Trying to find out if a relative was in US Army or Navy

Question

I am trying to find out if my Fathers aunt Eliza (Elsie) Scott met her future husband (Wilfred Loder) while he was serving with the US Armed Forces during WW1 in Scotland.  I know there was a US Naval Base in Inverness and also in Dalmore, Alness.

Can anyone tell me how I could find out what branch of the Armed Forces he served with?

Answer 1

I found a Norman Wilfred Loder 

Corps: A.S.C. Buffs? Lieut.

"applied for medal 6/36" [June 1936?]; on the card it also says:

"The Force House, Ettington, Stratford on Avon"

Source: British Army World War I Medal Rolls Index Cards, 1914-1920 (fold3.com); 

Army Service Corps, Buffs (East Kent) Regiment

Given Name:

Norman Wilfred

Views:

1

Is this your man?

Comments

Thanks for your comments Jilliane.  I don't think this is the right person.  Although Wilfred Loder was born in England, he emigrated to the US in 1911.  If he was in the Forces, it would have been US Forces.  I know he met Elsie in Scotland, and I believe they corresponded for a while.  He paid her fare to America in 1922 and they were married in September of that year

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Do you have the 1911 border crossing record with his parents ?

I note that the military registration that Doug posted -- WWI or WWII? -- indicates he had an artificial limb. Was Elsie a nurse? I could not find evidence that he had military records during WWI. I'll keep looking.

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Their marriage record identifies her occupation as nurse.

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There are three outward bound uk passenger lists for him but I don't have the international ancestry.com to check the details. Maybe someone else does? One of them might be around the time of WWI.

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I see that the draft registration card that Doug posted as for WWI not II.  That means he lost his arm before the first war. He probably then wasn't in any service.  Here I was building a romance of a man who lost his arm in the first war, fell in love with the woman who nursed him.... Etc etc. okay that one is out.

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I see no other passenger list for him. Are you sure that he went back to England? Did they meet in Scotland before 1911 (as children)? Any possibility that their earliest correspondence survives? Just thinking outloud here. What have you researched on her side? Their marriage record identifies her father's name... Maybe her pre-immigration history will shed some light.

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Do you have Elsie's 1922 passenger list record? I found a May 1922 list that includes an Elsie Scott as part of a larger family on its way to Brooklyn.

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Lovely thought Jillaine.  I don't think Elsie was a trained nurse.  Any records I have found have her as housekeeper.  Possibly as the youngest daughter, she kept house for her father after her mother died in 1916.  The only record I have found of her as a nurse is on her marriage record to Wilfred Loder.  On her border crossing in 1922 she is shown as Domestic Housekeeper.  Elsie was my fathers aunt.  She wrote to him occasionally.  My father died in 1975, and there is only his step-sister surviving.  Memories are fading and all we know is that Elsie met Wilfred towards the end of the first world war.  I assume it was in Scotland, but don't know how to prove it.

On any American records I have found, Elsie's date of birth is given as 16 January 1897.  She was actually born on 16 January 1895, at Lintmill, Seafield, Cullen, Banffshire.  Parish 167 page 2 entry 6.  As Wilfred was born in November 1895, I assume she didn't want to appear older than he was!

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Yes.  Elsie travelled from Glasgow on the SS Cassandra on 16 August 1922.  She gave her younger brother Alexander Scott, Inverness as her nearest relative.  I have a copy of her border crossing dated 27 August 1922, Quebec.  It shows Wilfred Loder as her fiance.  Helen Street, Flint, Michigan.

Answer 2

familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NQM2-36N   Flint, Genesee, MI marriage.

familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J4SQ-93Q    WWII Draft Registration

familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V9ZL-HMX    Death at age 82, Flint, MI

You may want to check at the following for WWI draft records:   

British WW1 Military Service Records - Great War 1914-1918

www.greatwar.co.uk/research/military-records/ww1-service-records.htm

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Information on where to find WW1 Service Records. ... Records for over 15,000 nurses are held at the National Archives in Kew, ... US Draft Registration Cards.

British Army WW1 Service Records, 1914-1920 (Soldiers)

www.greatwar.co.uk/...records/british-soldiers-ww1-service-records.htm

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Information for family historians about Service Records for British Army soldiers who ...regimental number; date of attestation (enlistment); physical description ... at the National Archives in Kew, Surrey, where the original records are stored.

 

Comments

Thank you Frank, for your reply.  I think the Family Search records you list are correct.

I don't believe the British Army Service Records will be useful.  Wilfred left England in 1911 (age 15) with his parents and younger sister - Marion (age 11).

I also know from the 1920 Census that Wilfred was living with his parents in Flint, Genesee, Michigan.

I'm trying to find out how they met in Scotland towards the end of the First World War.

Answer 3

This is his draft registration card:

Comments

Thank you Doug.  This is the correct date and place of birth.  Also the address in Flint, Michigan is similar to the one on Elsie's travel manifest of August 1922.  That was 606 Helen Street.