A guide to the mod-kew-ancestry military records digitisation project

The Royal Air Force was formed in the last year of the First World War. And by the time that the guns fell silent at the end of the Second World War, it had grown to almost one million serving personn

Women served in all three services from WWI onwards. They also served in support roles, such as the Women’s Land Army (in both wars), the Fire Services, Motor Drivers, Voluntary Aid Detachments and so

The British merchant service was renamed the Merchant Navy after World War 1 to mark the vital role its sailors played in wartime. That role continued in World War 2 as merchant ships carried troops a

Digitised records for British soldiers before about the middle of the 19th century are relatively rare; the exceptions are surviving pension records, the musters from the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) a

This is part of a series of articles; the intention is to provide an overview of useful family and local history records in existence, covering the period 1066-1485. Each article can be enjoyed as a s

To some of us, post-1945 seems like yesterday – but if you are a younger researcher, this era could encompass several generations of your ancestors. More recent research is an important part of everyo