Military records Forces War Records has relaunched with access to Ancestry’s military records collections including some previously only available on Ancestry's military site Fold3.
Ancestry, one of the world’s largest family history websites, acquired Forces War Records in 2021.
The site relaunched on 29 March with a new look and access to Ancestry’s military records, increasing its offering from 28 million records to over 590 million.
The Ancestry collections now also available on Forces War Records include Women’s Royal Air Force Service Records (1918-1920); Royal Hospital Chelsea Pensioner Soldier Service Records (1760-1920); Australian First and Second World War service records; New Zealand First World War Service Records; Allied Second World War POW records; and British First World War pension ledgers and index cards, previously only available on Ancestry’s specialist military records website Fold3.
Ancestry said that eventually access to Forces War Records will be included in its All Access Membership, which also includes access to Fold3 and Newspapers.com.
Laura Driffield, Director of International Family History Verticals at Ancestry, said: “We knew that our users loved the military expertise of Forces War Records, including its deep knowledge of wartime events. However, to enable customers to make meaningful family discoveries we had to incorporate better search tools, more image based records, and the ability to save records to their Ancestry family tree.”
Rosemary Collins is the features editor of Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine
