife and Family in 1778

I'm writing about my 5th great-grandfather Thomas Blanden as part of Amy Crow's Challenge: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

On 18 MAY 1778, a Removal Order was served on my 5th Great Grandfather THOMAS BLANDON, DRUMMER in the Western Battalion Militia of Suffolk. Thomas, Mary, his wife, and their children Mary, Elizabeth, Ann, Thomas & Susannah were ordered removed from St. James, Bury St. Edmunds and sent to Wenhaston. [Source: Removal Order FC189/G4/14. Suffolk, Ipswich Branch, WENHASTON PARISH RECORDS Date: 1778]

The basis for Removal Orders was the fact that each parish was responsible for any poor citizens. If a person or their family was too much of a drain on the parish resources, they could toss them out and have them sent back to their parish of birth. 

If a person entered a parish in which he did not have official settlement, and if it seemed likely he might become chargeable to the new parish, then an examination would be made by the justices or parish overseers. From this examination on oath, the justices would determine if that person had the means to sustain himself and, if not, which was that person's parish of settlement. As a result of the examination the intruder would then either be allowed to stay, or would be removed by a Removal Order.

Chelsea Pensioner Thomas Blandon

Removal Orders would often take a person or a family back to a place of settlement miles across the country, sometimes to a parish they had only known briefly as a small child. It was not uncommon for a husband and wife to have their children taken from them, each being removed to separate scattered parishes.

In Thomas' case, he and his wife and 5 children ages 1 to 13, were sent back to Wenhaston where Thomas was born. So far no records have turned up to indicate how the family fared, but 9 years later, in 1787, Thomas was pensioned out of the Army, having served 28 years as a Drummer. This entitled him, as a Chelsea Pensioner, to receive a small amount of  money. I wish I knew what happened to Thomas and his wife Mary Jackson but I've not found any more records for them.

Ordering Documents from National Archives in Kew - a Comedy of Errors Part 2

Continued from A Comedy of Errors Part 1

I was now ready to fill out the online Request Form and order my ancestor's Chelsea Pensioner Records.


This is where it got a bit confusing. The fields were filled in for me with the Catalogue Reference Number and Details "Customer requested item reference WO 121/1/38 (part of document WO 121/1)"

My uncertainty was over how I could make sure I received all pages (images) for my ancestor Thomas Blandon? It was noted that his record was Image 170 but having had experience ordering other documents such as petitions, I knew that very often there were several pages (images) associated with one individual.

The detail box says "Or, give us details of the information you're seeking from the document. For example, name, service number, regiment, dates, ship's name, places etc."

So I decided to check "Copy all pages in this document" and add a note in the details box which stated that I was only interested in the images for Thomas Blandon whose document started on Image 170.

(This is where I believe I made my mistake. I failed to note the word "Or" which was not highlighted in red as I have made it here. So by ticking the radio button beside "copy all pages in this document" I inadvertently had made a choice of one or the other. I did not realize I couldn't add a note in the detail box! If I had simply written out what I wanted in the detail box, and NOT ticked off the "Copy all pages..." I believe I would have received just the papers on Thomas Blandon)

Next I received the following confirmation email:

Dear Lorine

This email is to confirm we have received your order for document copying.Please save or print this email or make a note of the following details. You should quote your order number in all correspondence and queries.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Order number: Cxxxxxx
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your copies will be produced with the following options:
Medium option: Digital Images
Colour option: Monochrome
Delivery option: By email

Documents to copy:
1. WO 121/1

Charge: £28.00
Transaction Number: R/09/xxxxxx
Payment Method: E-commerce

Once completed, your order will be sent to:olivetreegenealogy@gmail.com

Thank you for your order.
Regards

Record copying department
The National Archives

And so I sat back to wait. And wait. And wait. 3 months later, on June 25th I received a CD ROM in the mail with 864 images. It was the complete microfilm of every soldier who was pensioned out in 1787! So besides paying for these 864 documents, I also paid for the CD ROM to be mailed even though I had requested the less expensive option of picking the records up on the National Archives website. I am sure this was because there was so many images that the National Archives realized it would be quite a task to upload them all and use their server room for 30 days.

I am happy to say though that my ancestor Thomas Blandon had 2 pages (images) on the CD ROM.



And I have 862 other documents to read through if I am ever bored....

Ordering Documents Online from National Archives in Kew England - a Comedy of Errors Part 1

On April 9, I searched for an English ancestor (Thomas Blandon) on the National Archives site for UK. I found several records for Thomas and I wrote about ordering the records which were held at Suffolk Archives in Ipswich. But one record was held at the National Archives in Kew and that had to be ordered separately.

It seemed fairly easy to order although there were some areas where I was not 100% sure what information I needed to provide. But I read everything carefully and filled the online request out as best I could. A lot is filled out automatically for you once you find a hit and choose to order the documents for that hit. It did seem a bit expensive for what I thought I was ordering (and note the word "thought"....) but I wanted the documents on Thomas badly enought to go ahead. Since it was expensive to have documents mailed I chose the option to have the images uploaded to the website where I had 30 days to download them to my computer.

After ordering what I thought was anywhere from 1 to 5 pages on one specific individual (Thomas Blandon), and waiting for 3 months, I received 864 images - the entire microfilm! Where did I go wrong? How did I end up ordering the records for over 800 soldiers instead of just my Thomas Blandon?

Let me walk you through the process as perhaps I can save others from making the same mistake(s) I did.



I used the search box top right which is a quick search and entered "Thomas Blandon". Several hits appeared and it is the second one down that I wanted.

Royal Hospital, Chelsea: Discharge Documents of Pensioners WO 121/1/38 THOMAS BLANDEN alias THOMAS BLANDON Born WENERSTON, Suffolk Served in Suffolk Militia Discharged aged 48 after 28 years of service See film image number 170 . Certificates of service (disability or reason for discharge, length of service, rank, regiment, Date: 1787.Source: The Catalogue of The National Archives

The next step was to click on the link title Royal Hospital, Chelsea: Discharge Documents of Pensioners WO 121/1/38



This took me to a page which explained the scope of the records, the dates, whether or not it was available publicly and where it is held, in this case, the National Archives in Kew. On the top right, outlined in red is a nice little button labelled "Request This" You simply click on that button and you are taken to a page where you may choose to request an estimate for a printed or digital copy. I had to create an account with the Archives before I could place my order or get my estimate but that is very easy.


I requested the estimate and soon after received an email from the Record copying department with a link to where my estimate could be found. I looked at the estimate, thought it was a bit expensive but decided to go ahead with the order.

Read the rest of my Comedy of Errors in Part 2 tomorrow....