My Family History

Thanks to The National Archives I have just received the discharge papers of my 4th great grandfather James Kelly.  James enlisted in 1804 and served as a gunner with His Majesty’s Fifth Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Artillery.  He was disharged in 1816 after serving nearly twelve years, two of them at Waterloo.

The discharge papers have given me an extraordinary amount of information on James; his physical description, age, place of birth and the date of his death in 1833.  Dying in 1833 meant that he would not have received the Military General Service Medal which was awarded in 1848 for military service between 1793-1814.  In fact it is estimated that about 90% of those entitled to the medal had died before it was issued or just did not come forward to accept it.

If you use The National Archives website you can now access 11 catalogues and databases using their new search engine called Public Web Search.  You can search Documents Online, Access to Archives (A2A), ARCHON, Electronic Records Online, research guides and the Moving Here and Family Records websites.