Hello David, I'm not an expert on WW1 but spent some time at the PRO recently looking for one of my relatives. The PRO has done some work on the WW1 records recently. You can look up all the possiblities in the medal roll index (if your relative survived the war he will have at least one medal) which are arranged alphabetically. These give you the soldier's regiment, rank and number and any medals earned. It also gives you a medal roll reference which I believe can be converted to a PRO reference. Apparently following this through will give you the battalion. (The index gave the battalions for my possibilities so I didn't have to do this). You can then search the burnt records for the service records of your possibilities. If you're lucky, enough of them might have survived for you to be able to narrow them down or even, if you're very lucky, to find the actual soldier. It took me most of the day but I did come to a conclusion. My relative's records weren't there but there were enough others there for me to eliminate all but one. You might get some more expert advice on the Great War maillist - GREATWAR-L-request@rootsweb.com or GREATWAR-D-request@rootsweb.com. Regards, Mary. ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Parker" <parker3250@rogers.com> To: <HAMPSHIRE-LIFE-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2003 2:42 PM Subject: [HantsLife] WW l a fuller explanation of the problem > Let me explain the situation and my problem more fully. You have a male relative, whose name, parents, place and date of birth you know. You may not know his next of kin, as he may have married unbeknowst to you, (as the CWGC search revealed of one of mine). He is, shall we say, a Hampshire man, so he may have joined the Hampshire Regiment (as one of mine did). But that is not always the case. He could have joined a machine gun regiment (as one of mine did), the Artillery, the Guards, the Cavalry, the Rifle Brigade, another County Regiment (as one of mine did), or a "Pal's" Battalion, or one of the many Corps, including the RFC. And I have not even included the Royal Navy. If you do not know the Regiment/Corps and the individual's service number, then a PRO search could be, I suggest, seemingly endless if not impossible, particularly if the records have been destroyed. I have learnt that certain Regiments have had published a list of all who fought ! > in that war, some of which , but not the Hampshire Regiment, have been published, and can be purchased, on CD, but I do not know what they list, so do not know if it is possible to indentify an individual without his service number. I presume the Regiments have such records in their own libraries/museums, but can a search be made, and how specific must one be ? If for example I have 30 men of the same surname who are of eligible age would a search be possible ? If I have three people of the same name, for example William Giles, all born in Wield, on different dates to different parents, could I indentify them ? Are there other source of information ? Am I wasting my time ? > I am hoping someone has been there and done that, and can show me and obviously others who have the same problem,where and how. > > Thanking you all. > > ______________________________