World War II Genealogy Research in The UK

Are you working on World War II Genealogy Research in The UK? This article will help you get started as you create your research goals and strategy. 

How Did World War II Affect Your UK Ancestors?

For many genealogists and family historians, the Second World War is an integral part of researching our ancestors’ lives, especially if you have British ancestors.   

By the end of the Second World War 12% of the male population had served and 7 million women had been involved in ‘war work.’  As a result, every family was impacted in one way or another, even before the civilian and local impact of the war such as the Blitz.

Military Records

For those genealogists seeking the service records of a soldier or sailor who served in the Second World War, it is both disappointing and heartening that their records have recently been transferred (March 2024) from the Ministry of Defence to The National Archives (TNA) at Kew as part of an extensive digitisation project.  In total there are just under ten million of these records.  Additionally, the non-officer Royal Air Force records will follow in 2024-25, with the full transfer to complete in 2027.  However, the current backlog and project now mean a request for a service record are experiencing delays of up to a year. However, if you can wait, the records will be easier and faster to locate, and a lot cheaper to obtain.

As the project evolves, names are added to Discovery, the TNA’s catalogue, and it is possible to search for the soldier you seek.  However, if you do not find a record for someone you know served, it is more likely to reflect the fact his records have not yet been indexed than that he did not serve at all.  When available, there should be two sets of records for most soldiers: service records and medal records.  If you know your soldier’s unit, there are unit diaries and maps accessible at the TNA.

World War II UK Prisoners of War

Prisoner of war (POW) lists may also capture a combatant’s details, but only a very small proportion are viewable online.  Those not online are held at the TNA which you can view in person or pay for copies to be emailed to you.  There is no definitive database for all POW records and a series of separate searches may have to be undertaken. These include records for civilian POWs, liberated POW questionnaires, escape plans, Merchant Navy POWs, accounts of treatment and enquiries into missing personnel, for the Far East as well as Europe.

Some 384,000 soldiers, 85,000 RAF members, 51,000 Royal Navy sailors, and 30,000 merchant navy sailors were killed in the Second World War.  Army rolls of honour and casualty lists are available on findmypast and Royal Navy registers of death on ships, along with those wounded are available at the National Archives. Allied air casualties found near or by their aircraft having been shot down were recorded by the German authorities and are also held at the TNA.  If your combatant died in the war, you are also likely to locate records on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission for them. Another database worth searching is the Imperial War Museum’s War Memorials Register which over 1.6 million names and 50,000 images from the UK’s War Memorials.

Although non-combatants, the Merchant Navy was key to supplying the country with food, fuel, equipment, and raw materials to survive the war.  Their ship records are held at the TNA and the National Maritime Museum holds key works on the ships of the Merchant Navy.  The Imperial War Museum (IWM) as well as the main military branches specialist museums such as the National Army Museum, the RAF Museum or the National Museum of the Royal Navy also hold information on the various impacts of the war including first-hand accounts from participants.

Civilian Register of England

After the onset of World War II on 29 September 1939 a register of the civilian population of England and Wales was taken, and everyone had their actual birthdate recorded.  It was designed to track the population and administer ration cards and can be used as a census substitute as no census was carried out in 1941.  As it was taken at the start of the War, it includes those who were later conscripted. It does not include those who had already volunteered or were already in the forces.

Evacuating Children During World War II

In the early days of the war the government initiated ‘Operation Pied Piper,’ evacuating 800,000 children from major cities such as London, Manchester, Birmingham, and Glasgow.  Photos of children waving from trains or with name tags around their necks clinging to a small piece of luggage have become a key image of the Second World War.  The phoney war in the early months of the war, where there were no major hostilities, persuaded many families to bring their children home again inspiring the government’s campaign to ‘leave the children where they are’.

