Ancestry - WW1 British Army Records - Free for 1 week - 7th to 14th November

myrtleturtle

hi
i had something similar when i started my partners line but we were lucky with an aunt that at least knew the number of brothers/sisters to his grandad and a few of the names but his grandad never talked about his family either due to a fall out.turned out to be 10 of them in all
as of where to start depends on how much info you already have
www.rootschat.com is a thread board like this where you can post look up requests and such like.

i know how frustrating it can be, i'm not sure what help i can be if at all but if you want to pm me the surname your searching, area, and mths/yrs of BMD'S you know i'll have a look about to see if i can help you get started in some way.do you have their certificates?
offers there if you want

heavensbug wrote: »

I have alway wanted to track my family tree back.

Trouble is the only people with any real informaiton on my family are my parents and because the won't talk about family, my father especially i don't put much effort into it.

Anyone able to help a little.

Basically all I got to start from is my Date of birth, My parents date of birth and marriage date and possibly my Gran on my mother's side date of birth and death.

Maybe if I work my way through it I can work out the date of death of my Grandad on my dad's side but I don;t know his DOB and he was married twice which really muddies the waters.

My father even refuses to look at a photo of him for which I have never got to the bottom of so I guess this drives my want to know where I come from because at the moment all I know is what I have in my home. Me,my wife and my kids. I know thats enough but I would like to know more.:)

Any help/starting points would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

myrtleturtle

have you looked on www.cwgc.org

doodledoodle24 wrote: »

I have found a grandfather, that was always denied within the family. Have found him aged 3 living with my great great grandparents (he happens to be the son of 2 of my great grandparents! which makes it incest!)
Have found 1 medal record for him but then everything stops, got nothing else on ww1 with him
I know from another family member that he was k.i.a in 1918.....any ideas where else i could look?

Thanks op for what i have managed to find so far!

covlass

I have some free time in the day if anyone would like a little help I am willing to try cant promise results but I will try just pm me;)

butterflymum

j26 wrote: »

My OH already subscribes to Ancestry and can't find this offer at all. He just told me that bank details are requested and then he received a message saying he wasn't entitled to the offer..... don't know why......anyone else had problems with this??

Not sure that I am clear on what the issue is, but I will try to assist. If your husband already subscribes to one of the packages and his subscription is currently active, then he will, even with the lowest package called 'Essentials', already have access to the WW1 records being offered for free this week to those with no subscription.

If you mean that you yourself also want to use Ancestry at same time as he is and so therefore hoped to avail of the free offer, that should be possible. The direct link to the offer is http://www.ancestry.co.uk/ukmilitary_offer and for the three sets of records covered by the offer, no credit/debit card details are needed.

butterflymum

heavensbug wrote: »

I have alway wanted to track my family tree back. ........ Anyone able to help a little.

Basically all I got to start from is my Date of birth, My parents date of birth and marriage date and possibly my Gran on my mother's side date of birth and death.

Great to see that some other MSE'rs have already jumped in and offered to help you......and have also suggested a family history forum where you can get more help too (and which is probably a more appropriate place for continuing research than here on MSE).

What you have to start from is great and with a little time and patience and some encouragement/help from fellow MSE'rs or on the family history forum suggested, you should soon be on your way to expanding your tree.

butterflymum

hunterslight wrote: »

The Ancestry site is so badly ordered-I couldn't find my uncle.......

First thing to remember is, not all records survived, so this could be why it isn't there. Secondly, of those that did survive, a great deal still bear the scars so to speak - ie fire damage etc, so transcription of them can be difficult and names unclear. Thirdly, as with any transcription even on un-damaged records, the person doing the transcribing could make an error.

Ancestry searches can be frustrating at times and as you say, can throw up a lot of apparently unconnected returns. Sometimes ticking the 'Match all terms exactly' box or one or two of the 'match' boxes against specific criteria can help......have you tried this? or have you clicked on the 'Use Default Settings' tab under various of the details boxes and adjusted them to suit your needs?

keefj

I'm a bit disappointed by this offering from Ancestry. I was hoping to find details of two of my great uncles that were killed in the great war. I can't find them in the free lists and the casuality lists and other WW1 resources have to be paid for. Shame on Ancestry for using using this armistice day as a way of drumming up more members..

WarriorPrincess

I had a relative who must have been in the 1914-18 war, but I can't locate him - records must be missing. I found my friend's Grandad almost immediately, however - incl 20 documents & some fascinating history about their family. I think it's very good of Ancestry to make these available for free.

drjohn72

My grandfather was a regular soldier in the Grenadier Guards from about 1907 right through the war. I know his name, year of birth, regiment, number, and have several dated documents [including one signed Winston Churchill, and two others signed Major General Fielding] re mentioned in dispatches - but I can't find him anywhere, even with wildcards instead of known information.

Oddly he appears to have a 1914 campaign medal, in one of the other lists.

Anyone else not able to find a known ancestor?

butterflymum

Not finding an ancestor, even with so many details known, is unfortunately not unusual given the very high percentage (from memory around 60%) of records destroyed following the air-raid on their storage location in WW2.

Read more about this at:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/service_records/sr_soldiers.htm