My ancestor, Margaret Costelloe, was born in Malta about 1823. I believe she is Irish but it is possible she is Scottish. I am trying to figure out who her father was. I am guessing that he served in the military in the Malta Garrison. I have found a website listing regiments and some baptisms from that time, but they are not named. Not all soldiers were listed.
Is is likely that these records would be available? Searching British NARA has been overwhelming and some of the regiments don't seem to be listed the way I have them. Any ideas on how to locate a child born on a Military base? Was it common for regular soldiers to bring their wives across seas at this time?
Any ideas are greatly appreciated.
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Thread: Born in Malta 1823
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20-04-2020, 7:06 PM #1
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Born in Malta 1823
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21-04-2020, 10:16 AM #2
Firstly, welcome to the British Genealogy Forum.
That is a very unusual surname for the UK (presumably not so unusual in Malta or wherever it originated). If you think that she ended up in the UK, try the census. It’s available on Ancestry, Find my Pass and is indexed on FreeCen.
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21-04-2020, 9:29 PM #3
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Hello Lesley,
Thank you for the warm welcome! While Costelloe is an unusual surname in much of the UK it does exist in Ireland. That is one of the reasons I think she is originally from Ireland. I have located her in Scotland from 1836 on through her emigration and eventual death in the USA. She married in 1840 in Scotland in a Roman Catholic church to an Irish man. Through all these records she is listed as being born in Malta or occasionally Ireland in the USA census.
I am hoping to find who her father was by locating records from the 1820's Military. Did they keep records of children born on bases such as Malta? Would Irish Soldiers bring families to these garrisons during relative peace times? Do most regiments go by their number or name?
Thank you,
Kristen Gatt
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22-04-2020, 2:15 AM #4
Hi Kristen
I did look at this yesterday and then this morning tried to post what I had found and lost the info twice! i was not a happy bunny.
Most of what I found is already what you have eg her marriage to James Irvine in Glasgow registration district in 1840 and then her conflicting places of birth, Ireland in the 1850 census and then Malta in the 1855 and 1860 censuses. 1860 she is with her new husband and their children and with them is her son from her first marriage who was born Scotland but in 1860 is now born USA.
Try here for Ireland records but read the guides first so you know how tricky Irish records are.
I also went on to Cyndi's List.com to see what there was for Malta but haven't found anything relevant and it doesn't help when some of the records are in French!
In desperation I typed Malta baptisms 1823 into a search engine and got this site
https://maltaramc.com/regsurg/rs1820_1829/rmo1823.html
If you click on Home top left you can search on either side of 1823 but I am not certain that they bothered with records for ordinary soldiers but only recorded information concerning officers.
In the bibliography it gives The National Archives (UK) reference numbers from where the information was taken.
Here is The National Archives site but it can be a little difficult to navigate. I usually start off with the red Menu button.
Here is the British Armed Forces records on Findmypast. You can search for free but will need a few credits to access the record if you find anything
ChristinaSometimes paranoia is just having all the facts.
William Burroughs
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22-04-2020, 2:37 AM #5
Forgot this,https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en...ealogy_Records
I am just posting the links I find, I haven't actually searched for Margaret Costelloe.
ChristinaSometimes paranoia is just having all the facts.
William Burroughs
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22-04-2020, 9:15 AM #6
- Join Date
- Oct 2004
- Location
- Kent
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- 16,792
Costello(e) is an Irish name (the stress is on the first syllable).
You could try the GRO military birth indexes available on Findmypast.
One problem is that the indexes to the military birth records for that period rely to a large extent on chaplains' returns. If the family were Roman Catholic they may have bypassed the CofE chaplain and had the child baptised at a Maltese church.
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