TOPIC:

I did a name search for John Gibson on this website and found several listings for John Gibson but there is no other information provided that would verify that they are my John Gibson. Is anyone able to check if there is more information for any of those listings that would help?

John Jack Gibson b. 2/14/1873 in Dungannon, Ireland. I think he was in SA from around 1900 to Sept. 1904.

Thanks,
Jason Gibson

Good evening Jason,
You will need to have a little more information than just thinking that your relation was in South Africa, why do you beleive he was in that country between the dates you mention?
If he was in the British Army there may be service papers for him at the TNA Kew, if he was in the Royal Navy, you should find a statement of service for him, again at Kew, if he was in the SAMIF, then again Kew is the place to start.
It would be a case of comparing his details, date and place of birth, next of kin etc with the records of men that exist in the hope of finding a match, a very long and perhaps expensive process, unless, you know something more?
Start with what you know, speak to other family members and get as much information as possible.
Frank

I have a copy of his naturalization paperwork and the ship log from when his family left, which after checking he arrived 9/22/1895 and left 11/10/1904. So I know 100% he was there, I have a copy of the wedding register from the church he was married in, in Cape Town, and several other docs. There are family stories that he participated in the Boer War, but I haven't found any docs yet. His obit states that he served with the US Volunteers under the leadership of John Hays Hammond, but gives no rank, etc. And I realize that just because it's in the obit doesn't make it true.

I just didn't know if there was any quick way to verify some of the vital statistics, or whatever you want to call it, of the people that appear when you do a name search on this website.

Thank you for your response and guidance.

-Jason

Hello Jason,
From memory, I don't think John Hays Hammond played any part in the Boer War, he went out to South Africa as a consultant mining engineer for the Barnato brothers and then worked for Cecil Rhodes, although, he was a member of the reform committee, I had thought he had left South Africa before the war and took no part in it?
Are you sure the obit that you mention refers to the Boer War and not the US volunteers of 1917?
Regards Frank

Yeah, I'm sure. Not that the obit is correct. It seems that some of the stories I've read and heard have been a little of a stretch, so what's in the obit is probably what a family member is recalling from stories that were told.

As you can see from the attached files, he wasn't there in 1917. He would have been in Kansas. My grandfather was born in 1909 and raised in Kansas his whole life, so I know John Jack Gibson didn't move back in 1917.

I don't know much about the Boer War, so....

Hello Jason,
My point exactly, I believe John Hays Hammond took no part in the Boer War,
but, I do believe he was involved with Roosevelt in the recruitment of US volunteers in 1917 for the Great War!
Regards Frank