who is my dad?

[annie-7]

I am trying to find my dad, but have very little information on him. He was a soldier in 1963, based at maidstone army barracks, which is home to the 36 regiment. His name is Sam Edwards. Any ideas where to start?

[booboo67]

you could have a look on friends reunited. they have a military section that has people listed. i know you've said he was based in maidstone, but what area did he originally come from

[Velvetee]

You could try 192.com, it has information on all households on the Electoral Roll in the UK.

[Velvetee]

There are quite a couple of hundred Sam Edwards on 192.com. The Salvation Army also helps to trace people, you could give them a try too.

[annie-7]

unfortunately, i have no place or date of birth?

[dot.hawkes]

If he was doing his national service that would put him as being between say 18 and 21 in 1963, national service had ended for intake but in 1963 there were some recruits still due for discharge.

Based on that theory, looking thru the births in England and Wales for a Samuel Edwards between 1942 and 1945 doesn;t take too long, and infact there are only 4 Samuel Edwards births registered between those years.

The index gives the childs name and surname, the mothers maiden name and the registration district and reference
I use the term Q1 to mean the 1st quarter of a year so births registered jan - mar are in the 1st quarter and so on

The entries I have found are:

Q1 1943 Samuel P.Edwards Mother's maiden surname Williams registered at Hollywell ref 11b 173
Q3 1943 Samuel Edwards Mothers maiden name Condliffe registered Stoke 6b 276
Q1 1945 Samuel T Edwards Mothers maiden name Barton registered Anglesey Ref 11b 894
Q4 1945 Samuel A. Edwards Mothers maiden name Waterhouse registered Birkenhead 8a 880.

Now that is a long shot, but having looked at the Edwards registrations for 16 quarters over those 4 years, Samuel is by ni means a common christian name, this is good news for you as it will mean you will probably have less options.

But if I am correct in that he was one of the tailend National Service recruits, in the 35 Engineers at Maidstone, then he is likely to have been bweteen those ages.

Do you know if he was Welsh at all?

[annie-7]

No, i dont know if he was welsh or not. The only thing i've got to go on is that he may have come from the north, and could have possibly deserted the army?

[banned-dot]

Hi annie, kept checking back here to see if that was any help.
All of those above registrations were in the North. It may be that he did abscond from National Service, it is unlikely in 1963 he would desert, is his name on your original birth certificate? Cos if it is and he was added as your father his army number would be included.
If your Mum and he were not married, he could only be included if he was present at the time of registration.

Are you able to ask your mum or anyone else in the family a bit more about him? Certainly it is possible to obtain service history from the regiment, but you have to fill in alot of paperwork when it is so recent as 1963 it is complicated I think.


Dotty

[annie-7]

Hi Dotty, you've been really kind, and most helpful in my plight to find my father. Could you please tell me which site you got the 4 entries from? Unfortunately mother knows diddly squat about him, just knew him long enough to make me i think,lol.
I will certainly look into those names you forwarded onto me. Got nothing to lose?