MILITARY FOREBEARS

Amanda Holden had French roots thanks to the military career of her 5x great maternal grandfather, Collin Thomas. Collin joined the military during the Peninsular Wars and ended up in Bordeaux where he deserted to marry his French sweetheart, Radegonde.

If your ancestor was also in the military you can discover their military history by researching their career. The first place to start is by looking for service records. Prior to the First World War they can be found online via Findmypast ( bit.ly/ServiceRecordsFMP). First World War service records can also be found on Ancestry ( search. ancestry.co.uk/ search/category. aspx? cat= 39). However, service records before the late 19th century were only kept for soldiers awarded a pension. This was not the case for Collin who deserted. So we traced his career using an alternative source, muster rolls, which are only available at The National Archives ( TNA). To use them you will either need to know the regiment where your ancestor was serving or the location they would have been at a particular moment in time (to work out which regiments were stationed there as was the case with Collin). More information can be found in TNA’s research

guide ( bit.ly / TNAmuster rolls).