|
Australia |
Canada |
Denmark |
England |
France |
Germany

"God and the Soldier,
all men adore
in time of strife,
and not before
When the danger is past,
all wrongs arighted
God is forgotten,
the Old Soldier slighted"
an anonymous soldier under
the Duke of Marlborough
circa 1705
Do you have stories about ancestors who fought in various wars? Or perhaps you have inherited a weapon
that your grandfather used during World War I or a faded uniform that your great-grandfather wore? Ever
wondered what historical information or photographs might be available to complete or enhance the family
history? Military records often rich in personal information, historical facts, and genealogical
gems can bring your ancestors to life though they served long ago and far, far away.
The challenge is to identify which military records exist and then figure out how to access them. Through
the years most countries have created military records, but not all of these have survived, and in many
instances those that exist are not indexed, have not been filmed or digitized, and are not on the Web.
Here's a look at the military records of various countries with tips on how to access them.
AUSTRALIA. National Archives of Australia
has Army records pertaining to: Boer War, World War I and World War II and later conflicts, Navy and Air
Force records, veterans' case files, courts-martial files, civilian service, soldier settlement and war
gratuities.

CANADA. Most of its 18th- and 19th-century records
of military units were kept by the War Office and other offices in Great Britain. There are some records
in French archives, but the National Archives of Canada has copies
of many of these records. Canada has been involved in these military actions:
- 1939-1945 World War II
- 1914-1918 World War I
- 1899-1902 Boer War
- 1837-1838 Rebellion of 1837
- 1812-1815 War of 1812
- 1774-1789 American Revolution
- 1756-1763 French and Indian War
- 1755-1758 Fall of Acadia
Records of deceased military members are available 20 years after their death to members of their families.
Requests to:
National Personnel Records Centre
National Archives of Canada
Tunney's Pasture
Ottawa, ON, Canada K1A 0N3
The Canadian Agency of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission keeps records and registers of Canadian
soldiers who died in the two world wars:
The Secretary-General
Canadian Agency, C.W.G.C.
East Memorial Building
Ottawa, ON, Canada K1A 0P4
During the 19th century all Canadian men, 16 to 60, were required to serve in the sedentary militia. Scattered
militia lists give names of some of them. There are few service records for Canadian volunteers who fought
in most 19th-century wars, but the National Archives of Canada has medal registers listing names of many
who served during the 19th century. Keep in mind that military pensions were sometimes authorized many
years after the service. Canadian Military Genealogical FAQ provides
pages of information for genealogical and historical research.
The Canadian Great War
(WWI) Home Page
The Canadian Military Heritage Project:
Lest we Forget
Canadian War Brides
Australia |
Canada |
Denmark |
England |
France |
Germany
DENMARK. Laegdsruller (Army Leving Rolls) are a major
source for genealogical research in Denmark. These records can help you track an ancestor as he moved
from parish to parish and with this information you can then seek census and church records. Starting
in 1788 all males from birth until age 34 were listed on a parish roll of potential draftees. Each name
was assigned a number and every three years a new roll was taken and each man's number became smaller.
Every parish in the county was also assigned a number and this number was permanently assigned to identify
the parish. When a man moved from one parish to another, the roll usually indicates the new parish's number
and the person's supplemental number enabling the researcher to him as he moved to a new parish. Danish
military records were kept by the national government and these have been centralized at the Haerens Arkiv
(Military Archive) at the National Archives in Copenhagen.
Haerens Arkiv
Slotsholmgade 4
DK-1216 Kobenhavn K
Denmark
Australia |
Canada |
Denmark |
England |
France |
Germany
ENGLAND. England has been in wars for centuries.
Among the major conflicts were:
- 1939-1945 World War II
- 1914-1918 World War I
- 1877-1901 Boer Wars
- 1857-1860 Indian Mutiny
- 1854-1856 Crimean war
- 1805-1815 Napoleonic Wars
- 1775-1783 U.S. Revolution
- 1755-1762 Seven Years War
(French and Indian Wars)
- 1642-1649 Civil War and Cromwellian period
- 1455-1485 Wars of the Roses
Military service other than the militia was usually a lifetime career. The "regular army"
and the navy were the major branches of the military. Armed forces that kept their own records include:
Militia, fencibles, yeomanry, territorial armies, coast guard, royal marines, and merchant marines.
Civil registration, census, or church records usually can provide enough information to help in a search
for military records. Pre-1914 records are at the Public Record Office, Kew, Post-1914 army records are
at:
Army Records Centre
Bourne Avenue
Hayes, Middlesex UB3 1RF
Post 1914 navy records are at:
Ministry of Defense
Main Building, Whitehall SW1A 2HB
England's army began as a permanent organization in 1660. Pre-1847 English army service was usually for
life or when they were discharged early for disability. Pre-1872 army records are arranged by regiment.
Most regiments have published histories that provide information about where the units served and about
the battles fought.
Surviving navy records date from 1617, but are difficult to use due to lack of indexes. Many are available
only at the Public Record Office, Kew. Before 1853, individual ratins (seamen) are not mentioned in navy
records other than on musters or pay lists unless they deserted, misbehaved, or earned a medal. After
1853, seamen served for the duration of their career. The Royal Marines has been a separate branch
of the military since 1755. Alphabetically arranged records of marines survive from 1790, some by enlistment
date and others by discharge date.
In order to use British military records you will need to determine the
specific army regiment or navy ship on which your ancestor served. With this information you may be able
to utilize such records as:
- Muster Rolls
- Description Books
- Returns of Service
- Pension Records
- Pay Records
- Continuous Service Engagement Books
- Registers of Service
- Soldiers Documents
- Chaplains Returns (Army chaplains throughout the British Empire kept
records that list the baptisms, marriages and burials of soldiers and their families. These returns, from
1760 to 1971, are indexed and available by correspondence from the General Register Office.
- Regimental Registers (1790-1924)