It wasn’t until bombing began in May 1940 that the need for evacuations was better understood. In total more than 3 million children were evacuated from the major cities.  Although a central database of evacuees does not exist, several local archives have lists such as Cupar in Fife and Berkshire (available on Ancestry) and various archives collecting evacuee stories: both the good and the bad.  As records are unredacted in the 1939 register, it may be possible to locate where more of the children were moved to.

German Blitz in London

The Germans launched the Blitz (from the German word Blitzkreig meaning ‘lightening war’) in September 1940 and it ran until May 1941.  When most people hear ‘the Blitz,’ images of London usually jump to mind, and it was indeed the most heavily bombed of the British cities.  However, the other major cities and ports were also targeted.  For instance, it is estimated that almost a third of Coventry’s houses were made uninhabitable and in Hull 10% of the population were made homeless.  Further details on the impact can be read at the IWM, among other resources.  In total over 43,500 civilians were killed.  A ‘roll of honour’ has been compiled by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and searching these registers can help tell you what happened to members of your ancestor’s family (select ‘Civilian War Dead 1939-1945’ from the ‘Served in’ dropdown menu). 

For London, a particularly interesting resource is the Layers of London maps overlaying the bomb damage to buildings on pre-war maps.  The hand-coloured ordinance survey maps show the scale of damage along with places bombs fell.  If your ancestors lived in London, they show you, on a street-by-street basis, the impact of the war and can explain why you cannot find the church your ancestors married in, for example.

The Second World War also had a profound impact on those who remained in Britain. Immortalised in the sitcom Dad’s Army, the Home Guard consisted of local volunteers above or below the age of conscription and those unfit or ineligible for front-line service.  They were designed to be Britain’s ‘last line of defence’ against a German invasion.  Initially a rag-tag militia with make-do uniforms and weaponry, it evolved into a well-equipped and well-trained army of 1.7 million men.  Whilst many records are held by the Ministry of Defence and can be requested directly, others are online such Lancashire, Surrey and Berkshire’s Home Guard records on Ancestry and Durham are held at the TNA.  Civil defence and non-combatants were eligible for awards, and these can be searched both at the TNA and on Ancestry.

It is also possible to find memorials to non-combatants, such as the one below found in west London.

Home front memorial in Margarvine Cemetery, London. Courtesy of Laura Doyle.

Land Girls Records

Additionally, the records of more than 90,000 ‘land girls’ who served in the Women’s Land Army have been digitised and are available on Ancestry.  Mostly handwritten they feature names, addresses, birth dates, membership numbers and employment details of the women.

When the contribution of animals in a World War is brough into conversation, many people think of the book/play/film War Horse or images such as the lithograph ‘Good-bye Old Man’ from 1916

However, at the start of the Second World War animals such as horses, mules and even camels were still used as carriers of men and supplies, and dogs became guards or did reconnaissance duty and mine detecting.  Additionally, some 250,000 homing pigeons were used to carry messages and in some cases were responsible for the rescue of ditched aircrew.

In 1943 Maria Dickin instituted the PDSA Dickin Medal to acknowledge outstanding acts of bravery or devotion to duty of animals serving with the Armed Forces or Civil Defence units.

The medal has been awarded 75 times and recipients comprise 38 dogs, 32 pigeons, 4 horses and 1 cat.  Their website contains the stories of each recipient including a collie called Rob who made over 20 parachute jumps with the SAS in North Africa.  

All forms of the media (radio, newspapers, magazines, films and newsreels) were censored and controlled by the Ministry of Information.  They were tasked to ensure morale did not drop, as well as informing people of successes.  From money-raising events held by the Women’s Institute, to lists of locals who joined up or letters from serving combatants, local newspapers were keen to play their part.  They also reported on casualties and more negative impacts of the war.  So don’t forget to try searching the British Newspaper Archives for the impact of the war on your family tree. And lastly, the BBC has collected some 47,000 stories and 15,000 images in an archive of World War Two memories submitted by the public in their WW2 People’s War site.

Should you need assistance in your search for British families affected by the war, please do contact us, we’d be delighted to help.