Genealogy Chat

I have been trying to locate the death details of Ezra Francis Walter Baker,who died in the 1st World War. I have checked the war graves site,National Archives site and the death registers on Ancestry without luck. What I would like to ask is, if a body was never recovered (and thousands did go missing on the battlefields and were never found) would there be any kind of registration of 'death' ?

I don't know......But you could check by picking out someone with an unusual name, with no known grave, from the CWGC site and then look for a death cert for them (on 1837 overseas, War records) Merry

Yes the death would be registered - you need to look at the war dead indexes, available online at the 1837 site. Strange that you didn't find an entry on the CWGC site - have you tried all spellings? Jackie

Merry, thanks for that tip.....i'll give it a try. Jackie, I've stuck with the name Baker but have tried different permutations of his initials.Perhaps i should try playing around with Baker,but i wasn't really sure if the war graves site would list him as a casualty if they never found him. Thank you both for your replies.

Have you tried the National Archives for a medal card? If he served in WW1 there should be a card and hopefully his date of death or the date he was presumed dead should be on it. My g uncles card had his date of death and another had his date of discharge on it.

Yes - it gets registered. My great grandfathers certificate states 'missing - presumed dead' and he appears on teh CWGC with one of the larger memorial graves to soldiers who's bodies werent recovered Zoe

Only this past few weeks (it has been on Telly) that they are now doing DNA testing on all the Un-named soldiers bones, they reckon they will be able to name most of them.

Do you actually know that he was killed DURING the war?? There is one E F Baker with no forenames detailed, who died in 1920 (on the CWGC site) Merry

Hmmmm. No Ezra Baker's on the Nat Archives Campaign Medal lists.......I wonder if he dropped his first name ?? (after all, he had plenty to choose from!!) You might find it difficult to pick him out if he didn't use Ezra. Merry

Merry, He may well have dropped his first name........i did look at the F. Baker's and W.Baker's (and various permutations) but it is proving difficult,especially not knowing his regiment,although he was a Suffolk lad (born 1881) so i've been especially interested in the Suffolk,Essex and Norfolk regiments. FC, I have had a look at the Medal Card registers on NA but only having his initials to go on ( and they could be unreliable) it could prove quite costly to check them all out. Merry,FC,Carrie and Zoe......thanks for your replies and helpful advice.

I think EF Baker is Edward F Baker. if could be a spelling error or he used a different name to what you expect to find him as.

Thanks Lunar. I'm now having doubts if Ezra did die in the war.....I've been checking out the 1837online site and have been searching simply by his birthplace (Polstead) and also the village he grew up in (Assington),no name of the soldier is required,......both locations provided a list of casualties,none of which looking anything like EFW Baker.

I know this doesn't help but might be of interest. One of my relatives was listed as gassed on the commonwealth war graves site before it was re-designed. We assumed that he had died but he went on to have lots of children. So perhaps an idea to re-check any information that you have from the site.