ARC TBC............needle in haystack.. where do I start?

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ARC TBC............needle in haystack.. where do I start?

Postby rogerneilson » Thu Nov 10, 2011 9:16 pm

I have ben surprised by the fact that almost none of my tree could have served in the Great War, but I have found a couple who may not have been in reserved occupations. Trouble is I am just assuming they did serve but other than their basic name, DOB and likely location I have nothing to go on. Am I wasting my time even thinking I might be able to find them?
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Re: needle in haystack.. where do I start?

Postby MarkCDodd » Sun Nov 13, 2011 2:46 am

If you have approximate year of birth and county of birth you are 90% of the way.
Black Holes happen when God divides by zero.
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Re: needle in haystack.. where do I start?

Postby rogerneilson » Sun Nov 13, 2011 8:01 pm

Got both of those, so where next please?

Example:

John William Wilson b 22/6/1881 Northumberland
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Re: needle in haystack.. where do I start?

Postby MarkCDodd » Sun Nov 13, 2011 9:35 pm

You then go to Find My Past and British Army Service Records 1760-1915 and search for John Wilson born 1881 +/- 2 in Northumberland and you get two pages of potential matches.....
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Re: needle in haystack.. where do I start?

Postby rogerneilson » Sun Nov 13, 2011 10:34 pm

Yes thanks, not easy though - using find my past and setting the eyars very specifically to 1915 +- 2 gets me all sorts of stuff form the late 1800s onwards - the search doesn't appear to work very well.

And then there's the 'confirm resubmission' click.... annoying. Though not as annoying as Ancestry's complete inability to provide a decent search........

Ok will stop complaining now!
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Re: needle in haystack.. where do I start?

Postby Jimmy » Sun Nov 13, 2011 10:48 pm

Hi Roger,
Who are you looking for.
Just trying to do my bit for BCC, bringing families back together.
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Re: needle in haystack.. where do I start?

Postby MarkCDodd » Sun Nov 13, 2011 11:39 pm

With common names you must choose potential candidates and read the actual images.

The index can only work with the information provided by the transcribers and since this is the ONLY index available, you have to live with it.

With John William Wilson born 1881 Northumberland....have a look at the birth index and there are LOTS of them so naturally there will be lots in the military index.

If you can narrow the birth down to a particular parish then that helps when scanning the results.

I have used the FMP index to find dozens of soldiers over the last 12 months and it the best available, because it is the only one available.
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Re: needle in haystack.. where do I start?

Postby Northern Lass » Fri Aug 23, 2013 10:58 am

are you still needing help with this Roger?

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