Finding the file
Saving a copy
Locating the digitised file of the Service Record is only the first step. These are long and complex documents that will need careful interpretation through repeated reading. Although RecordSearch provides a viewer through which you can read the record online, you should probably save a copy of the file onto your own computer. Once you have opened the digital copy in the viewer, you will see a set of tools to the right of the image. You can use the ones at the top to step through the file one page at a time (or to jump to a particular page number) but the key to saving the file is at the bottom. |
Reading for meaning
One of the first things you will notice in a Service Record is the duplication. The file almost always opens with two copies of the Attestation Form and things get worse from there. DO NOT be tempted to discard any of the pages. What seem to be two (or more) copies of the same form were actually created in different places and probably at different times. Information may have been written onto one and not the other (or added to the second form at a later time and hence "out of order"). You will want to read and reread every line of each page and compare different versions of the same entry to arrive at "the truth" about your family member's service.
Like most large organisations, the military love to use jargon, abbreviations and acronyms to confuse outsiders. As you work through the service record, you should make frequent references to pages at the National Archives and the War Memorial that provide very helpful glossaries.
One of the first things you will notice in a Service Record is the duplication. The file almost always opens with two copies of the Attestation Form and things get worse from there. DO NOT be tempted to discard any of the pages. What seem to be two (or more) copies of the same form were actually created in different places and probably at different times. Information may have been written onto one and not the other (or added to the second form at a later time and hence "out of order"). You will want to read and reread every line of each page and compare different versions of the same entry to arrive at "the truth" about your family member's service.
Like most large organisations, the military love to use jargon, abbreviations and acronyms to confuse outsiders. As you work through the service record, you should make frequent references to pages at the National Archives and the War Memorial that provide very helpful glossaries.