Starting here, in order
Fix the person first, then the record. Searching for a record before you have fixed the person is how two people become one timeline. Write the match standard for this person before you search, and hold every candidate to it. A standard written after the search will always fit the result.
- Start with the person: name, number, service, dates.
- Settle the unit or ship from the record, where it allows that.
- Read the record for those dates, and note its reference as you go.
- Let only dated, sourced facts into the timeline.
The organisation behind these records
Do not modernise a place name, a rank or a trade in your notes without keeping the original wording alongside it. The original wording is what the next search needs. Where an entry is routine, say so in your notes. Routine entries matter precisely because they are routine: they show where a person actually was, not where a story puts them.
When is a match safe to use?
If a family paper and an official record cannot both be right, keep both, date both, and look for a third record. A third record breaks ties that argument cannot. 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.
What does this section cover?
A regiment or corps is not a surname, it is a research address. Once you know the unit and its dates, you can find its war diary, its museum and its published history; without the unit, you are searching the whole Army by name, which is the slowest possible way to work. This section is organised as one pillar guide plus supporting guides that each answer one question about the same record type. Read the pillar first for the shape of the records, then follow the supporting guides for the detail that matches your case.
The records in this section are held principally by The National Archives, regimental and corps museums, and the National Army Museum. Holdings change as transfer and digitisation programmes proceed, so the holder and coverage statements in each guide describe the general position and point you to the holder's current guidance for the exact position.
Going further in this section
Move between record types deliberately, and note the move. A timeline that jumps record types without noting the jumps cannot be audited. If the timeline now has a gap with a name on each side of it, the next record is the one that could bridge that gap, and no other record will do. A single well-checked fact is worth a page of plausible narrative. Prefer the fact, and let the narrative wait for more facts.
Primary sources for this guide
This guide keeps its claims general and points to the official holders, so the holder itself is the place to check the current position. It is general educational information only, not personal professional advice, and it offers no record lookup service and no determination of any individual's service.