Search Military Records By Serial Number
The controversy over Sen. John Kerry’s war record is a good reminder of how valuable military service records can be in backgrounding politicians and sources.
Search Army Serial Number
You can find many military records online, though not all.
One of the best tools online is Military.com’s personnel finder. (Note: Registration is required to use the site, but it’s free and you don’t need to be a veteran to sign up.) The database contains more than 20 million files and is easy to search. What’s great about this is you can search by units and the results list years served, so you can use this to find people who served with the person you’re backgrounding.
The data comes from both from official records and information entered by veterans and other Miltary.com members, so pay attention to the source of any data you use and make sure to verify anything that’s not an official record.
Fielded Search. File unit: Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, ca. 1938 - 1946 (Enlistment Records) in the Series: World War II Army Enlistment Records, created 6/1/2002 - 9/30/2002, documenting the period ca. 1938 - 1946 - Record Group 64 This series does not contain records of all World War II Army enlistees. Fielded Search. File unit: Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, ca. 1938 - 1946 (Enlistment Records) in the Series: World War II Army Enlistment Records, created 6/1/2002 - 9/30/2002, documenting the period ca. 1938 - 1946 - Record Group 64 This series does not contain records of all World War II Army enlistees.
Another great source is The National Archives website, which has millions of official records, though they’re a bit more difficult to find. The best place to start is this search page, which lists the various types of databases available, from military officers to war casualties. First, you need to select a database and then you can search it; you can’t search all the databases at once.
Army Records By Serial Number
One of the more useful databases included is the World War II enlistment records one, which was put online earlier this year. The records include detailed information about more than nine million Army soldiers, such as enlistees’ serial numbers and names, states and counties of residence, places of enlistment, dates of enlistment, grades, branches, terms of enlistment, places of birth, years of birth, race, education, civilian occupations and marital status.
If you still can’t find what you need, you can request a copy of the more than 70 million military records on file with the National Personnel Records Center. If you are a veteran or next-of-kin of a deceased veteran, you can use request the records at vetrecs.archives.gov. Anyone else can get the required form and information on how to request records here.
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Each record comprises a transcript, and most include several black and white images (ranging from 1-100) of the records of your ancestors who served as officers and other ranks in the British Army.
The amount of detail in each transcript can vary depending on when the record was created and the purpose of the record, such as whether it was created for pension purposes or new recruits. Some of the First World War service papers in series WO 363 were damaged during the Second World War; therefore, the information gathered from these forms can be limited. In the transcripts, you may find a combination of the following items:
First name
Last name
Birth year
Birth county
Birth country
Service number (i.e. regimental number)
Rank
Regiment
Unit/Battalion
Age at attestation in years and months
Attestation date
Attestation corps
Residence
Pension
Death date – if the individual died during service
Document type – attestation or discharge
Series – this gives you further clues to the context of the records; for example, the series WO 97 is titled Chelsea pensioners British Army service records 1760-1913, which explains that these are pension records from 1760-1913.
Archive and reference
Images
The accompanying images may include additional information about your ancestor. Use the previous and next arrows on the images to view more pages. Further details may include
Physical description (including any distinctive markings)
Occupation
Marital status
Name and address of next of kin
Names of relatives
Religion
Service history
Pension applications and outcomes
Correspondence