Tyas Family born Ineskillin

I am helping an elderly friend with her family history. Her maiden
name is Tyas. Her grandfather was William Henry Tyas, and she thinks
that he was born around 1880 in Ineskillin. I am not sure if that is
an actual place, but he was a soldier in the WW1 with the Inneskillin

myths...

If she has "worked out" the birthplace from the regiment, she may be
wrong. My g-uncle was with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers but born
in London from a Yorkshire family.

myths...

In WW1.

(He had previously served in the Boer War, but I don't (though my
father does) know what regiment.)

It might be worth contacting soc.genealogy.ireland, if your friend
thinks her grandfather was born in Ireland.

Belfast - not online) for births - click on Historical Records in the
menu.

Dragoon. His son was Alfred Henry Tyas, born about November, 1902.
Would there be any place I can find more information?

Forrest Anderson...

Can I ask how you know that he served "in the WW1 with the Inneskillin
Dragoon"? Is there any documentary proof of this, or is it just what
has been handed down over the years, or are you assuming that this was
his regiment, based on his place of birth?

If you have a look at my webpage at
a handy list of regiments, as they were in WW1. You'll see that there
were two regiments with Inniskilling in their name:

6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons
The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers

Because of the number of personnel in these regiments in WW1, it would
be statistically much more likely that he was from the Royal
Inniskilling Fusiliers, which was an infantry regiment, rather than
the Inniskilling Dragoons, which was a cavalry one.

However it should be noted that he could have joined practically any
regiment in the British Army - the Royal Artillery in particular was
very popular, and it recruited from all over the place as it had no
traditional recruiting area.

The nearest we can get to a nominal roll of British Army personnel who
served in WW1 is the collection of Medal Index Cards at the National
Archives at Kew. They mainly record the issue of campaign medals which
were awarded to those who served in an overseas theatre, and an index
to these MICs is now online and searchable at

A soldier with the name "William Henry Tyas" might be recorded in
several ways, including W H Tyas, William H Tyas (the most popular
format), or just William Tyas, and you'd want to try these out.
However there is the following hit for William Henry Tyas:

Medal card of Tyas, William Henry
Corps Regiment No Rank
East Yorkshire Regiment 15727 Private
East Yorkshire Regiment Lieutenant

As you can see, he was in a Yorkshire infantry regiment rather than an
Irish cavalry regiment, and he was commissioned during the war, but
you shouldn't discount him just because of that. Officers and men were
often placed in regiments which suited the Army, rather than what the
soldier wanted.

It would be good to find out a little bit more on Lieutenant Tyas, to
see if it confirms or eliminates him. Unfortunately a search for his
officer's Service Record in the National Archives catalogue at
to come up with anything hopeful. Not all Officers' Service Records
have survived, and those who served after 1920-ish are still in the
hands of the Ministry of Defence.

You might want to try searching the MIC database again, perhaps for
Surname = Tyas and Corps = Inniskilling to see if you can come up with
someone else.

A search of the Other Ranks Service Records in the Burnt and Unburnt
Documents collections should be considered, and even if you don't find
William Henry, you may find other family members who served in the
war. See
for more information.

tim sewell...

anyone named William Henry Tyas, with wild guess date limits of 1890 - 1902,
up comes

Marriages Sep 1901

CWatters...

I think I do some double checking. Start with the son and see if you can
find his birth records. Where was he born?

Sure about the rigiment? The National Archive has a medal card for "a"
William Henry Tyas but if you are sure about the regiment this probably
won't be the same person....

Medal card of Tyas, William Henry
Corps Regiment No Rank
East Yorkshire Regiment 15727 Private
East Yorkshire Regiment Lieutenant

There is a little bit on the Inniskilling (6th Dragoons) on these pages...

The National Archive may have muster records.