Monday, March 16, 2015

New Military Records Online

Ancestry has added thousands of Australian service records from the First World War. Digitised from dossiers held by The National Archives of Australia, the collection covers personnel from the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF), Royal Australian Naval Bridging Train (RANBT), Australian Flying Corps (AFC) and the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS).

Ancestry has also uploaded a tranche of records regarding UK citizens resident in the United States who served in the British Expeditionary Force between 1917-19. Released in partnership with the US National Archives and Records Administration, the collection comprises scanned index cards, providing the name of the resident, their address, date of birth, marital status, civilian occupation and date they entered service.

Finally, Ancestry has added the records of men who served in the Royal Navy during the First World War. Spanning 1900-1918, the Registers of Seamen’s Services can reveal information such as birthdate, birthplace, vessels and dates of service. Family historians can also click through from the transcriptions to view scans of the original documents, held at The National Archives, which provide additional details such as physical description.

Thousands of women’s military records have been made available on Findmypast for the first time. Launched to coincide with International Women’s Day on 8 March, the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps Service Records collection provides details of women who served in the unit (known by the acronym WAAC) in England, France and Flanders during the First World War. Digitised from records held at The National Archives, the files reveal details such as birthplace, physical description, medical history, education and parents’ nationalities.

Forces War Records has now uploaded more than 100,000 First World War medical records to the web. Originally launched with 30,000 entries in October 2014, the Military Hospitals Admissions and Discharge Registers collection comprises transcriptions of files created by field hospitals between 1915-18, containing details of men treated on the front line and the nature of their ailments.

Researchers looking for family living in Jersey during the WW2 German occupation can now download their registration card, including a photograph. The collection of German Occupation registration cards, recognised by UNESCO for its importance, has been digitised and added to the Jersey Heritage website by Jersey Archive. The collection includes 90,000 images that can be searched for free, although there is a fee of £5 to download a card.

With so much happening during the Centemary of World War 1 I'm finding it quite hard to keep up with all the records and information coming online - especially as I an researching family members in several countries.  I hope you all find something useful in the sites mentioned above.

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