Carmel's Corner: Who served, when and where?

Friday 29 August 2014

Who served, when and where?

Military ancestors

Today I attended the fourth workshop this month provided by the Noosa Library Service for National Family History Month.
Bob, the volunteer genealogy expert ably assisted by the heritage librarian Jane, once again provided an excellent session, this time on finding one's military ancestors.

He addressed why one would expect to find some military among one's forbears, likely sources of information and then introduced the group to a wide range of sources.

How do you find out if you had military ancestors? Perhaps there are mementos, medals, family stories, photos or information on certificates and in newspapers.
Such a comprehensive topic cannot be summarised in a single post but listed below are some sources mentioned in today's session and some ideas for research.

Types of military records that exist

lists of officers and enlisted men and naval ratings
Regular service records and militia records
pension records
various published lists - such as the annual Army Lists
Medal rolls
promotions and awards citations in gazettes: such as London, Belfast and Edinburgh Gazettes all free online
honour rolls
books - early records of battles and campaigns
casualty lists, missing and wounded
Muster lists
Attestation papers
Biographical records eg naval biographical dictionary, specialist books on individual campaigns or battles
POWs of WWI Red Cross records now freely available
regiment and unit histories
Australian War Memorial digitised collections
Courts martial

Records that are available

Pension records: exclusion period for service and pension records in Britain - 70 years
Not all records mentioned above have survived - WW1 and other casualties (Britain)
Increased digitisation, some may be available only by application/request
Some may be available but are not indexed
Officers records may be more difficult to obtain

Location of Records

National Archives- Australia, United Kingdom, Canada
Military museums and archives, including museums of individual units
Libraries e.g. British Library holds all the records of the India Office Library so military who served in India are detailed
Publications
Commemorative organisations eg CWGC and Lives of the First World War
Family documents
Government Departments
General internet searches for units, battles, campaigns, periods of history e.g. British battles, Prisoners of war 1914-1918
Armed Forces and conflict in Find My Past
Military records in Ancestry

After learning so much in this session I was delighted this afternoon to be notified that I had won a 12 month subscription to Ancestry through their sponsorship of National Family History Month. All in all it has been a good month for learning and now I have a wonderful opportunity to further my research.