I've had this brickwall for absolutely ages and I'm slowly chipping away at it and am hoping that you might be able to help or at the very least steer me into some directions of which I can look for further information.

What I have is the following:

Jean Christopher Wildermoth
Born it is believed in France in around 1766
married to Anne Keenan in Ireland
Had a son William Wildermoth born 1787 in Kilkenny, Ireland (according to William's military papers)
buried 7 Feb 1806 at St Mary the Virgin, Brabourne Lees, Kent England.

He has proven to be difficult to trace due to the fact that Wildermoth is not a common name in English so it have often been transcribed differently i.e. Wildermouth, Wildermeth, Wildermuth, Willmot and Wydlernath (probably a lot of other different ways that I have yet to discover)

His burial which I found recently after much searching is under the name John Wyldernath (findmypast) and also Wylder...eet on another transcribe record.

I believe that as he was a soldier that he was stationed at the barracks at Brabourne Lees at the time of his death and that he may have been in the 85th Regiment.

It is also believed that his first name was sometimes recorded as John and also Christian.

Hence making him a difficult man to find.

I would like to trace his movements from Brabourne Lees, Kent and the time of his death and hopefully go backwards from there. I am hoping that his military service record will be able to help but don't know how to find this.

I see that The Genealogist seems to have some military records so wondered if it was worthwhile subscribing to this website or if someone here could look him up for me.

Any other suggestions as to where to look would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks

troy134 - 2019-06-25 17:07:00

Do you have access to Ancestry? There is a tree on there with fairly extensive notes regarding his service. Although the first action he saw was:

"Abt. 1777 • British Army
First in the 16th Foot Regiment, and later in the 62nd Foot Regiment"

Aged just 11?! Then

"21 September 1779 • Louisiana, USA
Battle of Baton Rouge. Attacking Spanish forces captured the town taking a number of prisoners. Records were lost."

Aged 13?

Another person researching the family:

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=580706.0

Edited by daisy86 at 8:48 pm, Tue 25 Jun

daisy86 - 2019-06-25 20:38:00

Thanks daisy86; I'm the person who started that rootschat chat lol.

As for the person on Ancestry with the service information I've tried to get in touch with them but no reply.

Also most of those that are trying to trace him keep repeating the same information but without anyone actually checking the facts - which is what I am trying to do. :)

You would think that with such an unusual name he'd be easy to find but nope - mostly because no one had any idea how to spell it.

troy134 - 2019-06-26 15:51:00

I've recently been looking on FamilySearch for military records nearly back that far. If you search the catalogue, you might find something about his regiment.
https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog
But you will have to go to an affiliate library to look at the images. I think somewhere on the Kapiti Coast they have one or about to get one.

rednicnz - 2019-06-26 18:02:00

have you tried WILDEMOTH with out the R? there is a family of this name in Carterton today. nothing ventured nothing gained! seen this surname on a list the other year?

neich - 2019-06-27 19:38:00