So, Who was Fred?…..

This was a question that I strove to answer back in December 2011 when I showed this picture on Guildford & District Blog

A search of the Marriages for a B Turner in Guildford 1916+ to a Fred revealed one such entry. The marriage of Bertha A Turner to Frederick W Wait in the September Quarter of 1917 at Guildford. (Ref 2a, 201).

Working backwards to the 1911 Census. Did that reveal more of Bertha? The index revealed one entry for a Bertha E Turner. I took a chance and looked at the data. It didn’t pay off, and revealed a Bertha Elizabeth Turner residing at 144 Walnut Tree Close Guildford, a stones throw of my Grandmother at 114. Isn’t research curious?

Anyway, A quick look through the First World War records didn’t prove obviously helpful, neither did the Commonwealth War Graves website. So I still didn’t know who Fred was. A quick search of the 1911 Census for him and I was surprised. It revealed one entry; just one.

Frederick William Wait, Single and Aged 20 years born 1891 Guildford. On overseas military duty and recorded as in the 7th Dragoon Guards and stationed at Hislop Barracks, Trimulgherry, Duccan, India.

That I had not expected. This is still not conclusive that the Fred in India is the Fred in France. Were regiments pulled from various bits of the Empire in order to fight in Europe. Quite possibly.

Into June of 2013 and Ancestry have just released the Surrey records – a fabulous day! I took opportunity to see if I could locate the marriage record that had appeared in the indexes.

And here we are. The marriage  a little over 96 years ago!

Courtesy of Ancestry. Marriage September 13th 1917 St Mary’s Guildford