Hi All,
I wonder if anyone can find any details particularly military for this chap please:
John Henry Eaton born 1880 in Sheffield.
He married Sarah Ann Hinchliffe, had 3 sons and a daughter and then they separated.
John H. Eaton went to live with my widowed grandmother (someone has kindly found them together on the 1921 census) where he fathered my father in 1923.
My grandmother Ethel Wildgoose died 5 weeks after my father's birth and my father was placed in the Workhouse under the name of Lawrence Wildgoose.
He was taken out of the workhouse 6 weeks later by his father John H. Eaton (clearly stated as "father" on the discharge form) and "adopted" by a couple who then baptised him as Thomas Greatbatch at Nether Green Church.
The link I'm struggling to find is between John Henry Eaton and Thomas Greatbatch both born 1880. It's believed by family members they knew each other from the WW1 forces.
Thomas Greatbatch was in the Royal Engineers but, I can't find John H. Eaton's military evidence.
I have all the censuses, certificates available and my father's workhouse evidence.
I've recently renewed my Ancestry in order to finally find the missing link.
Hi Dave,
Thanks for that.
Presumably it has no details on his Medal Card as to where he was from etc.?
Is there any way of finding his Service Record other than searching via Ancestry as I did to find Thomas Greatbatch's Service Record, I've done this umpteen times and still not found Henry H. Eaton.
You could try the Forces-war-Records site, but be aware that the WW1 army records warehouse received a bomb in WW2 and 2/3 of the records were lost to fire and water damage.
Dave