Re: Hubbard - French POW in England during Napoleonic Wars
Kim, don't know if you made progress but you will need to go to Kew. There are records for Plymouth and Dartmoor Prisons for French prisoners. There were over 100,000 over the years and the ledgers have details of rank, name, age, ship, or battalion, build and colouring. It was quite a revelation to see so much detail. Have now taken up another subscribers suggestion and have found my target on the Vincennes website. Hoping the document gives me the information we want on Prosper Combes.
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Re: Hubbard - French POW in England during Napoleonic Wars
Dear Jane, The General Entry Books (or registers) will detail how long your ancestor was held at a particular parole depot, and note when he was discharged, usually stating via which port.
The record you require are ADM103/594 Parole Prisoners at Okehampton and Oswestry 1809-1812. This is at the National Archives, Kew. If you find your ancestor in that list then it should state when he was released, and probably state via Plymouth as that was the nearest major port that was the centre of the POW system in Devon.
ADM103/611, 612, 613 and 614 contain alpahabetical lists of French parole prisoners that may also give you some information, but not all entries are very detailed in these registers.
Hope this helps. Regards, Paul
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Re: Hubbard - French POW in England during Napoleonic Wars
Dear Janet, As far as I am aware no French prisoners were held at Lymington. The story that they built some of the walls in the area is a local myth, as POWs were not used on construction projects as it took work away from the civilian workforce. The nearest prison depots would have been Portsmouth, or the parole depots further north in Hampshire.
However, it may be that Louis Le Blanc was a Frenchman who settled in the area after the war was over in 1814. Or, as Lymington was a base for the King's German Legion it could be that he was recruited into this force from one of the prisons and settled here. The KGL recruited extensively from amongst the prison population, but were not allowed to recruit Frenchmen. Many thousands of Germans were enlisted so could Louis be German?
Hope this information is of use, and good luck with your research. Regards, Paul
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Re: Hubbard - French POW in England during Napoleonic Wars
Dear Paul, thank you for your reply to my post. I did get online to Kew last night and think that reference is one of the ones I took down. I did see an entry re his parole the last time I was up there and discharge, but no mention of a port. However, will double check, and did find more references to files which could be useful in that series. Jane
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Re: Hubbard - French POW in England during Napoleonic Wars
Dear Paul, thank you for your reply to my post. I did get online to Kew last night and think that reference is one of the ones I took down. I did see an entry re his parole the last time I was up there and discharge, but no mention of a port. However, will double check, and did find more references to files which could be useful in that series. Jane
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Re: Hubbard - French POW in England during Napoleonic Wars
Jane can you please tell me where you found the ledgers containing the names of the Napoleonic Prisoners
Margaret
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Re: Hubbard - French POW in England during Napoleonic Wars
Dear Paul I wondered if you know whether the ADM103 alphabetical lists are very long as I am unable to get to the National Archives but see that you can order copies of them online.
Best Wishes Margaret
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Re: Hubbard - French POW in England during Napoleonic Wars
Dear Margaret, The ADM103 series are mainly large register books (General Entry Books) that you will have to view in person. Some are very large and cover a number of years. You can order them on line but this means they are ordered and ready for when you visit, not to view on line I am afraid. Regards, Paul
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Re: Hubbard - French POW in England during Napoleonic Wars
Dear Paul That's a shame but I shall still keep looking to find Charles' regiment in order to send for his records.It must be almost twenty years now since I first started researching my family history but as I know from experience things do just turn up out of the blue so you never know!
Best Wishes Margaret
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Re: Hubbard - French POW in England during Napoleonic Wars
I have stumbled across this thread and read with great interest. Last week I made a fruitless visit to Kew in my quest to investigate a theory that my Danish ancestor was held as a prisoner sometime between 1793 and 1796. I went to investigate ADM103 - but learned more than anything else about the pitfalls of poor preparation before visiting.
Can anyone guide me to lists of Danish prisoners in this early period of the Revolutionary Wars? I have read that lists were microfilmed in 1979 by a Norwegian academic and are now in Kristiansand but does anyone know which of the ADM 103 series refers to Danes from this early period?
By way of background, the ancestor I am researching was a mariner called Gerard Egelsdorf, who married Martha Rees (born in Pembroke) at Swansea in 1796. Could he have been a prisoner on parole? He died in a shipwreck (family legend) before 1807, by which time he had anglicised his name to Egelstaff.
If I can find him in a prison list, I may learn his age and town of birth, both of which would help a long quest to find his Danish origin. Any help or advice would be very welcome.
Adrian
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