What can British Army military records tell me about my ancestors?

These British record collections provide rich information about your ancestors to a level that is difficult to find elsewhere. It's common to find several pages of records per soldier – some soldiers have hundreds of pages of records!

The British Army kept description books before the days of photography. The army had to have a means of recognizing soldiers, not least in the case of desertion or to prevent pension fraud. Description books provided detailed physical descriptions of each solider and details of birthplace, trade service and enlistment.

WO 96 - Militia service records 1806-1915

Many of our ancestors will have served in the Militia, often as a precursor to serving in the British Army, so these records provide a useful addition to Findmypast's British Army service records.

A Militia is a voluntary part-time force for home defense. The Militia Act of 1757 established Militia regiments in all counties of England and Wales. The yeomanry cavalry (see below) and the volunteers were introduced later. In 1907, the yeomanry and the volunteers combined as the Territorial Force, and in 1908 the Militia was revived as the "Special Reserve."

All pre-20th century men were obliged to serve in the Militia, so you are likely to find information about your ancestors in this sweeping family history collection. It's also possible to find details about the men's employment, often recorded in the British Militia records, that service men performed as regular work during their service.

In these military records collection you can search around 500,000 Militia service records for the period of 1806-1915, organized as WO96 in the National Records.