About a week ago I decided to revisit some parts of the trees I am researching — parts that I haven’t looked at for a while, or ones where the trail has gone cold. I often do this to see if I can make any progress; sometimes there are new records available that weren’t before, or sometimes just approaching it in a different way can throw up a lead.
I decided to focus my attention on the Reardon line of my step-father’s tree. His grandmother, Mabel Reardon, was born in 1907 in Gosport, Hampshire.
In 1911, Mabel is living with her father and siblings in Gosport. Her mother, Mary Ann “Polly”, was not in the household (I am yet to track her down), although Polly’s sister, Blanche Victoria Ball, was. Mabel’s father, John, was a teacher at the nearby Fort Rowner, being used as a Military School. He was born in Trincomalee in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon).
Between 1903 and 1910, John and Polly’s youngest 3 children, John, Mabel and Frederick were all born in Gosport, Hampshire.
In 1901, John and his wife Polly were living at the Barracks in Scarborough, Yorkshire. John was a Bombardier in the Royal Garrison Artillery. Living with them was their daughter Norah, who was born in Scotland. Polly’s name seems to be have been oddly recorded as “Stary A” on the census return and her place of birth incorrectly recorded as “Birmingham, Warwickshire”. I’m not sure why this is, but there’s enough other evidence to prove this is the correct family.
In 1900, John and Polly’s daughter Norah was born in Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland.
In 1897, John Reardon and Mary Ann “Polly” Ball married in Sheffield, Yorkshire.
I had managed to fairly easily research the family of Mabel’s mother, Mary Ann “Polly” Ball, who came from Heeley in Sheffield, Yorkshire, but John’s overseas birth initially meant my research on the line came to a standstill a while ago.
However, I’ve managed to make some significant progress on John’s family over the last few days. Thanks to some very helpful members of the Ancestry Facebook community, I was able to locate John’s army service records on FindMyPast which has shed some light on his life. Aside from providing information on John’s physical description – helping to bring a name on a page to life – the service records confirmed that John enlisted in the army aged just 14 and was discharged from the army in 1907 at Fort Rowner.
The details surrounding his enlistment give some information about the origins of the Reardon family. John enlisted in the Royal Artillery on the 15th February 1884 in Guernsey in the Channel Islands, and joined 6 days later in Dover, Kent.
The Military History Sheet page of the service records show that John served at home for nearly 6 years, then in India for over 5 years, then back at home from 1894 onwards. On the same page he also lists his next of kin. The original person listed was “Father, Patrick, Pensioner R.A., Guernsey, C.I.”. This was later crossed out and his wife, Polly, was added.
I would appear that Guernsey was the Reardon family home in the mid-1880’s, if John enlisted into the Royal Artillery there, and his father Patrick lived there.
I now had some information about another generation back of the Reardon family, but not much to go on. All I knew about Patrick Reardon is that he was in the Royal Artillery at one point and that he was living in Guernsey.
It became apparent that I would getingt hold of John Reardon’s birth certificate could shed some light. Hopefully this would reveal his parents names and maybe some more information about Patrick. As John was born in Ceylon, I wasn’t entirely sure how to go about obtaining the certificate. I did some research and found a suggestion about contacting the Sri Lankan High Commission in London to see if they could help. I received a reply from them fairly promptly, and they provided a form to fill out and send to Colombo in Sri Lanka, with a postal order for the value of £10, which I thought was very reasonable.
However, the Ancestry Facebook community was once again very helpful and pointed me in the direction of a birth record for a “John Riordon” in the British nationals armed forces births 1761-2005 collection on FindMyPast, that matched the place and year of birth, as well as the regiment. As the birth was recorded in the GRO Regimental Birth Indices, I could order the certificate through the General Register Office like any other certificate.
When the certificate arrived, it confirmed John’s date of birth and baptism, and that his father was indeed called Patrick. It also revealed his mother was named Mary, but disappointingly did not give her maiden name. I later learned that the regimental birth certificates are copied from the baptismal registers and therefore are not likely to contain the mother’s maiden name.
Now I needed to try and find out a bit more about Patrick Reardon (or Riordon). I knew he was in the Royal Artillery, and was in Ceylon in 1869 and Guernsey in 1884. I searched the British Army Service Records 1760-1915 collection on FindMyPast for any service records, and although there were plenty to go through, I eventually found one that seemed to match up!
The man in question was one “Patrick Riordon” born in 1838, who served in the 3rd Division Coast Brigade Regiment of the Royal Artillery and who had been in both Ceylon and Guernsey during his army career.
Patrick was from Ballingarry in County Limerick in Ireland. This confirmed my strong suspicion that the Reardon family was Irish. They must have Anglicised their surname from Riordon to Reardon. The service records also revealed that Patrick enlisted in the Royal Artillery in Melbourne, Australia in 1866. He served over 14 years in the Royal Artillery, but had already served over 9 years before that (in the 59th and 70th Regiments). Out of the total 23 years and 351 days he served in the army, he served 2½ years in Melbourne, 5½ in Ceylon, 3½ in India and 4½ in New Zealand.
It would seem Patrick did decide to stay in Guernsey after being discharged, listing at his intended place of residence, but he apparently changed his mine and decided to settle in Melbourne instead. I have not yet been able to find a death record for Patrick in either place. I also have not found a marriage for him and “Mary”. They could have married in Ireland, in Australia, or in Ceylon where their son John was born. One more piece of the puzzle to solve.
Considering I didn’t know much about the Reardon family a week ago, I have made some great progress. I’ve learnt the Reardon family was of Irish descent, and was an established military family. They were pretty seasoned travellers too, from their origins in Ballingarry in Limerick to Melbourne, Trincomalee, India, New Zealand, Guernsey, Sheffield, Leith, Scarborough, and finally settling in Gosport. I believe after the 1911 census, some (if not all) of the Reardon family moved to the Wandsworth area of London. This was where Mabel Reardon married my step-father’s grandfather.
I still have a few things left to do:
- Find a baptism for Patrick Riordon in Ballingarry.
- Find a marriage for Patrick Riordon and Mary.
- Confirm that the Edward Patrick Riordon/Reardon living at Fort Rowner in Gosport is a brother of John’s. He was also in the Royal Garrison Artillery, and born in Guernsey.
- Locate Polly Reardon in the 1911 census.
- Find deaths for John and Polly Reardon – possibly in Wandsworth.