Soldiers Records

[Corporal Chris]

I have spent fruitless hours searching 'Draft, Enlistment and Service' on Ancestry to find whether the 30 military aged brothers of my casualties also served. I am told that in one family 9 went to war and only 5 came back. I am also aware that many records were destroyed during WW2 but I have drawn a complete blank. Admittedly some names are so common that there have been 6 or 7 thousand possible answers which I have not ploughed through. Is there another route or am I wasting my time with this particular aspect of my research?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Regards,

Chris.

[eviltaxman]

If you're looking for service records then it depends on the name. Although they claim to have uploaded up to "M", some later letters do crop up. They are also updating the A-M listings every so often. The only alternative is to either visit the National Archives or get a researcher to do it for you..... but that could cost even if they come up with nothing.

[grantowi]

Chris,

Have you tried checking if their are any mentions on the local memorials ?

or you might get lucky with an address on the back of a MIC

Grant

[Corporal Chris]

If you're looking for service records then it depends on the name. Although they claim to have uploaded up to "M", some later letters do crop up. They are also updating the A-M listings every so often. The only alternative is to either visit the National Archives or get a researcher to do it for you..... but that could cost even if they come up with nothing.

[/quote

Thanks to you and Grant for your responses. I think a trip down to Kew is the answer if I want to pursue this line. Regarding other memorials, I had assumed, perhaps naivley, that if they were not on 'their' village's memorial they had survived.

Thanks again,

Chris.