Looking for information on Thomas Hibbert

Hibbert is not a common name in Ireland. There were only 16 people of that name in the 1901 Irish census:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/

You?ll notice that most of them were born in England or Wales. So essentially it?s an English name, and there's therefore a strong chance your family originated there rather than in Ireland.

I looked at the birth registration index for Ireland 1864 to 1885. There?s no-one named Thomas or Ben(jamin) Hibbert born in Ireland during that period at all. There was an Arthur Hibbert in Cavan in 1865, an un-named male in Dublin South 1869 and another in 1871 and Francis Gordon Hibbert in Omagh 1875.

The 2 un-named children seem the most likely possibles. They would be about the right age to be in the Boer War. In the early days of birth registration it wasn?t uncommon to register a birth without the child?s name (strange as that may seem). It happened in neo-natal cases too but in these two, there are no balancing deaths and so both must be presumed to have lived.

Proving that either was your Thomas could be tricky. Baptism records would probably be the best bet. So you would need to order the birth certs, and then assuming you know the denomination (try Church of Ireland), check the local baptism records to get the child?s name.

Another angle would be to look for Thomas?s military records. They should be in the National Archives in Kew, London to see what they say about his origins.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/army.htm

Ancestry also has some British military records on-line. You could try that site.

http://home.ancestry.co.uk/