Assistance with the DISTINCT keyword

Hello. I'm wondering if I can get assistance with the DISTINCT keyword?

I've got a Table with 5-6 fields/information but 1000+ records. I want to
select all fields but only use DISTINCT on one specific field.

There may be 1, 2, or 10+ records with a distinct code - I only want to
choose the oldest record of each distinct code, but 5 unique/distinct
records.

PROBLEM:  https://www.mysqltutorial.org/mysql-distinct.aspx

If I select multiple records, SELECT DISTINCT field1, Field2, etc..  it
seems to combine "Field1, Field2" into one field and make a DISTINCT on
THAT information, instead of just field1.

In all the tutorials I find I can only retrieve ONE field/information using
DISTINCT, without retrieving all the information/fields.

Is it possible to select distinct on 1field, but retrieve ALL fields for
that record?


An example of what I want:  Select DISTINCT REF, * from Services ORDER BY
`Services`.`TIMECHECK` ASC LIMIT 5;

*TIMECHECK* is a simple timestamp


Or do I need to do this in a 2-step process?
- get 5 records  Distinct on the REF, sort by oldest records
- select all fields/columns of information for each unique record,
(HOWEVER, I only want the oldest record).
-- 

Gordon.