November 5th, 2011 
Linda Elliott 
Ancestry.co.uk is offering free access to their army records between 10 November and 13 November. You will need to register with Ancestry to get access.
The records concerned are
WW1 Army Service Records
WW1 Army Pension Records
WW1 Army Medal Records
These records are a goldmine for the family historian as they give so much detail. Go take a look if you have never used these documents.
Posted in Ancestry.co.uk, Army Records, What Did They Do? 
Tags: Ancestry.co.uk, Army, British Legion, Family History, Genealogy 
No Comments » November 4th, 2011 Linda Elliott 
Sue Light has provided Find My Past with 4,000 records regarding Military Nurses 1856 – 1940. I have no idea who Sue Light is, but I think she is one of the growing band of “genealogical heroes” who is allowing their work to go online. Thank you Sue !
Now onto the records…. they comprise five record sets
Army Nursing Service – a small but significant set of 238 nurses of often quite genteel origin, born in the 19th century
Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service – records of 783 nurses, born between 1859 and 1904
Royal Hospital Chelsea Nurses – records of 165 largely untrained nurses, born between 1839 and 1876, who served at the hospital for pensioned soldiers between 1856 and 1910
Scottish Women’s Hospital – records of 1,575 women (and men) who were stationed in continental Europe during WWI
WW2 Military Nurses – details of 1,244 nurses who served in France with either Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service, or Queen Alexandra’s Reserve, or the Territorial Army Nursing Service, during WWII
So a dataset well worth a look at.
Posted in Army Records, What Did They Do? Tags: Family History, Findmypast, Genealogy, Military Nurses 1 Comment » November 1st, 2011 Linda Elliott ![clip_image002[5]](http://www.madaboutgenealogy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/clip_image0025.jpg "clip_image002[5]")
Find My Past has the Militia Attestation Papers that are housed at National Archives, Kew under record series WO96. The records available online date 1806 – 1915 and are a great source for family historians whose ancestors feature in them.
The militia who were part time soldiers were a county based force whose main job was the defence of England whilst the regular army were overseas fighting. A pre-curser of Dad’s Army!
The records were kept up to date until the solider was discharged providing full details of time in service. And, since the militia recruits were part-time, there are details of the jobs the men undertook for the rest of the time.
Lots of information on these records such as date & place of birth, occupation (when they weren’t off playing soldiers!), physical descriptions and even in a few of the later records photographs.
Posted in Army Records, Find My Past, Take It Further, What Did They Do? Tags: Army, Attestation Papers, Family History, Findmypast, Genealogy, Militia No Comments » September 18th, 2011 Linda Elliott 
Findmypast has added a little known, but very useful dataset to it’s website. Roger Nixon, a military history researcher, has released an index of 245,000 soldiers who were serving in the British Army worldwide in 1861. The material has been collected using the April – June quarter Paylists which are held at The National Archive.
This surely must have been a labour of love which took many hours so it would be criminal if it was not widely used. Many thanks to Roger Nixon for allow online access to such useful data.
April 23rd, 2011 Linda Elliott 
A good offer from http://www.ancestry.com.au/anzac2011.
Free access to Anzac (Australian & New Zealand) army records. These records are worth searching as many of us will have ancestors who emigrated hoping for a better life than the UK offered them.
http://www.ancestry.com.au/anzac2011
April 11th, 2011 Linda Elliott 
The British Library & Findmypast have joined together to bring millions of records to the internet. The records come from the libraries collection of BDM’s from India and the UK Electoral Rolls up to 1932. These records will be of great help to genealogists especially the electoral rolls as they can be used in lieu of census not yet released.
April 9th, 2011 Linda Elliott Posted: 08 Apr 2011 08:52 AM PDT
Findmypast have just published a new set of military records New Zealand WWI Soldiers.
Below is further information about these records and the valuable details about your ancestors you could discover.
New Zealand WWI Soldiers
This is a set of records for 288,526 New Zealand WWI service personnel and reserves.
The records are obtained from the following sources: Nominal Rolls, First and Second Division Rolls of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force Reserve, Native Reserve Lists, Military Defaulters List, New Zealanders who served with the Australian Imperial Force, Guthrie Index, Smith Index, Halpin Index, British Section NZEF, Fijian Contingent, Roll Of Honour Section 3 and the Stock Index. Find out more about each of these sources
Here is an example record from this series. It shows the soldier’s military details, as well as other information, such as marital status, last New Zealand address and next of kin details:
Find out more and search these records now
February 21st, 2011 Linda Elliott 
This is a jolly nice site for those of you with ancestors who were involved in the Napoleonic Wars. Barbara Chambers, sister of Jill who is an expert on the Swing Riots, has been researching her family connection with soldiers who fought in these wars. This website is the fruit of her 18 years of experience in this area of research. Beautifully presented and easy to read. Go take a look.
http://www.britisharmyresearchnapoleonicwars.co.uk/
Posted in Army Records, What Did They Do? Tags: Army, Barbara Chambers, Family History, Genealogy, Napoleonic Wars, Records No Comments » July 26th, 2010 Linda Elliott
A rather good Army Museum website, the front page states…….
The museum, situated within two towers of Caernarfon Castle, tells the exciting story of over 300 years of our history using film, sound, models and exhibits.
You can learn how the Regiment won 14 Victoria Crosses and hear the words of famous writers who served with the Royal Welch during the First World War, such as Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves, David Jones, Frank Richards and Hedd Wyn. You will also see what life was like for ordinary soldiers and their families and discover the unique traditions of Wales’s oldest infantry Regiment. Since its formation in 1689, the Royal Welch has served throughout the world. Its history stretches back to the campaigns of William III, and includes the eighteenth century campaigns of Marlborough, the American War of Independence, the wars with Revolutionary and Napoleonic France and the Crimean War. In more recent times, the Regiment has seen action in the Boer War, China, First and Second World Wars and numerous postwar peacekeeping missions including Bosnia 1995.
July 26th, 2010 Linda Elliott 
Read an article in the August Who Do You Think You Are? magazine and it mentioned a database kept by David Milner. A Google search led me to several websites that mention David’s database, but it doesn’t look as if he has a site of his own, probably too busy recording Waterloo soldiers!
Anyway I have found that David has compiled a register of British soldiers who served at the Battles of Waterloo and Quatre Bras or were in Flanders at the time and currently has something in excess of 40,000 names in the database.
He welcomes enquires from researchers is welcome and he can be contacted at battle.veterans@btinternet.com
Hi, I am Linda Elliott, a genealogist with 30+ years experience in ancestor hunting. I work as a professional family historian and have helped many people with their family trees. My aim with Mad About Genealogy is to share with you, the many website links, information and the latest genealogy news that I come across. I hope you enjoy your visit to my website and will come and visit on a regular basis.
