I recently learnt of a family member, Charles, who left Belfast in the 1920’s to pursue a new life across the pond. He is pictured at the belfast docks before leaving to live in the Bronx. Apparently he was drafted to fight in the 2nd world war. I know nothing of this and has never been discussed by anyone in my Family. Although i know very little of this guy, i can only imagine the life he lived. Records show he died quite young in his 50’s. Has anyone else discovered they have relatives with amazing stories?
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For a bit more context, I got a 14 day free trial of Ancestory. I was able to locate records of my grandfather and his father using the census. The man pictured above, was my great grandfather’s brother. Going back further, I was able to locate Parish records which confirmed the marriage of my great great grandfather and somehow there’s a photo of their graves. I’m blown away to be honest.
That’s a registration card for the draft. It doesn’t mean your relative was actually drafted or served in the military. At 38, it’s unlikely (but possible) that he was drafted.
1903 DOB means he should be on the 1911 census.
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/
Have a look if you can find him. I find the search is quite poor on the site. Best to just look at Belfast and then scan through the list by surname.
I used Ancestry for a few months during lockdown and it was great. I found 2 of my grandmothers brothers who emigrated to New York in August 1929 – 2 months before the wall street crash.
They both joined the US army in WW2 (although I couldn’t find what they did during the war) and both are buried in military cemeteries on Long Island. Maybe you could find your guy in a military cemetery if he did serve in the military?
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[https://gravelocator.cem.va.gov/ngl/](https://gravelocator.cem.va.gov/ngl/)