- Records of Service (army officers from 1771 to 1911, but incomplete
before 1828)
- List of Officers. The Army List is a published annual, with an index
to each year beginning in 1765, but half-pay (semi-retired) officers are not included in early indexes.
- The Navy List provides names of all commissioned officers, including
masters, pursers, surgeons, chaplains, yard officers, coastguardsmen, and reservists.
Militia Lists and Musters. Begin as early as 1297 and contain the names of men eligible for military service.
Not all have survived for all years in all localities.
Militia units were raised on a county basis and kept their own records
Fencibles army units raised for home service only, records usually with militia records.
Yeomanry volunteer regiments; few records have survived.
Colonial armies forces raised in other countries and such records are usually in the country where
the forces were raised, except the Indian Army, for which many records are held at the India Office Library,
197 Blackfriars Road, London Se1 8NG.
Coast Guard (1816-1923) and Royal Marines (1790-1914) kept their own records.
If your ancestor served in the British Army before 1913 the major source to search is a class of records
known as War Office (WO) 97. However, because of the arrangement of these records, you can not write to
the Public Record Office, Ruskin Avenue, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU, England, and request a search
for your William Winterbotham. You will have to make the trip to England or hire a researcher there to
do the work for you. The WO97 records contain the personal document of soldiers, but not officers, who
were discharged to pension. If your ancestor died in service, completed a limited non-qualifying period
of service, purchased his discharge, negotiated a free discharge or deserted, you will not find anything
about him in these records.
British army records start in 1760 and the WO97 records are divided into five periods by dates, and each
group is arranged differently, meaning the researcher needs to know some of the peculiarities of this
filing system in order to be successful.
- From 1760-1854 these records are arranged alphabetically by regiment,
so you need to determine that information first. However, there now is a computerized alphabetical surname
index. It was compiled by volunteers from the Friends of the PRO, and there is a printout at the PRO in
England. However, if there are several soldiers of the same name a rather common problem
you still will have to determine which one is yours.
- From 1855-1872 the records are arranged by regiment and there is no
index.
- From 1873-1882 the documents are filed alphabetically by name within
the arm of service, i.e. cavalry, infantry, artillery, engineers and corps, rather than by regiment.
If you do not have this information, start with the infantry, which was the largest group.
- From 1883-1899 and 1900-1913 the records for the entire army are filed
alphabetically by surname in these groups.
If your ancestor was an officer, tracing him is rather straight-forward
since there is a variety of sources available. The key one is called "Army Lists" and it covers the period
from 1702 to the present. There is a reference set of the published "Army Lists" at the PRO. Until 1871
officers were not entitled to a pension per se. When they retired they either sold their commissions or
went on what is called "half pay." Payments of half pay and pensions rested with the paymaster-general
(PMG), and it among those PMG records that the genealogist will have to search at the PRO. They date from
1737.
If you are tracing an ancestor born after 1837 in England and Wales or 1855 in Scotland, it is quite possible
to find a reference to a solder's regiment on a birth, marriage or death certificate. Therefore civil
registration records should be searched as well as the census returns of 1841-1891, where reference to
professions and occupations are found.
The Public Records Office PRO has information about
its available publications and online records.
FRANCE. Some French military records begin as early
as the 1500s. Many have been centralized at the Military Archives in Vincennes, but conscription records
are kept at the departmental archives. Military records are rarely used in genealogical research because
they are difficult to access and few are indexed; additionally, they are kept confidential for 120 years
from the soldier's birth. To use these records, in most instances you will need to know the soldier's
specific regiment or sailor's ship. The military archives in Vincennes have not been microfilmed.
Le projet Ste Helene (The Saint Helene's Project) is
a volunteer project to index records of the Medal of St. Helena, awarded to 390,000 soldiers (still living
in 1857) who fought under Napoleon 1792-1815. These soldiers were born circa 1765-1797 and all of them
belonged to the French army between 1792 and 1815. The site is in French, English, and Flemish (with pages
for other languages under construction). The online database already includes records of more than 23,000
medal recipients, and indexing is in progress for many more French departements.
GERMANY. Most German states
had conscription laws and most young men were required to register for military service. Young men who
had not yet served were required to get special permission to emigrate. The earliest records begin about
1485, listing only the names of the soldiers, but records from the middle of the 19th century onward give
information about promotions, places served, pensions, conduct and details about the person's career;
some may include age, birthplace, residence, occupation, and physical description as well as the names
of family members.
Access to Germany military records is often a problem. There is no central archive for these records.
Each German state had its own system of keeping records before 1867 and these records are now stored in
several German state archives. In 1867 the armies of all but three German states (Bayern, Sachsen, or
Württemberg) were integrated into the armies of Preußen. These military records were almost completely
destroyed in 1945.
UNITED STATES of AMERICA
See Guide No. 14.
Australia |
Canada |
Denmark |
England |
France |
Germany

 |
Suggested Reading
& References |
Baxter, Angus. In Search of Your Canadian Roots
Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing Co.,
Inc., 1994.
Baxter, Angus. In Search of Your British &
Irish Roots Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing Co.,
Inc., 1999.
Baxter, Angus. In Search of Your European Roots [second
Edition] Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing Co.,
Inc., 1994
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Family
History Library. Research Outlines: Canada, France, Germany, England, and Denmark.: Salt
Lake City, Utah, 1993.
|