Researching soldiers who survived the war.

[Duncan]

Hi,

I have quite a few medals in my collection where the research stops with the end of the First War. I’d love to find out more details, like where they lived after the war, jobs they did, when they died etc.

I found this site the other day:

http://www.1837online.com/Trace2web/

Does anyone know if it’s any good? I see you have to pay for searching and don’t want to pay up then find I can’t find any of the men I’m looking for. It seems impressive at first glance!

I currently use service records (burnt & unburnt), medal rolls and cards, census up to 1901, CSGC, but obviously they do not give any info regarding post war. Does anyone have any tips about finding out about soldiers after the war? Death certificates are only of use if you know when and roughly where the person died.

Cheers,

Duncan.

[john w.]

$64000 question

Newspapers... death certificates are a source, even if it only gives you the place of death. Then you can work backwards to the Great War

John

[Stephen Nulty]

Duncan

One of the problems of researching the men who survived the war is that they then became simply part of the general population, which makes in increasingly difficult to trace them.

1837 Online is great for the three key recordable events in a person's life - Birth, Marriage and Death. As such, it can be really useful if, for example, you're tracing your family history and you have some key infromation to go on.

But as you point out, it's a pay-site - and all it provides is a path to information which you have to pay more for, without any certainty that the person you have identified is the one you are researching.

You only pay a few pence to identify an event, but then you have to pay £7.00 for the certificate and it may not be your man.

In my opinion, local research is the only way to locate your men, probably by looking at electoral rolls, local papers, etc., SUPPLEMENTED by 1837 Online.

Try online message boards such as those provided at www.ancestry.co.uk and leave a message in the appropriate Surname board. One benefit of this approach is that the target audience are all people who are doing similar research.

Good luck, though...hope I haven't discouraged you!

SN

[Simon Jones]

You should look at the site Free BMD as much of what the other site charges you for I think you can get free here, i.e. which year and quarter a birth, marriage or death was registered. 1837online does not itself provide the certificates, these are obtained from the official government site. I think Free BMD gives you enough info to order the certificates.

Regards

Simon

[Stephen Nulty]

Duncan/Simon

The difference between the two sites is that FreeBMD is populated by information keyed in by volunteers. There is no way of knowing for certain if the information you are looking for is already on the site or not. If you get a hit on the person you are researching, then you're in the pound seats. If you don't, it doesn't mean they don't exist - it may simply mean thay haven't yet been keyed in

1837online searches the a database which supports the actual scanned images from the registers and is therefore more complete and more accurate. Againit's only my opinion, but it's worth the small charge if you have a good idea of the date of the event you're looking for, but any kind of "scatter gun" approach can turn into an expensive search!

[Jim Clay]

You should look at the site Free BMD as much of what the other site charges you for I think you can get free here

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Duncan

Bear in mind what Stephen has correctly pointed out re 1837online; this also applies to freeBMD, though this site is free. But freeBMD is an ongoing vouluntary transcription project, which is far from complete and hasn't got that far into the 20thC yet.

Stephen's advice is good - this ain't no easy ride

Sorry Stephen, didn't see your 2nd post

Best of luck with your research

Jim

Edited 3 June , 2005 by Jim Clay

[Stephen Nulty]

Jim

No problem....looks like you've been down the same path as me with FreeBMD!

Regards

SN

[Desmond7]

IF you have war info which indicatesyour man is a member of Masons, Buffs etc ..

A good footballer/sportsman

A musician/band member .. a big thing in those days.

You will be rewarded by looking through post war papers.

PLUS check WW2 obit notices etc ... amazingly they contain a lot of detail about the generation which fought in WW1. Trace back/forward .. you can glean some good stuff.

Also look out for local history publications .. espy old photo books. Amazing at what you will find.

Des

[Simon Jones]

Duncan/Simon

The difference between the two sites is that FreeBMD is populated by information keyed in by volunteers. There is no way of knowing for certain if the information you are looking for is already on the site or not. If you get a hit on the person you are researching, then you're in the pound seats. If you don't, it doesn't mean they don't exist - it may simply mean thay haven't yet been keyed in

1837online searches the a database which supports the actual scanned images from the registers and is therefore more complete and more accurate. Againit's only my opinion, but it's worth the small charge if you have a good idea of the date of the event you're looking for, but any kind of "scatter gun" approach can turn into an expensive search!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Stephen - thanks for the clarification.

Simon

[SMG65]

Duncan

In order to fill in the gaps of my relatives and what they did after the war I found that getting a copy of the birth certificates of their children would find out occupations and addresses. From their occupation you can get a good idea where they worked.

The marriage certificates of their children also gives the occupation of their father and whether he is deceased. If deceased then you can narrow down the period that he died.

I also talked to relatives. I am lucky that I had relatives who lived until their nineties. In fact I have a Gt Aunt who is 96 and she still throws out some gems which to her are trivial but to me they are very important.

If you haven't got any 'ancient' relatives talk to parents and uncles/aunties. They will have information that to them means nothing and they will have never mentioned but to you could be a vital clue. My parents are in their early sixties and they knew their grandparents who of course were around during the Great War and they may have picked little things up.

Write everything down that you are told, no matter how trivial. I am speaking from the experience of once not writing everything down and then forgetting who said what.

Good Luck

Never Give Up

SEAN