Friday, November 6, 2015

Ancestry.ca is offering free access to its Second World War records



Ancestry.ca is offering free online access to its entire collection of global military records from November 6 to November 11, 2015. 

It includes attestation forms, medical history forms and correspondence to family members back in Canada. Digitized records detail the brave service of more than 29,000 Canadian soldiers killed in action in WWII.

It contains over 29,000 records of Canadian military personnel killed in action during the conflict. The collection, consisting of more than two million images, includes a variety of different documents for each soldier. From attestation papers, to medical history forms and even correspondence to family members back in Canada, this collection can help tell a more in-depth story of what these war heroes were like during their time in conflict.

Each service file contains an average of 52 pages of personal information.

"The most incredible part about this new collection is the sheer amount of detail revealed about these individuals. Records of promotions or tributes written by comrades help bring to light the true heroism of these soldiers during an incredibly terrifying time, and will undoubtedly instill pride among living relatives of these brave souls today,” says Kevin James, PhD, Professor, Department of History at University of Guelph. “The other benefit of this collection is that it can help shed light on what life in Canada was like during the war. From hand-written letters, to telegraphs informing Canadians at home that a family member was missing in action, these records provide fascinating insight into the life and times of the WWII era.”

The records, digitized and archived by Ancestry, were originally compiled by Library and Archives Canada as part of the Canadian school curriculum, and will be available to search for free online from November 6 to November 11, along with Ancestry’s entire collection of military records - which includes more than 4.4 million records pertaining to Canada alone.

The Ancestry.ca site is at http://www.ancestry.ca/

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1 comment:

JimC said...

How does one access the records? Must we do the 2 week free trial? No link on that page directly to these records.

Thanks