Seeking Battle of Waterloo ancestor
It has been passed down through my family for generations that our ancestor Ann Livingston is the daughter of a French Soldier w washo died at the battle of Waterloo in 1815. It has been said that her father’s death occurred while Ann was a baby or just prior to her birth.
What our family do know about Ann is that she married William Stewart at Old Kilpatrick in 1834. William was born at Stirling in 1808. His parents were John Stewart & Janet Thomson.
Willam and Ann’s second son was Robert Stewart (born 1842). He is my great grandfather and founder of Stewart’s brewery at Coal Creek near Greymouth, New Zealand.
Trying to find the identity of Ann’s father and mother for that matter is a challenge. There is a website forces war records which I have tried but it just contains the names of those who fought at Waterloo (and other wars) and nothing about their families. I did however note that a couple of William Livingstone’s appeared on the list and I do have a theory that since Ann’s son Robert named his first child, William Livingstone Stewart, that maybe Ann’s father was William.
There is also the possibility that Ann’s father was a Robert since according to Scottish naming traditions, the second boy is named after the mother’s father.
The National Military Museum is in Kew England and that contains military records. I have written to them but no joy there. Their site is www.nationalarchives.gov.uk Phone +44(0) 20 88763444 Address; National Army Museum, Bessant Dr, Richmond TW9 4DU, United Kingdom
The www.forces-war-records.co.uk has a lot of names of those who have fought British battles and I have found a couple of William Livingstone’s there but nothing about their families.
The Roots chat forum is another place I have used. THis is a site where you post threads and hope that someone on the site will have information that you need. The roots chat site is www.rootschat.com
Familysearch.org is another site I am signed up for. I tried their search engine but no joy so I sent them a message asking if they have any records of soldiers who served at Waterloo and they gave me instructions on how to search the catalogue;
1. Sign in to Familysearch.org
2. Near the top-centre of the screen, hover the mouse pointer over Search and click Catalog
3. Just under the “Search by.” heading, click Keywords
4. In the Keywordsa search box, enter “Battle of Waterloo” and click Search
5. You will see 36 results.
www.robertastewart.com