The very first steps on the hunt for Grandad’s past
First steps on the path for Grandad’s war records :
I’ve made my first tentative steps in the process of discovering the military history of my Grandad.
Entering the search term ‘ Second World War military records ‘ into the search engine produced a multitude of results . The majority of these were third party companies offering this service no doubt for a fee or membership cost . One of the search results linked directly to the government website which gave information on how to research military records directly via the Ministry Of Defence records service.
The process to apply for the required information seemed straightforward and consisted of filling in two forms . There was a prerequisite however . As Grandad has long departed this world I needed to provide his death certificate. I didn’t have a copy to hand , so the first initial step in the application process was to acquire a copy from the General Register Office online. This I did straight away . It took around two weeks to receive the copy back in the post .
As mentioned there are two forms to fill in. The first form was the general form or part 1 which was entitled something like this : ‘Application form part 1 for next of kin ….request for information held on personnel records of deceased service personnel’ .
The second form or part 2 is service branch specific and for Grandad that meant the army document : ‘Application form part 2- army specific ‘.
Armed with the two completed forms , death certificate and the £30 fee I sent the whole lot off to Glasgow and waited . Then I waited some more . About a month in total . Obviously the wheels of government services turn slowly . To be sure they were turning at all I gave them a ring . The good news is that they have received my application . The bad news is that it takes around 12 weeks to process each one . So that is where I’m at currently .
Predicted next step:
I have no idea what I will receive? Any next step will depend entirely on the depth of material and the scope of information it contains? I’m expecting a list of all the army units he served in . At least armed with this basic information I will be able with some research to draw out some kind of basic campaign map as the initial first step. Fingers crossed .
