Who Do You Think You Are Magazine Forum

[Suzy]

Hi
I am searching for my Great Grandfather who was in India in 1911 with all his family.
He was in the RGA and his name was John Simmonds born 1872/3 in London (it is not the one from Hoxton that comes up) In 1907 he was a Sgt so he would have been the same rank or higher by 1911.
I have gone through the whole 2905 pages in the census but he is not there. Was everyone in the census?
They returned to England around 1913. Any help would be appreciated as it is driving me mad not being able to find him.

[peter kent]

Can you provide some more identity details please. For example what was his wife's name? Children's names? Where exactly was he born? Why is he not the Hoxton man?

[brunes08]

Without a little more detail, I can only suggest a couple of things. You say the family was in India is 1911. Where have you been looking for them in the census? For military establishments/ army / navy etc there is a separate schedule. Check The National Archives guidance on the 1911 census which might help. Have you been using one family history site and its index? I have struggled to find individuals on one site but found them easily on another. This was because of bad transcription of names. One time I found all 200+ soldiers in one barracks had been given the same surname - exceedingly shoddy transcription. Not everyone is recorded on a census for various reasons. For example, many suffragettes refused to complete the forms. Hope you have more luck.

[peter kent]

I have gone through the whole 2905 pages in the census but he is not there

Ah. I see what you've done. There are 2905 pages in the chunk that includes the Hoxton man. But this chunk is NOT the full collection of returns covering India.

If you use Ancestry you can use the Browse facility to see how much is available (use "Military" for the county and for the parish, look at both "All" and "Not stated"). Ancestry have made a bit of a dog's dinner of it but on the whole access is easier than FMP.

I wouldn't advise going through it page by page until we've tried again using the further information that you're going to give us.

[Sylcec]

You say that your great grandfather is NOT the man from Hoxton. In which case it is even more surprising that John Simmonds, Battery Sergeant Major of No.8 Mountain Battery RGA is listed at Quetta in 1911 - except that the census form remarks him as 'absent'. Presumably that simply means he was absent from barracks at time of the census, but we can't be sure.

First name(s) John
Last name Simmonds
Relationship -
Marital status Married
Sex Male
Occupation -
Age 38
Birth year 1873
Birth place Hoxton Nr London
Address Quetta
Parish -
County Overseas Military
Country Ships And Overseas Establishments
Archive reference RG14
Registration district number 641
Enumeration district 2
District number -
Sub district number 16
Census reference RG14PN34991 RD641 SD16 ED2 SN9999
Piece number 34991