Thanks Sandra and all those that replied to the WWI medals problem. The trouble was the Bank of Scotland not the actual archives that made the mess!! Chris -----Original Message----- From: Sandra J Smith [mailto:sandra.s@ntlworld.com] Sent: 15 November 2004 12:04 To: ENG-SOUTHAMPTON-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [ENG-SOU] Medal Rolls at National Archives Hi List The medal Rolls of WW1 started to be put on the national archives web site many many months ago. Like the "Burnt Papers" they were indexed and added to the database as each letter of the surname alphabet was completed. I was one of the lucky ones whose surname interests appeared in the early days. So, I suspect that the problems with the site are due to over use as a result of the recent publicity. I have been delving around in the WW1 army records at Kew for several years now and have compared various classes of records of the period to see whether I could come up with a definitive list for my one-name study. What I have discovered is that not everyone who served got a medal, so because someone is not in the medal rolls doesnt mean that they didnt serve. A number, for example, who only spent a short time in the army and were discharged as medically unfit before any overseas service, didnt qualify for a medal - or at least dont appear in the medal rolls. You will be very disappointed if you are hoping to get much information from the medal rolls, other than service numbers and regiments or corps. The discharge papers are where all the personal information is found. If you are lucky enough to discover that your ancestor's paper survived the WW2 blitz, here you will find, addresses, age, physical descriptions, next of kin, marriage dates and places, children with either dates and places of birth or ages. This would certainly be worth a £3.50 spend if they ever put these records online!! Regards Sandra Smith ============================== Find your ancestors in the Birth, Marriage and Death Records. New content added every business day. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13964/rd.ashx --- Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.796 / Virus Database: 540 - Release Date: 13/11/2004 --- All of our outgoing mail is checked and certified Virus Free by regularl updates Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.796 / Virus Database: 540 - Release Date: 13/11/2004