Find Ancestors

Can you please advise - what is the best site to search for military & naval records. A lot do not appear to have place of birth, or year of birth (although they have these fields). If you are doing 'pay as you go', it can work out expensive trying to find the right one.

What dates are you looking for? The only site that has WW1 Army records is Ancestry and only about 30% of those survive.

Find my Past has records from before that. For anything after 1918, the records are still with the MOD and can only be obtained by the soldier himself or his NOK if he has died. It costs £30 and there is a fairly long wait.

The National Archives online records have Royal Navy records from, I think, 1873 to the 1920s. They cost £3.00 to download.

Thanks Potty (love the name!). Dates I'm searching are mostly WW1 and before, although after would have been nice.

In most cases I have no idea if they have been in the forces - I'm checking out of interest. As my ancestors came from rural backgrounds, I've found looking at the Roll of Honour for their village helps.

A lot of entries on Ancestry and Find My Past don't have date of birth or place of birth (as mentioned above).

I think I need to think about whether I need to find out or not....

Thanks again.

:-S

Joan, why not post some details of who you are looking for and I am sure somebody will help.

If it is men who were killed in WW1 then the CWGC (Commonwealth War Graves Commission site) is a great help. The entries usually have a Regimental number which can be used on Ancestry to help find records.

Thanks again Potty. I have actually posted some on the site and had help before. As I will probably try to check all males in the family, at some stage, it would be taking advantage a bit too much?

I'll check the CWGC site more thoroughly as well.