TOPIC:

Hi there, I have been doing a lot of research and believe I have found a death record for him in the Boer War. Attached is the only image I have of him, which in my research has shown that his uniform indicates he was part of the 1st Royal Dragoon regiment. What I am trying to find out is any further information that would help show more details about him, birth date etc. or where I might go next to get more information.

He was married to a Jane Higgins (nee McCarthy) who died in 1896 (marriage reference attached) and had 3 daughters but 1 died, only Mabel (my great grandmother) and Margaret Jane were alive when he was in the army. They ended up in Nazerus House in Cardiff when he was in the war, as I have them on a census showing as being there as little girls.
Below is the death record I have found, but would love to know how I can get perhaps attestation papers or know anything further. Unfortunately I am based in NZ so access to any physical records is difficult.

www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=GBM%2FBW%2F001235&tab=this

Any help or direction would be greatly appreciated!

KAQCJ_17
The Palmer roll shows "3612 Pte. J. Higgins" of 1st Dgns as being Killed in Action "E of Rivaanspt" 14/3/1901. No "D" noted in this entry. My Cavalry CD shows him with clasps OFS/Tvaal/RofL/TH/LN/1901.
Regards
IL.

Yes, that’s who I believe is him but I would love to find any papers for him. Thank you!

KACJ_17
Frequently, papers for those who died in service during the ABW period are not available. I don't know why that is so - perhaps no need to keep the paperwork. Happy to be proved wrong - that is what respected researchers have told me. Why not try a contemporary newspaper search (Cardiff???) around the date of his death. That might give some bio details.
Regards
IL.

Though it was common practice to destroy the service record of those who died, some Regiments did keep them but not always forever so we are left with many gaps in these records. You may be lucky enough to find them and I hope you are. There are many forum members who seem to ‘have a knack’ for locating records so hopefully this will be the case for you.

You have already looked in the right place to find your great-great-grandfather’s attestation papers and service record i.e. Find My Past and I can confirm they are not there. One also generally cannot find the military paperwork for those serviceman who died in the Great War, so I have always assumed that the paperwork for servicemen killed in both conflicts “died” with them out of respect for their memories (possibly as some would have contained information their relatives might not have been proud of). But I speculate and it seems strange that nobody knows the answer.

I presume you meant Nazareth House rather than Nazerus House. Nazareth House in Cardiff still stands and is now a Care Home for the Elderly and is still run by the Sisters of Nazareth. If you Google “Nazareth House, Cardiff” you will be able to find present day photos of it and further info. Googling “The history of Nazareth House, Cardiff” takes you straight to a page about its history on the Sisters of Nazareth website.

Your gggf appears in one Public Family Tree on Ancestry created by a Terence James who might be your goodself. Assuming you have access to Ancestry you can do a military search entering his name as J (putting full given names in seems at times to confuse the search engine) Higgins and his regimental number as the Keyword and hey presto you will find the top two hits are the relevant pages from the 1st Royal Dragoons medal rolls and they confirm the Queen’s South Africa Medal clasps given above. Both also have him down as “Deceased” and they can be attached to his profile in the FT.

In my humble opinion the creator of the FT seems to have missed something – Mabel (your great grandmother) and her sister were residing with their maternal grandmother in 1911.

Finally – and I am addressing this to the whole forum – WHERE WAS/IS RIVAANSPRUIT??? – where your ggf allegedly died on 14 March 1901 and what happened there that day? I have done a newspaper search for your gggf but nothing ensued although I would have thought he would have appeared on a published casualty list. I also received no response to Rivaanspruit or Rivaansput or Rivaanspt.

Regards David.