Back to the family, the long way

This is not the first time I've had this set of circumstances occur but it is nice to have a positive solution.

The 1914-15 Star and British War Medal awarded to 6596 LCPL John McCarthy, Royal Munster Fusiliers was sent to me by the Morrissey family in 2010. 14 years ago it was quite difficult to research the background of a British solider, although I did work out he died on 9 May 1915. Every few years or so I would recheck the details to see if additional information had been posted online. I kept coming up empty handed.

Last week I received an email from the grandson of the original donor asking about the circumstances of the 2010 correspondence. This prompted me to revisit the research and, thanks to Ancestry, I found the information I needed.

These photos are of correspondence from John to his cousin Pat Morrissey naming Pat as his next of kin. There is also an interesting comment about a link to Victoria Barracks in Sydney but I couldn't work out what that connect is.

 

The connection to the Morrissey family was now established and the medals will be returned to the family who donated them all those years ago. As it turns out the new family custodian is a retried solider and these medals will join his own and his grandfathers.

The returned medal tally is now 2928.