This is my first post and I've only recently subscribed, so I hope my question is appropriate for this list. Any help or advice is much appreciated. Notably, I reside in the USA and so can't visit records offices in the UK in person. I'm researching my husband's family and suspect that his g-g-g grandfather (William Adams) was an officer in the First Boer War around 1881. I'd like to determine if this is true and get whatever information is attainable about his military service. Here's what I know about William Adams (with the source in parenthesis): +Born 1835-1836 (based on his age given in the 1891 Census of England and on his son's 1859 birth record) +Occupation in 1859: Powder maker (son's 1859 birth record) +Address in 1859: Sewardstone Street, Waltham Abbey, Essex Co., England (ibid.) +Occupation in 1883: Retired Officer (son's marriage certificate; Waltham Abbey, Essex Co., England) +Occupation in 1891: Pensioner, War Department (1891 Census of England for Cheshunt, Hertfordshire Co., England) +Died 1894 (based on family information) +Survived by wife, Rosetta Rand Adams, and children, Edmund Adams, William Adams, Susannah Adams Knight, and Edith Adams (married name unknown). Notably, I cannot find William Adams (his wife or any of several children) listed in the 1881 Census of England. Given his pre-military occupation as powder maker and his 1883 post-military occupation as retired officer, I suspect that his absence from the 1881 census might be explained by military service abroad. It's a bit harder to understand why I can't find any of his immediate family in the 1881 census (including a 22 year old son, Edmund Adams). Is it feasible that the family of an officer would have followed him to an overseas post? I know that William's son, Edmund Adams, was also a gun powder maker (as per Edmund's 1883 marriage certificate) and was involved in setting up gun powder mills in India from about 1884-1886 and the Argentine Republic from about 1890-1893. Could Edmund have been in S. Africa with his father in 1881 and been involved as a civilian in gun powder making? Thanks, Chelley Patterson Seattle, Washington, USA