Militia Service Records 1806-1915
Search for your ancestors' service records in the following record collections. You can also search the whole of the British Army Service Records 1760-1915 or search the Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records 1760-1913 separately:
British Army Service Records 1760-1915
Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records 1760-1913
What are the Militia Service Records?
These records are brought to you online in association with The National Archives (TNA). The TNA record series number is ‘WO96’: WO simply indicates that the records were created by the War Office, the precursor of today’s Ministry of Defence.
The Militia was a voluntary county-based part-time force for home defence. It ceased to be summoned after the Civil War but was revived in 1757, when the Militia Act established militia regiments in all counties of England and Wales.
Why are these records useful to the family historian?
These records provide rich detail and colour to your ancestors’ lives at a level that is difficult to find elsewhere. Many of your ancestors will have served in the militia, often as a precursor to serving in the British Army so these records will provide a useful addition to our British Army Service Records.
You will often find physical descriptions including distinguishing marks including tattoos. In the absence of photographs, these records are an essential tool in imagining what your ancestors were like - although some of the later records do include photographs. You’ll also be able to see the individual’s signature.
Whereas many other military records provide information about officer class soldiers, these records include papers from ordinary soldiers of other ranks. This makes it more likely that you will be able to find details about your ancestors. If searching the censuses leads to a dead end, it is possible you can find who you are looking for here. Men often attested into one corps and out of another.
What exactly will I be able to find out?
The Militia Service Records provide a record of service as they were annotated until the date of discharge. They also have information about birth date and place.
What else is special about the Militia Service Records?
They contain details which are largely unavailable elsewhere. These records are useful in finding out information about ancestors from England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and overseas.
This is the first time these records have been scanned, transcribed and published online.
Search for your ancestors' service records in the following record collections. You can also search the whole of the British Army Service Records 1760-1915 or search the Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records 1760-1913 separately:
British Army Service Records 1760-1915
Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records 1760-1913
What are the Militia Service Records?
These records are brought to you online in association with The National Archives (TNA). The TNA record series number is ‘WO96’: WO simply indicates that the records were created by the War Office, the precursor of today’s Ministry of Defence.
The Militia was a voluntary county-based part-time force for home defence. It ceased to be summoned after the Civil War but was revived in 1757, when the Militia Act established militia regiments in all counties of England and Wales.
Why are these records useful to the family historian?
These records provide rich detail and colour to your ancestors’ lives at a level that is difficult to find elsewhere. Many of your ancestors will have served in the militia, often as a precursor to serving in the British Army so these records will provide a useful addition to our British Army Service Records.
You will often find physical descriptions including distinguishing marks including tattoos. In the absence of photographs, these records are an essential tool in imagining what your ancestors were like - although some of the later records do include photographs. You’ll also be able to see the individual’s signature.
Whereas many other military records provide information about officer class soldiers, these records include papers from ordinary soldiers of other ranks. This makes it more likely that you will be able to find details about your ancestors. If searching the censuses leads to a dead end, it is possible you can find who you are looking for here. Men often attested into one corps and out of another.
What exactly will I be able to find out?
The Militia Service Records provide a record of service as they were annotated until the date of discharge. They also have information about birth date and place.
What else is special about the Militia Service Records?
They contain details which are largely unavailable elsewhere. These records are useful in finding out information about ancestors from England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and overseas.
This is the first time these records have been scanned, transcribed and published online.
Militia Search tips
Search parameters
Soldiers’ papers may include attestation and/or discharge forms. The attestation form was completed when the soldier joined the regiment; the discharge form when he left. The search covers all available papers for each soldier but the records may only offer attestation information. This is because discharge papers exist for only 7% of the records.
Country and county
You will need to select the country before options appear in the county dropdown. Only Australia of the overseas documents has any options in the county field.
Town and parish
These are freeform fields and should only be used if you are certain how they would have been recorded. Even in seemingly obvious place names, there are variations in how they are recorded and you’re more likely to get useful results by using a wildcard search.
Soldier number
If you know the solider number, you can search by this on its own.
Regiment
This is a useful search if you are interested in finding out about a particular regiment rather than when searching for individuals and you can search by regiment alone. There is often not a match between the wording on the transcription compared to a full or official title, so Battalion of the 12th Foot may only be listed as ‘12th’ in the records. The filter can be a useful aid to finding those with a particularly common surname, however.
Discharge corps
TNA piece numbers are arranged by discharge corps. In Advanced Search one can search by Regiment (which is discharge corps). In the free search results one sees the Discharge Regiment. The chargeable full transcription shows both the Discharge Corps and the Attestation Corps. However, the service records themselves are those completed for the attestation corps. If a man transferred to another corps, this will usually be shown on the final page (called Statement of Services or similar) as a single, often closing line, e.g. transferred to [x corps] on [xx date]. Where a man transferred, therefore, it may look at first glance that we have got the corps wrong, especially if you go straight to image without first viewing the transcription.
Less is more
There are no compulsory fields within the search but you should include at least 3 characters within a forename or surname as a minimum. For a wider range of search fields, try the advanced search tab. Completing more fields will narrow down your results, but we suggest that you begin your search by using only a small amount of information. This will allow for potential mis-transcriptions, and if you get too many results, you can always add more detail to condense them.
Include variants
Even if you are sure you know the correct spelling of a name, it may not be recorded exactly as you’d expect. The spelling of a surname can change as it is passed down through the generations and your ancestor may have used a different first name in everyday life to the one used for official documents.
If you tick the ‘include variants’ tickbox, alternative spellings of the name you’ve entered will be included in the results. For example, if you enter Stephen you will also get matches for ‘Steven’; ‘Smyth’ will appear alongside ‘Smythe’ and ‘Smith’.
Wildcards
If you are unsure of how a name was spelt or if you can’t find it with the usual spelling, the wildcard feature lets you broaden your search.
You can create a wildcard search by including a * in the search. It can be used within all alphabetical search fields, except those with drop-down menus.
For example, if you search for William Lancaster but enter ‘*caster’ in the last name field, your results will include names such as Doncaster and Hilcaster as well as Lancaster. So if the initial part of William Lancaster’s last name has been wrongly transcribed, the results may still lead you to the right entry.
The initial and/or last letters of names are sometimes mis-transcribed. You can use two wildcards in a search field to allow for these types of transcription error. For example, you could enter *ollin* if you were having difficulty finding a Rollind or a Collins.