I am so pleased that many of you found the last post useful also that there are so many of you doing the same as me and researching the family tree.  Today’s post will concentrate on how to find military service records and information.

My Granddad was born in 1880 and joined the army on the 11th of February 1898 as a cavalryman with the 10th Hussars.  This information was obtained from several different sources, the first was my Mum’s own recollections from her childhood, the second was my Granddad’s WWI Medal Card  that I found on The National Archive web site and the third was his Army Pension Records located at Ancestry. 

Family story’s are an important part of my research, they are the foundation around which I base my research.  My Mum knew for certain that her father was in the 10th Hussars because he proudly told the family stories of his long and illustrious military career at the dinner table every evening.  One of the most important things I have learned is to never discount family stories as they are an important addition to your research tool kit.  My Mum recalled that her father had a campagne clasp on his Boer War medal, awarded for The Defence of Ladysmith.  While doing my research I found that the 10th Hussars were never at The Defence of Ladysmith, but my Mum was certain of her information.  When finally we found Granddads Army Pension Record it showed that for 18 months during 1908-1909 my Granddad was posted to the 18th Hussars, who were at The Defence of Ladysmith … so Mum’s memory was correct.  Hint #6 - Don’t dismiss family stories as they can often be more reliable than a history book.

To find a full history of your ancestors military career you will need to look at their Army Pension Record.  These can be very tricky to locate but if your relative served in WWI then you may be able to find their Army Pension Records at Ancestry or by writing to the Army Personnel Centre.  

Army Personnel Centre
HQ Secretariat
Historical Disclosures
Mail Point 400
Kentigern House
65 Brown Street
Glasgow
G2 8EX
Tel: 0845 600 9663

The Army Personnel Centre holds the records of Officers or Soldiers whose regular or reserve service ended between 1921 and 1997.  Sadly many of these records were destroyed when the building they were stored in was bomed during the blitz.  Around two million records were salvaged from the blaze, with approximately 40% of the records surviving.  Commonly referred to as the ‘burnt records’, they can be viewed at The National Archive in Kew, England in series WO 363.

For many years my Mum searched in vein for her fathers military records but she was constantly told that without her farthers regimental number they couldn’t help her.  One Sunday afternoon, while browsing the Internet, I was very lucky to chance upon The National Archive web site where they had just released scans of all WWI Medal Cards, low’n'behold I found my Granddads card along with that elusive regimental number, that’s it there in the top right hand corner of the card.

As you can see this card is very hard to read unless you are an expert on all things WWI.  One of my favorite web sites is The Long, Long Trail, dedicated solely to WWI. Here you will find all the information you could possibly need to know about WWI.  Those strange hieroglyphic’s on the Medal Card were all cleared up when I wrote to the author of The Long, Long Trail and he kingly translated it for me.  Hint #7 - Don’t be afraid to email web sites that offer information on genealogy it has been my experience that if they can’t help you they will point you in the direction of someone who can. 

If you are lucky enough to have your ancestors medals you may be interested in this site, The Guide To British War Medals.  They have a very comprehensive list of all medals issued and some very interesting facts about the medals.  Another useful link is The British Army site.  You can find links to many different battalions here, so if you know which battalion your ancestor was in you may find this site helpful.

Phew so there you have it, my entire knowledge on finding out about your ancestors British military history.  I hope this has been helpful, next time I will be talking about using other peoples family trees to find your own family ties.

TTFN