My 2nd great grandfather George Emmet Cole from Dublin was a mysterious ancestor who inspired my interest in family history.
George was a Sergeant in the 9th company, Royal Engineers, at Woolwich, Kent, England, and came to Boston to enlist in the Civil War in 1864. After the war, he settled in Cambridgeport, Mass., with his wife and daughter. One evening in December 1867, George went out, saying he was going to a prayer meeting at the Congregational Church, and was never seen or heard from by them again. His wife Maria Jane died soon after he left, and she is buried in a pauper's grave in Cambridge. His daughter Rachel Sarah Cole was adopted by Charles and Sarah Goddard and her name changed to Lucy Goddard.
To learn more about George, I acquired a copy of his U.S. Civil War pension file, with 100 pages of information that allowed me to track the final thirty years of his life in the U.S. After he left his family, George joined the regular army, worked in a Nebraska Prison, managed a hotel in Pacific Junction, Iowa, and married again. In his later years of life, he served as a police judge in Garden City, Kansas, where he died 17 February 1896. I also found through research, a photograph of George Cole in his uniform of the 2nd Massachusetts Heavy Artillery.
The U.S. pension file provided information about his origins, but since he was a scoundrel and liar, I could not believe everything he said. Several U.S. records state he is from Dublin. I purchased 2 certificates of his daughter’s birth; he was a Sergeant in the Royal Engineers when she was born, and one of the certificates listed his captain’s name. I found an announcement in the London Times, Oct. 18, 1862, “Serg. George Cole, pay sergeant 9th company Royal Engineers, was yesterday presented with a silver tea service on his leaving the 9th company R.E.”
I enlisted the help of professional researchers to search the muster rolls for George Cole, with some success. George Cole was a common name at the time, and he did not use his middle name Emmet in the service! Researchers traced backward in the musters from the time of the birth of his daughter, when he was in the 9th company with Captain R. Decis.
British military records confirmed that George enlisted as a private at Dublin 14 August 1854. He was on the ship “Earl of Durham” which arrived at Sebastopol 18 November 1855, at the end of the Crimean War. He served at Corfu for several years in the 9th and 10th companies of the Royal Engineers, before returning to the British Isles and then travelling on to Boston.
From the U.S. pension records, I learned that George’s father may have been named Thomas, and his brothers named Thomas, John, Robert, and sister Caroline. George’s birthdate may be 5 February 1837, or within a couple of years of that date. I am looking for siblings of George and his parents; George stated that his parents died during the Crimean War, about 1855. I would expect that at least one of his brothers also served with the British army. George's wife was Maria Jane Phillips from Devonshire, England, also from a military family.
I will gladly share information with anyone may be related to this family.
Carte de Visite of Sgt. George Cole, 2nd Mass Heavy Artillery, by Miller & Rowell, Boston, 1865.