Ancestry adds British military records
Two major new collections for tracing British military servicemen have been added to Ancestry ( ancestry.co.uk).
The first dataset is ‘UK, Officer Service Records, 1764–1932’, containing 129,218 records. They are taken from service papers for military officers originally held in the series ‘War Office: Records of Officers’ Services’ (WO76) at The National Archives (TNA) in Kew. The records, which are also available on findmypast.co.uk, range from simple appointment lists to full service records containing vital genealogical details including the officer’s regiment, unit and service rank and number; his date and place of birth; his date of enlistment; war service; and, if he married, the date and place of marriage in addition to his wife’s name and the details of any children.
One example in the records is Lt Col Charles Arthur Cecil King (mistranscribed in the index as Keip). Born in Cape Town in 1863, he was killed in action at Ypres in 1914. His service record shows that he fought in Sudan, South Africa and Burma, and also spent time in Nova Scotia, Egypt and Malta. Details of his marriage to Adela and the birth of his two daughters Marion and Celia are also included, along with a statement that he could speak French, German, Hindustani and Persian.
The second is a set of 103,160 ‘Scotland, Ireland and Wales, Militia Attestation Papers, 1800–1915’ (also previously released on findmypast.co.uk). Militia forces were the oldest part of the British military. Until 1881, they were a part-time force, organised by county and called upon for home defence. After that date, they were absorbed into local regiments. They were eventually reorganised into the Territorial Army in 1908. The attestation papers were filled in by recruits, and often hold information about their physical appearance and previous service.
Both record sets are indexed and searchable on Ancestry, but the original records can only be viewed on Ancestry’s military history site fold3.com. An ‘All Access’ subscription that covers all of Ancestry’s global records, Fold3 and newspapers.com costs £24.99 a month. Documents from the WO76 series can also be downloaded for free from discovery. national archives.gov.uk/browse/r/h/C14284 as part of TNA’s Digital Microfilm project.