An introduction to on-line resources relating to Canadian
military service records
 Provide an outline of some on-line resources for pre-
First World War military records, First and Second
World Records and other websites.
 Knowing even a little about the individual you are
researching helps and a good starting point is family
documents.
 The next step is The Library and Archives Canada’s
Genealogy Centre (LAC).
 Prior to the First World War the service records were not
detailed and often consisted of muster or pay lists or medal
rolls. LAC holds copies of these if the individual served in
Canada and this website explains what is available:
www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/military-peace/indexe.html?PHPSESSID=m0nf9jd6bci6jgek3paj1ba0t1
 LAC has also scanned all the service files for those who
served in the South African War
www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/south-africanwar/001002-100.01-e.php
 If the person served in the British Military outside of
Canada then The National Archives (TNA) near London,
England, is a great source of records
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/
 Captain George Piers was born on 7 February 1830 in Nova
Scotia an died of influenza in Halifax on 29 October 1910 at
the age of 80. His father was born in Nova Scotia and his
mother in England. A Wesleyan Methodist, and a merchant
by trade, he was married to Emily Ann (who passed away in
Halifax on 15 May 1919 at the age of 82 of pneumonia) and
the father of six children: Edith, Ada, Annie, Temple Foster,
William and Emily Alberta. He was a company commander
in the Halifax Volunteer Battalion, and in 1866 was called
out on active service to protect the border against Fenian
invasion. Both George and Emily were buried in the Camp
Hill Cemetery, Halifax.
 Military service files are available from LAC and
are searchable from their on-line database called
“Soldiers of the First World War database”,
www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/cef/00104
2-100.01-e.php
 The navy and air force are not on-line but are
available upon request.
 Also available on-line are battalion war diaries
www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/archivianet/0201520
2_e.html
 The Canadian War Museum’s Military History
Research Centre holds dozens of unit histories,
published memoirs, nominal rolls and general
histories. Their catalogue can be searched from home
at catalogue.warmuseum.ca. The Centre is open
Monday to Friday, 9 am to 4:30 pm and while they
don’t lend directly to individuals, many of the books
are available through an inter-library loan with your
local library.
 Unfortunately most of the Second World personnel
records are closed for the life of the individual plus 20
years, BUT if you can prove that someone has been
gone for 20 years or more you can order a copy of their
file:
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy/022909.007-e.html
 The files for casualties are available:
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/wardead/001056-100.01-e.php
Casualties of War
 Information on casualties is easier to find because their
files are open and they are commemorated on websites
such as:
 The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
http://www.cwgc.org/debt_of_honour.asp?menuid=14
 The Canadian Virtual War Memorial
http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/collections/virtualmem
 The Maple Leaf Legacy Project
http://www.mapleleaflegacy.ca/wp
The following slides illustrate online
documents
Consulting the Soldiersof the First World Wardatabaseand lookingattheattestationpaperfor mygrandfatherwecan tell thatWilliamThomas
Kendall was born in Enfield, Middlesex, England on 19 December1887, his nextof kin is his motherMrs. L. Kendallwhowas living in Mount
Dennis, Ontarioatthetime heenlisted. Hewassingle, 26 yearsold, 5’3”, (my motheralwaysclaims hewasa tall man!)anelectricianand had
served with the Royal CanadianHorseArtillery forthreeyearspriortoenlisting in the Canadian ExpeditionaryForceon 25 September1915at
Valcartier, Quebecand his service numberwas 5704. If we thengotosomething like Ancestryand thecensusrecordswecan tell thathewasoneof
fourchildrenof Frederick and Louis Kendall, living in All SaintsParishof London, Englandand thatWilliamwasworkingas arailroad
messengerin 1901and hecame toCanadain 1909.
For someonelikeRichard Rowland Thompson,about whom much has beenwritten, youcan still start from the beginningand look at his SouthAfrican War servicefile,
without leavinghome,thanks to LAC.
Lookingat his on-linefileyoufind out that Thompsonwas 22, single, had light brown hair and blueeyes,was 5’6’,a medical student and born in Cork,Ireland and that his
next of kin was his mother back in Cork, he enlistedin Ottawa on 18 October1899. His filealso tells us he was of good intelligence,of a nervoustemperamentand was
generallyhealthy,that he served with the 2nd SpecialServiceBattalion of the RoyalCanadian Regimentin SouthAfrican, wasentitledto theQueensSouthAfrica Medal
with the clasps: Paardeberg, Driefonteinand Cape Colony.Wealso learn that he was discharged on 16October 1900 and was then commissionedin the SouthAfrican
Constabulary beforetaking up employmentwith the DeBeersCompanyin South Africa and that he had beenawarded one theQueensScarves and that hehad been
nominated for the Victoria Cross.
Thompsoncontinued
 Honours awarded to the RCN during the Second World
War rcnvr.com
 Royal Canadian Legion Last Post
www.legionmagazine.com/lastpost
 RCAF Honours and Awards
airforce.ca/honours-awards/search-awards-database
 The Canadian War Museum has a collection of 144,000
newspaper clippings from the Second World War called
“Democracy at war”. This has been digitized and is fully
searchable on-line
www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/exhibitions/newspapers/intro_
e.shtml
 LAC has a selection of First World War records digitized
and on-line.
www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/cenotaph/index-e.html
On-line resources continued
 The London Gazette, search on names to see when
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someone was promoted, mentioned in despatches or
awarded medals and honours www.london-gazette.co.uk
The National Archives in the US
www.archives.gov/veterans/
Canadian Military Heritage Project
www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~canmil/index.html
For Newfoundland soldiers
ngb.chebucto.org/NFREG/index1.shtml
Ancestry is an excellent resource www.ancestry.ca
as is Find My Past www.findmypast.co.uk/home.jsp with
links to various census
Provincial vital statistics websites such as
www.gov.ns.ca/snsmr/access/vitalstats.asp or
archives.gnb.ca/Archives/Default.aspx?culture=en-CA
On-line resources continued
 A list of recipients of the French Croix de Guerre
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www.ww2awards.com/award/42/abc
The Canada Gazette
www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/canadagazette/001060-100.03-e.php
A British military genealogy website
www.military-genealogy.com/
The LAC’s Genealogy Centre
www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy/index-e.html
A British genealogy website www.freebmd.org.uk/
An American Genealogy website usgenweb.org/
On-line resources continued
 The Red Cross in Great Britain
www.redcross.org.uk/About-us/Who-we-are/Museumand-archives/Resources-for-researchers/Volunteers-andpersonnel-records
 Holocaust survivors
www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/its/
 The National Archives in the UK has excellent on-line
resources
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline
Not all military records are on-line
but hopefully these links will point
you in the right direction to start
your research into someone’s
military history.