The global genealogy subscription company Ancestry is offering free access to its entire international military collection from June 5th to June 11th to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Here's how to make the most of it.
With over 400 million records to choose from, the chances are that any of your family members who once served will be included somewhere in the collection.
No payment details are required to sign up, you will just need to provide your name and email address.
For those who are already subscribers to Ancestry, free access may not seem like such an enticing offer, but the exciting thing is that the military records held on its sister company Forces War Records (FWR) are also free to view for the week.
This means that the military collections on Ancestry that require you to take out a separate subscription to FWR to see the image are also free. If you have found family in those collections but haven’t wanted to pay extra for the images, now’s the time to download them. These collections include the First World War pension index cards; Army Lists; Household Cavalry service records and the Royal Hospital Chelsea Pensioner records which date back to 1760.
Here is a selection of the military records that you can find on Ancestry. These are just a few highlights, there are many other collections worth looking into, many of them are exclusive to the platform, although some can be accessed (occasionally for free) elsewhere.
To make the most of the week's free access to Ancestry's military collections, don't delay registering. Make sure you search on every family name for someone you think may have served. Don't forget that the collections include women as well as men. During times of conflict, search on the names of all men of a suitable age for service. You may be surprised!
Military service records on Ancestry
Although most WW1 service records were unfortunately destroyed in a fire during the Blitz, those that survived can be searched on Ancestry in their UK, British Army World War one Service Records collection, along with many earlier army and militia records. British Army service records for the Second World War are currently being digitised by Ancestry in partnership with The National Archives and the Ministry of Defence (MOD). These will start coming online in tranches over the next couple of years.
Prisoner of war records
There are millions of records on Ancestry relating to those held prisoner during the Second World War, including civilians held in Singapore. Other collections include Allied Prisoners of War, 1939-1945, questionnaires completed by liberated POWs and British Prisoners of War, 1939-1945.
The website also has some earlier POW records, including a list of British officers held prisoner during the First World War.
Army, Naval and Air Force lists
Lists of serving officers were regularly published by the army, navy and, later, the RAF. These can all be searched on Ancestry: Army Lists, 1882-1962; Navy Lists, 1888-1970; and RAF lists, 1919-1922 and 1938-1945.
Casualty records on Ancestry
Taken from a huge variety of sources, whether local records or national collections, Ancestry has many lists of casualties. Unsurprisingly, the largest numbers date from the First World War, but there are also collections for the Second World War and earlier conflicts such as the Boer War.
Military awards and decorations
If your ancestor received a medal for their military service, the chances are there will be a record of it. The WW1 Medal Rolls Index cards on Ancestry are already free to access, but there are other collections worth visiting here, including a list of Victoria Cross recipients, the Waterloo Medal Roll and WW2 Civil Defence Gallantry Awards.
