Genealogy Chat

Marc With him being invalided out there is a fair chance he may have been given a pension. I'm at Kew in a month's time and so if noone else can look before them give me a shout and I'll check the pension papers for you and the burnt records as well. Jan

Have you tried to get his medal record from National Archives - documents online - its only £3.50 and may be a start.

Marc You have made very good progress so far. The only absolute way to know anything of your grandfather's record is to get his papers from Kew. Ancestry are starting to bring the papers on line to view but they only have A and B available at the moment and no-one knows how long it will be until the records are complete. The records themselves were subject to bombing in WWII which means that about 40% of them survive (this rate will vary depending on who you are talking to, but suffice to say a lot of them have disappeared). If you are able to visit Kew yourself so much the better otherwise it's either a wait for Ancestry OR a researcher. If you go to this site: http://www.1914-1918.net/ and scroll down to the bit which is entitled 'Researching a Soldier' it gives excellent advice. In fact you couldn't get better advice on WWI from anywhere else other than that site. Join their forum, which is extremely friendly and helpful - give them the details you're looking for and they may be able to tell you something about perhaps his regiment. Have you tried downloading his medal card? Get this from TNA (the national archives - google it) website. The website I quoted above will do a search for you if you follow the links - they are very honest and above board, the website owner is the chief researcher and he gives a lot of info away for free as you will from the site. Good luck in your search. Kim

I see that you have his medal card already, which should make it easier to spot him. You will to visit the national archives in Kew to obtain his service papers.. you have about a 1 in 3 chance of finding them. Look in the WO 364 range and the WO 363 range. If you go to www.nationalarchives.gov.uk and look down the left hand side of the front page then you will see a section called military history, click on army...its a research guide.

oh and join a site called www.1914-1918.net...its a great forum full of military buffs who are always more than happy to help.

have you looked at that entry on the national archives site. May be his medal card.

For the last year, I've been researching my family tree and have made great progress. The area I'm having trouble with is finding my grandfathers military history. I never knew him as he died when my father was in his teens. We'd both like to know about his world war one activities and if possible, visit the places he might have fought at. He was invalided out of the war and was awarded the Silver War Badge. The details I have so far are: His name was Luther Wood, born 4/08/1889 in Peasmarsh, Sussex. He died around 1950, but not sure exactly. He was a trooper in the household battalion, regiment number 2367. I have a WO/372/22 catalogue entry. Any help or direction you can give me would be much appreciated.