Searching for War Records

I am frequently asked about how a person can obtain the war records of their friends or relatives. This can be a daunting task but there are some simple steps one can follow to get started, a couple of which I have listed below. I have also added some excellent links which I feel are important.

 

  1. Contact the National Archives for an application to obtain a Canadian service record. You can find the necessary information at the National Archives site.

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  2. The Canadian Department of Veteran's Affairs. While this site does not have much of a strictly personal nature, it contains some very valuable background material for the Second War. Of particular interest are the short articles on Canada's roles in Italy, France, Belgium and Holland.

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  3. The Books of Remembrance. This site contains digital copies of the Books of Remembrance, commemorating most of Canada's war dead. The site is searchable so one can easily find the entry for a particular person. Unfortunately, no details apart from name and unit are given in the books.

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  4. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission. For those people searching for the burial location of a person killed in the war, this is the place to start. The C.W.G.C. will search its database free of charge for relatives of the dead. A small fee would apply to all others.

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  5. For those of you looking for a Black Watch member from the Second War, I have created an Adobe Acrobat file of July 1944 Appendix 1 for the Black Watch War Diary. This appendix is of special interest because it lists all of the names of the men of the regiment who went from England to France in July 6/7, 1944. Because of time and file size restrictions this is a relatively low-resolution copy. I will work on a higher resolution copy which will be searchable. You can, however, print out a legible copy. I hope to have other documents from the war diary appendices up in the near future. In order to view this file you need to have the Adobe Acrobat reader installed. if you do not it can be found at the Adobe Acrobat site. Click here to download or view the July 44 Orders. If you have any problems with the file please let me know - here.
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