Family History - Service Records

Family Sources | General Registration | Census Returns | Parish Registers
Nonconformist Registers | Probate | Newspapers | Commercial Directories | Service Records

Service Records for our ancestors and relatives document their time serving Crown and Country. Whether your forebear served in the Army, the Navy, the Merchant Navy, the Royal Marines, the Royal Air Force, the Coastguard and Excise Services, the Police, the Post Office or even the Railway, it may be possible to locate a record of service. Normally, records for those who served up to the end of World War I, have been released for public searching and can be viewed at The National Archives at Ruskin Avenue, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU. Later records may remain closed to the public but genealogical information may be released to next-of-kin.

The records can provide date and place of birth, date and place of enlistment, a physical description, medical history, details of postings, promotions and disciplinary action taken against the serviceman, pay received, name and address of next-of- kin and even the date and place of death. There may even be a photograph of the serviceman.

Such records bring the history of our ancestors to life.

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