How complete are MIC records

[Pat K]

I am compiling a database of soldiers bearing my family name from the MIC records.

However when I cross-ref with CWGC there appear to be 3 out of 28 dead who have no MIC. How complete are the MIC records?. Were any of them part of the records burnt /destroyed in World War 2

Any insight into this appreciated

Cheers

Pat

[Paul Reed]

Are some/all of those you traced who you couldn't find buried in the UK? If so, they may have not served overseas and so wouldn't be entitled to any medals and would thus not be on the MICs.

[Stebie9173]

Officers had to claim theirs, so that section is also incomplete.

Steve.

[Paul Reed]

True, but if you read the post, Pat K is talking about servicemen who died, and in the case of deceased officers their medals were issued automatically to the stated next of kin.

[Stebie9173]

Of course, Paul.

My mistook! (Where did I put my brain...)

Steve.

[welshdoc]

If you havnt alreadt tried it . Also check for surname, spelling mistakes and variations as well as variations of first names and initials and the odd number error.

[HarryBettsMCDCM]

In concurrence with welshdoc,numbers ofter are described on the NA Listing a "incomplete" usually meaning it is hard to decipher or smudged/ripped on the original,so use of "wild cards" ie "*" is often useful.

[Pat K]

Two of the three are definitely qualified, one being at Vis-en-Artois memorial and the other at Hazebrouk Communal Cemetery.

The other is commerated on a screen wall in UK so may not have served overseas. He was only 15 which may have a bearing. All three were Privates.

I'll check out the possibility of incorrect name number etc.

Thanks for the input

Cheers

Pat

[Pat K]

OK

Searching with just Service No. has found my 2 KIAs- misspelt surnames. No joy on the youngster-perhaps a training accident or just ill in Uk

Then searching some of the weird ways my name has been spelt over the years has thrown up another 20 odd names to investigate including misspelt duplicates for names I already have often with additional info.like a complete first name instead of an initial.

Thanks for the suggestions - i suppose I naively assumed that some sort of quality control was in place for these official records

Cheers

Pat

[Michael]

Pat

The medal index cards were the official records and they are mostly correct. The index which you see online was compiled fairly recently and is not an official record. Many mistakes were made and this has been discussed on other threads.

Mick

[Chris_Baker]

We even predicted it was going to happen before the project started!

And the medal index cards are a doddle to digitise in comparsion with army service records...

[Pat K]

Pat

The medal index cards were the official records and they are mostly correct. The index which you see online was compiled fairly recently and is not an official record. Many mistakes were made and this has been discussed on other threads.

Mick

Point taken Mick- thousands of records being catalogued and me looking a gift-horse in the mouth!

Cheers

Pat

[per ardua per mare per terram]

There are over 5 million original cards; even if they were 99.9% accurate (and I know of no such success rate in quality control for any computer system, let alone one done by hand) would give over 5,000 errors on the original cards. Then overlay the modern errors on top (and that system certainly isn't 99.9% accurate) and you do get some variation.

Duplicate cards crept in with so many soldiers swapping battalions, regiments and even services. It most often occured with stars on one card and Victory & British War Medals on another.