Visit Family Memorials

Tracing your family tree has become a growing pastime over the last few years, as the television programme, Who Do You Think You Are, as well as some on the History Channels, have shown how fascinating and rewarding a process it can be. The increased interest has also been spurred on by current programmes commemorating the 90th Anniversary of the end of the Great War. This and World War Two documentaries have led people to feel that it would be fascinating and somehow bonding to know how their own relatives fared in these times.

Most of us from Britain and the Commonwealth are fortunate in that we can trace relatives who served in all wars. As well as discovering a relative's war record, it is a pilgrimage to visit the area where he or she was in action, fell or was wounded. Seeing the sites, the battlefields, the memorials, the local museums and the cemeteries is a very moving experience, especially when you know what has happened there.  

As well as finding out about your own relatives, it is fascinating to know some of the many stories of the men and women who were involved. Guided visits help us to imagine what they went through and makes the spirit of the place more evident. That is why travel can be so enlightening.

Spirit of History are always delighted to include a visit to a cemetery or memorial that has a special meaning for one of the group. If you book a tour, and need any help in tracing a relative, we would be delighted to assist. We have staff who have worked in the tracing and probate industry, searching for relatives beyond military records. (It has to be remembered, however, that many World War One military records were destroyed in the bombing raids on London in the early 1940's.) As already stated, it is wonderful to lay a wreath or poppy in memory of someone we know about or are related to. Little poppy crosses and wreathes are available at all times from The Royal British Legion.

Web sites that are useful for your search are listed below, but there are many more;

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission for the location of the grave or memorial commemorating a fallen Commonwealth soldier.
www.cwgc.org

The American Battle Monuments Commission for the location of those who died wearing the USA uniform. www.abmc.gov

The BBC History site, provides advice on tracing ancestors in general, as well as military records. www.bbc.co.uk/history/familyhistory

For a small fee, you can go back quite far and possibly be put in contact with others in your extended family who are also tracing relatives, on ancestry.co.uk - Click the link below.

A site which is developing all the time is, www.1837.com so called as that was the year the Registrar General's office was set up to record centrally, for England and Wales, births, deaths and marriages.

Census data is being made available on www.pro.gov.uk and will eventually go back to 1801, although the data was fairly patchy until 1841. Now called The National Archives, it can be found on www.nationalarchives.gov.uk