RESEARCHING SOLDIERS OF THE GREAT WAR: HINTS AND TIPS

F

flasheart

Member
Australia

Step 1. To research an Australian soldier of the great war, you can start with a surname or a service number. If you only have one or two pieces of information, you can then refine your search by searching the nominal rolls at this address:

http://www.awm.gov.au/nominalrolls/ww1/

This brings up scanned copies of the original nominal rolls with service number, name, rank, unit, dates of service and whether the soldier was a casualty.


Step 2. The next step is to go to the National Archives and do a record search.
http://naa12.naa.gov.au/scripts/ResearcherScreen.asp
If you know the soldier's surname and service number enter them in the key word search. Enter 1914-1918 in the dates. Click Search. This will bring up all the possible matches. If you used service number and name you should have only one match.

Step 3. Click on the match and it will bring up an index entry on the archival document.

Step 4. Now click on the 'View Digital Copy' link and you will get a scanned copy of the soldier's original service record, anything from 20 -100 sacnned pages including enlistment details, medical history, disciplinary record, medal entitlements.

This is a great resource. Within 2-3 minutes you can fully research a soldier.

Let's hear from the other countries on how to research British, American, Canadian, New Zealand, French, Belgian, Russian, Italian, Portuguese, Serb, Japanese, Montenegrin, Greek, Romanian, German, Austro-Hungarian, Bulgarian, Turkish etc soldiers.

Mike
 
here is a site that is under constant addition . It is still a wealth of info .It show's Attestaion paper's , the first 2 sheet's of signing up to the CEF . Yjese are ARMY files .The RNCVR and the RCN also Rn and the RFC, are not listed online , the RFC and RN are kept in England , these were removed as the were Brttish branches of the Military.
If you do not have a service number , I suggest pibking the surname to enter and hit search , then filter through all the files . The reason I do this is some men went by thier Middle name and are listed .
Some Naval files are avaivble and must be requested .

Here are some of the Battalion War Diaries , some are not listed as they are not yet put to digital files. The unit's subtitle will help find which unit to list for your search, there are some other Commenwealth unit;s listed mostly the ones serving alongside Canadian Unit's.

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/archivianet/020152_e.html

The next link will give you the attestation paper's of member's of the CEF , mu suggestion is when you only have a name punch in the Surname only , as it may not have rank or Given names may not ne listed according to reseach available.

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/archivianet/cef/001042-100.01-e.php?PHPSESSID=8vfnj4en95b985fdpkg4cp8pr2

There apear's to be more being listed every time on the National Archives of Canada . The CEF files are avaialbe for a cost ,these are fairly reasonable ,and are fairly comprehebsive.This depend's on the individual, Canada had a Problem in 1917 with the inception of Conscription and some of these men did not report for duty , so they ssaully only have 1 sheet . For most of the CEF files they are very detailed,every time the soldier passed habds of an officer there is a paper trail.
Hope this help's .There were alot of American's that served in the CEF .
Mark
 
Hey MIke and Mark,
This is a great idea for a thread, I have tried to figure out how to sticky it, but either I am not allowed to do it any more, or I am just too stupid (I suspect the latter).
I wish I could add some sites for researcheing US soldiers, but I know of none that can be accessed by the general public. The is a web site based in Utah that has scans of all the inductions records from WWI, but it has a very steep subscription fee, It is http://www.ancestry.com/ . I notice that they have a 14 day free trial offer.

Best wishes
Gus
 
Gus:
I have stickied this post. All you have to do as an administrator is go back to the first post click edit and then go down to the bottom of the message and click on sticky. All cudos go to Joe as he is the one who told me how to do it. Brian
 
The International Committee of the Red Cross is digitizing their POW records for the First World War. They have a searchable database found at: http://grandeguerre.icrc.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Here is a brief description from their website.

Archives 1914-1918: during the First World War, 10 million people, servicemen or civilians, were captured and sent to detention camps.
The belligerent countries involved provided lists of prisoners to the ICRC, wich created an index card for each prisoner and detainee. Now, you can search through all 5 million of them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top