New UK & US records available to search this Findmypast Friday
Over one million fascinating British and US military records are now available to search thanks to the latest instalment of Findmypast Friday. Nearly 29,000 records containing the details of Officers and enlisted men who served with the Royal Artillery are now available to search along with a First World War Roll of Honour from Clacton on Sea in Essex. Over 1.3 million US Civil War pension records are also now available to search and the ability to search by surname has been added to our collection of British Mariners, Trinity House Calendar records.
British Mariners, Trinity House Calendars Surname Search
British Mariners, Trinity House Calendars covering the years 1787 to 1854 are now fully searchable by surname. These records contain the details of British Mariners who petitioned for aid from the Corporation of Trinity House of Deptford Strond. Trinity House was responsible for the supervision of lighthouses and buoys around the English coast and also distributed charitable funds to disabled seamen and their families across the UK. Great care was always taken to see that charitable funds were carefully disbursed and every mariner or dependent applying for help was required to give full particulars of his or her circumstances. These forms of application were known as ‘Petitions’ and were submitted by seamen or their relatives to Trinity House. Each record contains an image and a transcription. The records are split into three main types; Calendars of Petitions, Calendars of Apprentice Indentures and Calendars of Miscellaneous Papers consisting mainly of marriage and baptismal certificates. Each type may give rather different information however most records will include the petitioner’s name, their relationship to the mariner, their age, location, circumstances and the date of their petition.
British Military Records
Containing over 17,000 records, Royal Artillery Officer Deaths 1850-2011 list the details of commissioned officers who were killed or died during the campaigns in Kosovo, Bosnia, Borneo and Iraq as well as the First and Second World Wars. It is estimated that since the regiment’s formation in May 1716, over 2.5 million men and women have served with the regiment. Each record includes a transcript of details found in the original records.
The British Army, Royal Artillery War Commemoration Book, 1914-1918, is an alphabetical list of 3,505 Officers of the Royal Regiment of Artillery who died during the First World War. Artillery was of huge importance in the war. It influenced nearly all tactics and operations and was incorporated into strategies that were used by the belligerents to break the stalemate at the front. Each record includes an image of the original record and a transcript.
British Army, Royal Artillery Officers 1716-1899 contains over 7,400 records taken from the fourth edition of ‘Officers of the Royal Regiment of Artillery: The year 1716 to the year 1899’, a list collected by General W. H. Askwith, Colonel-Commandant Royal Artillery, and published in 1900. Officers in this list have served in countries all over the world including India, Canada, America, Jamaica, St. Helena and many more. Each record includes an image from the original publication and a transcript.
The Royal Artillery, 80th Field Regiment records contain the details of 978 men who served with the Regiment during the Second World War. The 80th Field Regiment consisted of three batteries with a Colonel in command of 24 guns. Based in Glasgow as part of the 52nd Lowland Division, the Regiment left for Arromanches on 19 October 1944 and saw extensive action in the Netherlands and Germany. Every record is a transcript of information found in original records.
The Clacton Roll of Honour, 1914-1918, contains the records of over 1,100 men from the English seaside town of Clacton-on-Sea in Essex who were killed during the First World War. Rolls of Honour were commonly started by newspapers to announce the local dead. Details would often be supplied by family members and the resultant list would be printed in commemoration after the war. Each record contains a transcript and an image.
United States Civil War Pension Files Index 1861-1934
Containing over 1.3 million records, the United States Civil War Pension Files Index, 1861-1934, is an index of pension application cards for veterans and their beneficiaries. This time period actually covers veterans of numerous wars including the Civil War, the Indian Wars, the Spanish-American War, the Philippine Insurrection and World War I. The bulk of these files pertain to service in the U.S. Civil War, which saw millions of Americans enlisted into the Union Army. Pensions were received by soldiers or their beneficiaries for service rendered and were available to widows, children under the age of sixteen, and dependent relatives of soldiers who died in military service from war-related injuries or diseases. Each record includes a transcript and many include an image of the original index card. Most transcripts will list the applicant’s name, relation and year of application, while images can reveal the veteran’s unit, the time he applied for the pension, names of his widow or children, pension application numbers, previous pension application numbers, certificate numbers, and the name of his attorney.
With thanks to FindMyPast.