Find wartime ancestors: the records that survive

Quick answer: Military records sit apart from civil registration and are held by national bodies: NARA in the United States, The National Archives and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in Britain, Library and Archives Canada, the National Archives of Australia. Start with free casualty and draft records, then request a service file.

Almost every family has a gap shaped like a war: an uncle who did not come home, a grandfather who never talked about it, a name on a memorial. Military research is one of the most rewarding parts of genealogy, because armies wrote things down — units, dates, medical details, next of kin.

Two things to know before you start. Large blocks of records were destroyed by fire and bombing, so a missing file is often archive history rather than your mistake. And this research can surface things that are hard to read; that is worth being ready for.

Start with what is already in the house

Every request works better with a service number, a unit or a date. Those details are usually still in a drawer:

Discharge papers — in the US the WWII discharge (DD-214 or its wartime equivalents), in Britain the service and pay book
Letters home, often with a unit or field post address
Photographs in uniform, with a place or date on the back
Medals, cap badges, shoulder titles — these identify the regiment or branch
Telegrams, casualty notices, memorial cards, obituaries
Veterans' benefit, pension or disability paperwork, which carries file numbers

Write it all down before you ask anyone: full name, date and place of birth, service number, branch, unit, dates of service, and where the family was living at enlistment. A handful of those turns a hopeless search into an answerable request.

United States: NARA, and the fire you need to know about

Twentieth-century US service records are held by the National Archives at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis. Next of kin can request a veteran's file; records older than the archive's privacy cut-off are open to anyone. Check the current request route and any fees on the archives' own site rather than relying on secondhand instructions.

The crucial fact: a fire at the St. Louis centre in 1973 destroyed a very large share of Army personnel files for people discharged between 1912 and 1960, along with part of the Air Force series. If your request comes back with little or nothing, that is usually why.

Reconstruction is possible from other paperwork — unit morning reports, pay records, enlistment records, veterans' pension and benefit files, and state adjutant general records. Two free sources are worth searching first:

WWI draft registration cards (1917–1918), which cover a huge share of the male population of the era and give birth date, birthplace, employer and next of kin.
WWII draft cards, held for several registration rounds and widely digitised.

Britain and the Commonwealth

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission casualty database is free and covers both world wars for Britain and the Commonwealth. An entry typically gives date of death, unit, cemetery or memorial, and often the parents' or widow's names — sometimes the only surviving link to a family.

For WWI British Army service records, The National Archives holds two surviving series: the fire-damaged personnel files known as the "burnt documents", which were themselves hit in the 1940 Blitz, and the pension records that partly compensate for what was lost. Expect roughly a coin-flip chance of finding an individual soldier.

WWII service records for British forces are held by the Ministry of Defence and released to next of kin on request, with a transfer of older records to The National Archives under way. This is exactly the kind of process that changes, so confirm the current route before applying.

Beyond service files, look for unit war diaries — they describe what a soldier's unit did day by day, even when the individual's own file is gone. In Canada, Library and Archives Canada has digitised the First World War personnel files of the Canadian Expeditionary Force; in Australia, the National Archives of Australia holds digitised WWI service dossiers.

When the record is a persecution record

If you are tracing relatives who were persecuted, deported or forced into labour in Europe, the Arolsen Archives in Germany hold the largest collection on the victims of Nazi persecution, searchable online for free, including concentration camp records and displaced persons files. Yad Vashem maintains the central database of Shoah victims' names.

This is the most sensitive research in genealogy. Stay strictly with what the documents say, and do not publish anything about living descendants without asking them.

Reading the file you finally get

Service records are dense and full of abbreviations. Three habits make them usable:

Copy the identifiers verbatim — service number, unit, file reference — before you interpret anything.
Separate fact from inference. "Reported missing, 1944" is a fact; "died at Anzio" may be a conclusion you added.
Note where it came from. Archive, series, reference number, date of your request. A find without a source has to be researched twice.

Medical entries, disciplinary notes and casualty details deserve a moment's thought before they are shared around the family. Publishing them is a choice, not an obligation.

Request checklist

Home papers transcribed, service number found if possible
Name, date and place of birth, branch and unit noted
Free casualty and draft databases searched first
Correct archive identified for that country and war
Relationship stated if next-of-kin access is required
Fees and processing times checked in advance
Alternative records listed in case the file was destroyed
Every answer filed with its source reference

Next step

Record what you confirm while the context is still fresh — unit, place of death and the archive that answered belong in a note attached to that person: Create a free family tree.

FAQ

Where do I request a US military service record?

From the National Archives' National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis. Next of kin can request records still within the privacy period; older records are open to the public. Check the current request process on the archives' site.

Why did my ancestor's Army file come back empty?

Most likely the 1973 St. Louis fire, which destroyed a large share of Army files for 1912–1960 discharges. Try morning reports, pay and enlistment records, pension files and state records instead.

How do I find where a soldier is buried?

For Britain and the Commonwealth, search the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database. Other countries have equivalent national commissions and cemetery registers, and local war memorials often list names that were never centrally recorded.

Can I get records for someone who is not a direct ancestor?

Often yes, but next-of-kin rules may apply to twentieth-century files. State your relationship clearly in the request, and expect to show it for recent records.

What if my ancestor was reported missing?

Look for casualty files, prisoner-of-war records and any later declaration of death, which is itself a document. Grave registrations sometimes record a burial long after the family stopped receiving news.