Genealogy Chat

Books were produced for some parts of the country but the project was never completed. The whole of "The National Roll of The Great War, 1914-18: Manchester. Title page" is online but you did not say what part of the country you were enquiring about. Martin

James I believe there is a book with ALL the names of soldiers (?servicemen) who served in the 1st WW. Sorry I don't know the name but believe there is a copy at either the FRC or National Archives. They should be able to tell you if you rang them. Good luck, Jean

James, Have mailed you privately about the Public Record Office. Regs Jane

The medals records will also give you your grandfathers regt or regts if he changed around, or at least the 4 I have bought have, then with this information if you have a real interest you can go further, regimental records etc. Be warned it is pretty unlikely however you will find details of one ordinary soldier on the regt diaries. I did my Grandfathers who was in Gallipolli & Palestine and trawled through 3 years of entries to find one mention of his name in 1918, he had been trained in the use of a certain machine gun!

James, My grandfather served in WW1 and survived. He never talked about it, I only know from my mother's stories that he went on a ship through the Mediterranean, and served in "Mesopotamia". I don't know his regiment or any other information, except that he was married and had at least 2 children. Did he volunteer or was there a callup of married men? Who knows. The service records for WW1 were moved to a safe site in London at the start of WW2. Safe site was bombed and over half the records lost. The remainder were moved to Kew, and there was a fire that burned much of the remainder. If your guy was an officer - go to the MOD or national archives site and you will be able to find him. Ordinary joe blow soldier is more difficult. The national archives site has just put up the records of all servicemen who won medals in WW1. All soldiers who served in the war got a service medal, and all who served overseas got a second medal. The chances are good that your guy got at least the first medal. You can enter your guy's name and see what happens. It costs 3 pounds fifty to get a copy of the record that accompanied the medal, and there are apparently something like 6 records to one page. That is, you can get records for 6 "John Does" for 3 pounds fifty. I have found my grandfather's name on this site - along with about 20 others of the same name. I don't know his regiment or anything, so I'm debating how much I want to spend!

Hi I found my grandfather's WW1 service record at Kew (National Archives) when I looked up his elder brother's. I found out quite a lot that I hadn't known before. They were hostilities-only, I think, but my great uncle was killed (obliterated) at Thiepval - his name is on the memorial there, and now that I know about it I plan to visit one day. I was fortunate to find the records. More than 50% of the records were lost to a WW2 bomb, apparently. Christine

none that I know of but if its a relle you can send off for his service records. go through the MOD. If pos have name rank and number. if not his regiment.

Hi, Does anybody know if there is a web site that lists soldiers that served and survived the great war? Many Thanks, James