Search results for Ancestry.

Release of Naval and Mercantile Marine Pension Records by Ancestry

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Members of The Western Front Association will be delighted to learn that the first of a series of releases of the WFA's Pension Record Cards and Ledgers archive have been made available through Ancestry. The first two sets of records to be released account for about 0.1% of the records the WFA saved from destruction with a much larger release of …


Further sets of Pension Records saved by The Western Front Association available on Ancestry

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The Western Front Association are pleased to share the excellent news that Ancestry will be making publicly further Pension Records in the lead up to the 11th November 2018.  Ancestry are working hard on the scanning and digitisation of the Pension Record Cards and Ledgers that The Western Front Association saved from destruction. As with the the …


A Further Release of First World War Pension Records by Ancestry

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Western Front Association members will already know that the Naval Records were released a few weeks ago, but today (10 November 2018), Ancestry have made 1.5 million records available on their Fold 3 platform (please see FAQs below regarding WFA members' access to these). Until The Western Front Association stepped in to save these ledgers and ot…


Understanding the Ledger Indexing

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This article aims to set out some of the technical aspects of the indexing of - and subcategories that make up - the 'ledgers' in The Western Front Association's collection of Pension Record Cards. These ledgers have been scanned and digitised by our partner, Ancestry.co.uk and are available on their fold3 website. These are now available for WFA…


PENSION RECORDS LATEST: Further Release of 1.5 million Pension records

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Explore the wealth of information to be found in the further release of another 1.5 million digitised Pension Records This release amounts to approximately 35 percent of the total archive. It relates to the 'Ledgers' that recorded details of disability for those men who survived and next of kin details for those who were killed. Further detai…


Pension Records: Famous, Infamous, Extraordinary and Ordinary

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The Western Front Association's Pension Record Card and Ledger archive which has been published online by Ancestry is a magnificent set of never-seen before material which massively helps those looking for 'Great Uncle Bill' to not track down their relative but also put a little bit of extra information on the serviceman's story. It has been said …


'One Hell of a Row': A War widow's pension

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Grandfather was killed 7 weeks before the end of the First World War.  His immediate family, that is his wife and three sons, never knew how nor where.  Neither did they know he was commemorated on Panel 5 of the Memorial Wall at Tyne Cot Cemetery.  This we had from two of his sons, our Father and his brother, our Uncle Tom.  Towards the end of the…


Fold3 Pension Records

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As members of The Western Front Association will know, in 2012 the WFA stepped in to save from destruction over six million pension records of men who served in the Great War. These records - the WFA's 'Pension Record Cards and Ledgers' (PRCs) - are now available to view via our partners Ancestry.co.uk - the records being on their 'Fold 3' site. W…


A Brief Guide showing how to use The WFA's Library Edition of Fold 3

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Below are three videos created to help Western Front Association members log into the Pension Records via The Western Front Association's web site and also demonstrate some functions - and results - from the WFA's 'Library Edition' of Fold 3, which provides digital images of the Pension Records the WFA saved from destruction.  To access these reco…


5 January 1916: Gnr Kei Marsh

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Kei Marsh was a miner.    In 1911 he was boarding with his family at 30 Thorn St, Burnley. Somehow there were 12 people sharing 4 rooms in this '2 up 2' down property comprising eight adults and four children. Kei died of pneumonia in Codford on 5 January 1916. Kei Marsh was 34 years of age and is buried in St.Mary's Churchyard, Codford…


20 January 1917 : Pte Arthur Munro Harrison

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His parents John William Harrison and Elizabeth lived at Ivy Cottage, Stoney Bank, Earby, nr Colne. Arthur became a weaver at Spring Mill, Earby and lived on Stoneybank Road prior to enlistment. With his Short Service Attestation and Medical Records extant we learn that Arthur enlisted in the 6th Bn Duke of Wellington Regiment on 1 March 1916. H…


30 May 1918 : Dvr. Francis Brunt

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Francis Brunt was a hairdresser in business on Trafalgar Street, Burnely. He lived with his young family at 58 Nairne Street, Burnley, Lancashire with his wife Amy who he had married in September 1914.  Francis enlisted in Blackburn on 28 April 1915. By this time he had two young children. After being held on home service duties, Francis emba…


Release date fixed for next set of Pension Records

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Although there has been a slight slippage in the timescale, we are pleased to announce the date for the publication of the much-anticipated next set of the WFA's Pension Records. Our partners at Ancestry have informed us that the cards relating to pensions claimed for soldiers who were killed in the war will be rolled live during the week commenc…


11 November 1918 : Pte George Edwin Ellison

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Born in York in the early autumn of 1878, at the 1881 England Census, the 2 year old George was living with his father James (Confectioner) and mother Mary at 4 Union Court, York. A decade later at the 1901 Census, George and the family are living in West Hartelpool. Father is given as a Sweet/Jam Boiler and George a barman (now age 22) in a publi…


Project ALIAS: A major scheme to locate men who served using a 'different' name

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There are many fascinating quirks within the Pension Record Cards which have been saved by The Western Front Association. One particular aspect that has come to the fore is the greater than expected use of aliases by soldiers. Without going into the reasons soldiers used pseudonyms,[1] the use of these aliases has been noticed by several people usi…


Further Hints and Tips to assist with finding Pension Records

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The following may assist WFA members in the search for pension records 1) If using a regimental number as one of the search criteria, and there are no 'hits' try inserting commas: For instance instead of 110953 try 110,953. This may then come up. This is due to the Ministry of Pensions quite often inserting commas into the regimental numbers, whic…


Oddities in the Pension Records

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Within the Pension Records that The Western Front Association have saved are hundreds of thousands of cards for pension claims for soldiers who lost their lives during the Great War. Some cards, however, are notable for a variety of reasons. First of all , the card below, this clearly states the soldier was 'kia' in the Boer War. But his card is a…


Project ALIAS - Collaborative WW1 Pension Records Project

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Project ALIAS - the largest collaborative project in the history of The Western Front Association This article pre-supposes that the reader is familiar with:- The Commonwealth War Graves Committee (CWGC) and its website Ancestry & Fold3 websites the Pension Record Cards (PRC), Ledgers and Medal Index Cards ( MIC) held in Fold3. A lot h…


Great War Barcombe News from a Sussex Village 1914 -1919

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Publisher: Country BooksISBN: 9781910489611 Edited by Ian Hilder Five years in post as the Digital Editor for The Western Front Association (since May 2015) and one of the regular and most enjoyable and indulgent tasks is to research and refresh our daily commemoration of the men or women who served during the First World War for ‘Remember On Thi…


Other Ranks Survived: The Final Release of Pension Records

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The final set of Pension Record Cards has just been published by our partners 'Ancestry.co.uk' on their Fold3 platform. As with all the other cards and ledgers these are freely available for WFA members via the 'library edition' on the WFA's website.  The following article is intended to give an overview of this final set of 'Other Ranks Survived'…