Filed under Starting From Almost Nothing: A Method Guide
What to check first in this record
Research a common name by holding the service number, unit and dates as filters from the start, and by refusing matches that fit the name but not the filters. Common names reward patience and punish quick matches.
If any one of the four filters fails, name, number, unit, dates, stop and re-check before reading further into the record. Before you search, decide what would count as a match for this person, and write that standard down, so a near match cannot quietly become a match. Check the filters in the order the record itself uses them: the catalogue structure, not your own curiosity, decides what a search can find.
The order to work in
Steps that look bureaucratic, noting references, dating entries, separating lists, are the steps that keep a long research project honest. 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.
- Name the clue exactly: what it is, what it says, and what it does not say.
- Choose the first record that clue points to, and note its reference before opening it.
- Extract only dated facts from that record, and add them to a first timeline with source notes.
- Let the first timeline choose the second record, and keep guesses in a separate list until a record joins them.
Reading what the record actually says
If a word is illegible, look at the same word elsewhere in the file. Clerks repeat words, and a clear instance elsewhere can unlock an unclear one. If you cannot read a word, mark it unread rather than guessing it. A guessed word, once written into a timeline, is very hard to dislodge. Do not carry a final rank, a final trade, or a final unit backwards through a career. Every entry belongs to its own date, and the career is the sequence, not the endpoint.
Common traps in this record type
A gap that appears in every record for the same dates probably reflects how records were kept, not a personal mystery. Check the coverage before inventing an explanation. When a record set ends before your dates, or begins after them, the problem is coverage, and no variation of search terms will fix a coverage problem.
- A very common name with no second filter.
- A spelling variant the index does not use.
- No hint at all about which service to try first.
- A first search with filters too narrow or too broad.
The next record in the chain
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. Cross-check, rather than collect. One record confirmed by a second, independent record is worth more than five records that all repeat the same source.
Move from personal records to unit records, or from unit records back to personal ones, deliberately. Each direction answers a different kind of question. Stop at the record that answers the question, and note the reference before moving on.
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.