Find Ancestors

Hi

Quick question are people who died in active service during WWII included in the BMD death indexes?

Thanks

Jenny

EDIT - Sorry to all those who have replied for my late response. I have spent most of today in bed as not been feeling too well. i will have a proper look at responses tomorrow as only lookin on phone atm an its not great.

Only if they died in England/Wales, as I understand it.

For instance, the victims of the Bethnal Green Tube Disaster are included in the deaths listed at the the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website, as civilian casualties (even though in that case they died because of panic caused by the British military's own activities), and will also be found in the GRO deaths index.


Oh, oops, did that say "in active service" when I first read it? ;)

I would still guess that if the death occurred in England/Wales it would be in the GRO index.

In case you aren't familiar, this is the CWGC search page:

http://www.cwgc.org/debt_of_honour.asp?menuid=14

You want to hope your person doesn't have a common surname and initial.

Not all individual records there identify people by birthdate and provide next of kin info.

The reason I ask is I am trying to find further information on

- Percy Marshall Roberts who died 26.01.42 (age 31 born Glasgow)

- George Roberts who died 02.08.43 (age 29 born Edinburgh)
I know his parents were George and Jane Richardson Roberts of Edinburgh and his brother Kenneth was also killed in the war (05/06/40)

Ideally I would like to find their birth records but the information I have from the Regimental Headquarters The Highlanders shows their place of birth. I have no idea how to go about searching Scottish records, anyone help here?

Jenny

www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk

but - your search may be too recent to be able to get access there.

If you change the subject line of your thread to something like

birth records Scotland 1940s

it should catch the eye of our resident Scottish records expert Thomas - or someone else knowledgeable.

If he or someone else hasn't dropped by with help in a day or two, stick a new post in the thread and when I see it I'll hunt Thomas up.

If he died on active service in ww2, his name will be on the CWGC site, which will also say where his grave is, or, lacking a grave, where his death is memorialized.

If his death was in the UK, it will be recorded in the regular way and rego'ed in the appropriate country. This will be the case whether he died of wounds, dropped dead of a heart attack, or got run over by a bus.

If he died overseas of whatever cause, his death will be recorded in the war returns register. These entries are singularly uninformative - you'll get more info from the CWGC. The only thing you might learn is his broad category of death - killed in action, died of wounds, etc.

To see an example of the WW2 register, look at the last link on:
http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/content/help/index.aspx?r=554&404

Here's Percy

http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=2142802

George:

http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=2233911



Kenneth:

http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=2766987

Nothing is coming up for Percy on Scotlandspeople

EDIT:

Found him - his name is Percival Marshall Roberts and he was born in 1910. As that is inside the 100 year closure, the cert can't be downloaded, so you will need to order it from Edinburgh.

Janice

If Jenny wanted to do what I suggested and make sure that "Scotland" appears in her subject line, I think Thomas would probably notice and be able to help her with info from inside the 100 year limit. That was kinda my point.

Since Jenny had all the details that are in the CWGC records (which I did check) I assumed she had accessed those records and in fact had got her information there.

Jenny had another thread running on these people and we found the CWGC records then.

Hi

Sorry for the late reply, I was quite unwell yesterday. I do appreciate all your efforts.

Will they allow me access to his birth record as I am not direct family?

Jenny

Hi Jenny,

You can order the cert from Edinburgh OK but you just can't download it online. If you or someone else goes to Edinburgh, you can view the cert I think.
Have a look at the New Register House website for the details.

Janice

I am quite tempted to just order the certificates as I live in West London it is a very long way. At least if I get both the certificates I can work on identifying which one is her father. I still have a long way to go :(

Yes, Jenny had another thread.

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards.asp?wci=thread&tk=1171998

Which would have been the place to ask this question, rather than start another thread. I do appreciate that Jenny wouldn't have expected people to go "finding" the CWGC records all over again, since she evidently had them, but still. Made no sense to start a new thread.

Well, actually, reading that thread, I see she had the CWGC records the FIRST time somebody went looking for them ...

No need for another thread ... let alone two within two minutes, eh?

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards.asp?wci=thread&tk=1172242


One post per topic.

If you have information, give the information you have, especially when you already know that if you don't, people are going to go helpfully looking for it.