Filed under Army Regiments and Corps: A Method Guide
What to check first in this record
Home service means service in the United Kingdom rather than overseas, and it appears as postings to home units, depots and training establishments. It is still service, and it still leaves a record trail worth following.
Begin with the filters the catalogue itself uses, because a search that fights the catalogue structure will return noise however carefully it is worded. One dated fact from a record outweighs three plausible details from a story, and the timeline should show which is which.
Reading what the record actually says
Do not read a unit diary as if it were written for you. It was written for the unit, in unit shorthand, and personal details appear only where the unit needed them. Do not assume a modern map, a modern rank table, or a modern unit list applies to a record from another decade. Check the period source for the period entry.
Corrections, crossings out and later additions are part of the evidence, not damage to it. A record corrected at the time tells you something changed. A record that names several people should be read for all of them, not just for yours. The others are what prove, or break, the identification.
Dead ends to expect here
A gap of a few weeks in a diary, a log, or a file is normal. A gap of months, in the same record, is a question. Learn the normal gap size for the record type. A dead end shared by many researchers is usually a coverage problem, not a personal one. The research guides for that record type will often say so plainly.
- A regiment amalgamated or renumbered.
- A territorial unit with a tangled numbering history.
- A corps record filed differently from a regimental record.
- A home service posting that left little unit paper.
Working through it in order
Opening several records at once is how two people with the same name get merged into one timeline, so keep the work sequential and deliberate. Do not start with the record that interests you most. Start with the record that anchors the timeline, and let interest follow the anchor. A useful habit is to write the question at the top of your notes before each step, and the answer, with its reference, underneath it when the step ends. If you work across several sessions, start each session by rereading the last page of your notes, not by opening a new record. Continuity beats novelty.
- Take the regiment or corps and the battalion from the personal file, with dates.
- Check whether the unit was amalgamated, renumbered or converted, and over which dates.
- Open the unit records for the posting dates only, and note their references.
- Use regimental museums and published histories only after the unit record for those dates has been read.
What should you check next?
A next step that is easy is not necessarily the right one. The right next step is the one the timeline needs, and it is often the awkward one. The related guides at the foot of this page link back to the pillar for this section and to the neighbouring guides, so you can move through the cluster without losing the person you started with.
A session that ends with three referenced facts and one named next step has succeeded, even if the story feels shorter than you hoped. Stop when the next step is named and the references are written. That is a complete session, however short the timeline looks.
Primary sources for this guide
Everything here is kept general and tied to official holders, so check the current position with the holder for your own case. The guide is educational information only: it is not personal professional advice, it is not a lookup service, and it settles nothing about any one person's service.