All the records of the Army (until 1922) including the hundreds of thousands of Irish in the army are kept in the Public Record Office at Kew, near London. There is an excellent site and an extraordinary catalogue for their "9 million files on ninety miles of shelves" ! online at http://www.pro.gov.uk/default.htm Most of the army records are organised by regiment so that is the first thing you need to know in any research. The amount of information available is very variable but in about half the cases you can find either enlistment or discharge papers which may include a place and date of birth, a physical description, an account of career, intended place of residence after discharge. Athlone was a garrison town at a militarily strategic position. Unlike some Irish towns there was always a regiment or two based in Athlone. Richard Callanan, London, England. -----Original Message----- From: Nancy Harwood [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 08 February 2003 19:18 To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [ROSCOMMON] Athlone > Recent correspondence on Athlone brought to mind my ancestor. He was a soldier in the British Army and I know he served in Cork at some time. He married and Irish lass, but I do not know her place of birth or their date and place of marriage. Which brings me to Athlone. After he left the army they lived for a short while in Mount Talbot, Roscommon, which is not too far from Athlone. I have read that Athlone was a garrison town - would British soldiers (he was in the Royal Engineers) have been stationed there in the 1860s? Are there marriage records, although I found nothing in the Dublin GRO. > Vicki > My husband's great-grandfather, Daniel Joseph Hutchinson, was also a British soldier, family legend says "a Galway man" -- he was a lieutenant in an East Kent regiment called "The Buffs." He was married at Kilteevan to Margaret Morris. Roscommon was one of the places his regiment was stationed -- Clonmel was another -- it was in Clonmel that my husband's grandfather was born. Another duty station was Santamaura (no real clue where that was). In the mid-1860s the family was back in Roscommon -- possibly because he had retired from the army. Although his wife and children were Catholics, he apparently was Church of Ireland -- he and his wife are buried iin the churchyard of St. Coman's in Roscommon. I'd be very interested in hearing from anyone who might be researching any of these families, or who has any information on The Buffs. Nancy Harwood Houston, TX ==== ROSCOMMON Mailing List ==== This mailing list is for anyone with ancestors in County Roscommon. IGP Roscommon DATABASE: http://www.rootsweb.com/~irlros/ IGP Project: http://irelandgenealogyprojects.rootsweb.com/