Family History in the Wars

As both wars begin to pass into history, this is the perfect tool for discovering how your family suffered and served.

The World Wars of last century were the greatest conflicts ever known. Over a million men and women enlisted and served in British armed forces alone between 1914-18, and the figure for the Second World War was even higher. Almost every family has ancestral links to the Services, but finding details on individuals has often proved a difficult task.

This clear, accessible guide shows how to get the very best from all sources now available. It gives expert advice on researching men’s and women’s service records for World War I and II, including Army, Navy, Air Force, nursing and merchant seamen. Wide-ranging in scope and practical in approach, it shows how best to trace an individual’s career, including medals and gallantry awards, prisoner of war files and casualty lists.

Women who served in both conflicts are well represented, from the online releases of Women’s Auxiliary Corps records to First World War nurses, and newly available naval records open whole new avenues for research. Special techniques and tips are provided for tracing family members in the Commonwealth and Dominion forces and the Indian Army, and a special section considers how to use British and American sources to discover details of American servicemen and GI brides.

Author:
William Spencer has been military specialist at The National Archives since 1996. He serves in the Royal Navy before joining the Archives in 1993, and possesses an MA in War Studies from King’s College, London. He is the author of the bestselling Army Service Records of the First World War (3rd Edition) and Medals.