When I listed my military ancestors recently, I'd found most of them listed in the BCGS' 2023 Book of Remembrance. Many of the people who contributed to that book had ancestors listed from much earlier conflicts than I had been able to find. At the time I promised myself to see if I could find any of my forbears in conflicts prior to the American Revolution. Perhaps I could find participants in the English Civil War. I thought I had a good chance as some of the battles took place near or in Northamptonshire where I know part of my family lived.
The wars took place from 1642 to 1651. That was too late for one branch of my ancestors who went to the New World before that time. But my nonconformists, the Stranges, Devonshires, Kinchs and Rolls of Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire might conceivably have been involved. But how to check?
That's when my new project of going through my genealogy articles and magazines came in handy. I came across a place to check in https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/cromwell-army-officers . That looked promising. But no luck. There were no officers in Cromwell's army with my ancestors' last names. But then I looked further and there were also Palmers and Paynes in my family back then. Those names showed up in the database. So perhaps there were family members with those names among Cromwell's officers or indeed it could be that my ancestors fought but weren't officers or maybe even fought for the Royalists. It will take more digging to find out if there are existing records that could help.
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