Family History and Genealogy: Were Any of Your Ancestors in the Military ?

Military records are another great source of information when researching the family history. Most people would have a father, uncle or grandfather who served his country at one time or another. I know that I had my grandfather who served in WW1 and I had several uncles who served in WW2, it is tremendous to be able to view military records in relation to their service.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission or CWGC have a database known as the "Debt of Honour Register" which lists the 1.7 million men and women of the Commonwealth Forces who died serving their country in the two world wars and the 23,000 cemeteries and memorials worldwide where they are commemorated. This register has a search engine where you can type in the details of the person or even a surname to get a result. This is yet another great free genealogy resource which you can make use of, to find an ancestor.

In the USA the best place to search for military records is at Ancestry.com who have a huge collection of military information going back to 1775.

Other places to search for US Military Records are:-

You can also do a Google search on a term like "US military records" and check the results.

In the UK you can check out a site called Find My Past they also offer a 14 day free trial and another site called Military Genealogy is also well worth looking at.

In Australia you should check the following which are all great resources:-

I hope that this has again been useful for you, and if I have not mentioned your part of the world, I do apologize, but you should just try a Google search on "Your Country Military Records" and naturally change the Your Country to the name of your country.

See you next time!

Peter Annett