Hi Irene, I am no expert on military records and there will be others on this list far better able to help you. I did come across this old thread on RootsChat: http://goo.gl/fc4pD in which I think you were given good advice. As Ken said, Joseph Boy's service records (WO 97) sadly do not seem to have survived. I can find no trace of him in the index to these papers on Find My Past. Ken suggested looking at the first and last muster roll entries to see if they include details of his birth and failing that, looking at the areas where the sergeants were recruiting in the couple of months before he first appears on a muster roll. I also noticed in this TNA guide: http://goo.gl/nyFe6 that there are Description Books which give a description of each soldier, his age, place of birth, trade and service. I searched the Catalogue and found that Description Books for the 52nd Regiment from 1818 to 1829 are in the series WO 25/407. I realise that you cannot just pop down to Kew to research, since you are in Texas! Unless you are planning a trip to the UK soon, it might be sensible to employ a professional researcher to search on your behalf. Best of luck with your search. Caroline Gurney www.carosfamily.com On 7 January 2012 20:26, Irene Marlborough <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Caroline: > It would suit me very well if my Joseph was one of the Birstall ones. And > it's not an unlikely scenario. The foundling issue had never occurred to me > until another researcher insisted that this was the most likely explanation. > Unfortunately this researcher did not want to pursue the topic with me in > spite of (apparently) having got their hands on Joseph's Waterloo medal. > > When I was at Kew, I started with the muster rolls at 1815 and worked > forwards to see if I could find any identifying info. By the end of my day, > I was in the mid 1820's with no sign of an end to Joseph's service. So I > have to start at 1815 and work backwards to find his first entry. Is there > any other way to find his attestation record assuming that there was one for > little boys? > > Regards, Irene > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Hi Caroline: As you saw, I had taken Ken's advice but unfortunately ran out of time before finding the beginning or end. The Description books sound very interesting and I hadn't heard about them before. If Joseph can be found mentioned in these it should establish whether there's any truth in the foundling story even if it doesn't actually help with his origins. I won't be in the UK at all in 2012 so I will either have to wait or (as you suggest) employ a researcher. It does take the fun of discovery out of it though. Many thanks for all your help. At least I can now see another way forward. Regards, Irene