22 February 2008

British WW1 Medal Cards on Ancestry

After three weeks away getting relief from Ottawa's winter weather it's good to return and find a significant new British resource on Ancestry.co.uk.

Images of the front of British WW1 medal cards have been available for some years through TNA's web site's Documents Online service. At £3.50 per image viewing them is an expensive resource through Documents Online.

The cards were subsequently de-accessioned, and saved from destruction by the Western Front Association. Part of the reason for saving them was that many had additional information on the reverse side that had not be captured digitally.

Ancestry have rescanned the cards, including the reverse. Information recorded includes: name of solider, corps, rank, regiment number, name of medal received, and other information pertaining to the soldier's military service.

The content varies a bit depending on the type of card used. For details are better explained at the Documents Online site than by Ancestry.

I was fortunate and found an address of the reverse of one of my family member cards.

Some people I searched for were not found. The scanning is likely incomplete.

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