Irene, In your excitement, you've got your calculations wrong. If Joseph was born in October 1786 he would have been 17 in January 1804. I take my hat off to Chris Watts for doing this research. Like him I've become very interested in Joseph. Do let us know if you find out more. Caroline Gurney www.carosfamily.com www.cmgurney.blogspot.com On 14 January 2012 20:32, Irene Marlborough <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Chris: > > Well, I'm overwhelmed at your generosity. Thank you so much! This info all > ties in nicely with the known facts. If he were of a similar age to his wife > Elizabeth then he'd have been about 14 in 1804 when he enlisted. > > At least now I can begin looking for his wife's remarriage from 1826 onwards > and perhaps she was still in Wrexham and not in Manchester where she was in > 1851 and 1861. > > And bingo! A quick look at familysearch gives the baptism of Joseph BYE son > of Joseph & Mary BYE at Wantage on 3 Mar 1787, birth date16 Oct 1786. > There's another one baptised in Aldermaston the same year but the army death > record seems to be clear. > > That's a fair bit younger than I'd thought. He'd have been only 7 in January > 1804 and appointed drummer when he was 8 years old the summer of the > following year. Does this seem likely? There are quite a few BYE families in > Berkshire. It's a new county for me - I have no other ancestors from there. > I'm unfamiliar with the LDS coverage, placenames and which surnames are > common. So I will need to do more research to be satisfied that this is the > correct boy (BOY, BUY, BYE!). > > And it appears that there's nothing to the foundling story. The current > owner of Joseph's Waterloo medal didn't know what he was talking about. > Joseph's widow must have had to pawn the medal. I would have liked to have > seen a photo of it at least. > > I really appreciate your taking the time to help me out like this. A lot > more avenues of research have opened up. And I'm now conjuring with the > image of a 7 year old soldier! > > I'll let you and the list know if I find out any more. > > Best wishes and thanks a million, > 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

Doh! I can't believe I got the arithmetic wrong again! Thanks for pointing it out Caroline. I must say that I am really excited by all this. The chap who told me that Joseph was a foundling did me a favour. It seemed all too plausible but now it seems that it wasn't true at all. Chris Watts is a true champ with this RAOGK. I can only say that I do my best to pass the favour forwards. I'll keep the list posted about progress with Joseph. I'm glad that so many of you were intrigued by the story. Best wishes, Irene