I first came across this website about 6 months ago when I started to research my family tree and discovered that I had a gt gt uncle who died in WW1 but no one knew when or where. All we knew was his name. (Thats what gave me the family tree ’bug’). As I found out the hard way (via the national archives) most WW1 army records did not survive the bombings of WW2 and so without all his details it would be impossible to see if his records had survived. And so began the search for information. I searched the web for any sites where I could access info on war dead without having to pay for the pleasure. Some of the sites out there charge an absolute fortune just to give you the barest of details.
After a while I came across a site that linked to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. This site is fantastic. There is no charge to access the information, you do not have to register to check the details they hold on line. All you need to know is the persons last name, which war it was, their nationality and it is helpful to know if they served in the army, navy, air force or if they were civilian, although this one is not mandatory but will narrow down the search. What I found was that the information given just on name, service, nationality and war were fantastic and I was able to find my uncle no problems. Luckily his surname was not a common one and other surnames I have checked have resulted in hundreds of possibilities which I have had to check one by one which took ages.
When you do find the one you’re looking for you can access their details easily by clicking on their name. You then get a screen showing you name, rank, number, service, regiment/ship, date of death, age, place of death, place of burial/commemoration, and some other details. In some cases the information is scant as the commission may not hold a lot of info on that person. It may just be a name, number, rank, regiment, date of death and place of death. But in some others you can find out the names of their parents, or name of their spouse. Just recently they have started adding civilian war dead so that it is not just military information you can access from here, if your ancestor died in the blitz they will hold details here.
You can also access a ’certificate’ which will show all of this information with a photo of the cemetary/commemorative memorial and states ’remembered with honour’ and the place of memorial and ’commemorated in perpetuity by the commonwealth war graves commission’. Its nice to know that there is an organisation out there working to ensure that our war dead are never forgotten. I have used this site so many times now that it’s saved on my favourites menu as its such a great resource and has given me info where previously there was just a name and no more. I recommend this to everyone who wants to learn more about their family history or details of someone who has died in a war as there is so much info here its amazing.
They also have a good welcome page and everything is well explained and so easy to understand (even for me!!). The site is easy to use, simple to navigate and absolutely fantastic in my mind. They also have pages with general information on the work they do and on the wars themselves, although this information is just the basics, they dont go into too much detail.
I think they also produce information for schools so if you are a teacher, this may help for history lessons as well. If you have had a relative who has died in a war check this site out. Its the best one there is on the web and its constantly being updated with new information.
They are also happy to accept information on people already on their list. (i have given them more information on my uncle to add to their information that they hold). You can also deal with them by telephone and snail mail and I believe that these services are also free which just makes it more fantastic in my eyes. Like I said earlier a search can produce hundreds of results, but I have found that this is the case with surnames that are more common. Smith will produce hundreds of results on just a name and war search. If your surname is quite a common one, I recommend that you put as much as you can into the search fields to try to narrow down the results as much as possible. You will still have to search each individual but it may not be as many.
If the surname you are searching for is unusual (mine was ramshead ) then you are a bit luckier and dont have to have as much info.
All I put in was Ramshead, WW1, army, British and up came the results and I found my uncle straight away, which wasnt hard as there were only 2 results! On another search, the surname was wilkinson and there were hundreds of results, I trawled these for hours on end before I found the person I was looking for.
It really is luck of the draw if you have a lot of information to put in in the first place but dont worry, you can go back time and time again as I have to search other names or get more informaiton on the first name you search. I have been back time and time again.
I really enjoy this site and every time I hear of a new ancestor or distant relation that died in a war I check them out on this site. In some cases I havent had any luck but thats generally been through a lack of info on my side and have been lucky after I have tried to find out more myself. And other times all i’ve had is a first and last name and have come up trumps with loads of information Check it out and wonder at the information you can find on this wonderful site. Like they say in the X files - The Truth is Out There. Enjoy!!