Reminded of my search for a Chelsea Pensioner

 

                                                  The article that caught my eye in "Your Family History" magazine

I'm still going through my backlog of genealogy magazines. Much of the news and many of the links are way out of date but some are still relevant like the article I found in the May 2010 Your Family History magazine. The article was about the release of a new collection (at that time) of soldiers' records on Find My Past, the Chelsea Pensioners. It reminded me of the search I had done looking for the father of Benjamin Cavannaugh (sp), my 3 x great grandfather. I was looking for another Benjamin with the same or similar last name among those who had received a pension for military service. There were in pensioners as well as out pensioners. But I didn't get as far with those records by searching Find My Past as the magazine article reported was possible. I did, however, search for Chelsea Pensioners on FamilySearch by checking the catalogue for the subject Chelsea which brought up "united kingdom Chelsea pensioner's service records". I came up with some possible matches but I'll need to get to an affiliate LDS library to see the original documents from which the index was made. That was my search for army men but perhaps he was more of a seagoing type. I found a distinct possibility at Find My Past in the records of "British Royal Navy & Royal Marines Service and Pension Records, 1704-1939". 

But then I started thinking of why I was looking for a military Benjamin Cavanaugh as the father of my known 3 x great grandfather. I had no record of birth for my known relative. No way to know that his father was named Benjamin, only an educated guess that the name was passed down as my 3 x great grandfather named his own son Benjamin. Maybe it was time to shelve this research and work back from what I had already proved to my own satisfaction on this family line. 

Sources:

FamilySearch, “United Kingdom Chelsea Pensioner’s Service Records”

FindMyPast “British Royal Navy & Royal Marines Service and Pension Records, 1704-1939”

Your Family History “Genealogy News Agenda” Chelsea Pensioners Online,  May 2010