How Long Might an MOD Request Take?

First checks before you go further

Timescales vary with the record, the holder's workload and whether further checks are needed, and the holder's own pages give the current picture. Treat any timescale as general guidance, not a promise for one request.

Keep the question narrow. A search for everything about a person returns nothing usable, while a search for one dated fact returns something testable. Write down what you know, what you suspect, and what you do not know, in three separate lists, and keep them apart until a record joins them. If the first search returns a crowd of same-name results, narrow by dates before you narrow by anything else: dates cut a crowd faster than spellings do.

Reading what the record actually says

Place names as written at the time may have changed, been misspelt, or referred to a camp rather than a town. A modern map alone will not settle them. A term that appears only once in a file deserves more care, not less: a single unusual entry is often the clue that explains a transfer or a change of role.

A record that contradicts a family story is not necessarily wrong, and a story that contradicts a record is not necessarily false. Note both, and let dated entries decide, one at a time. Entries in pencil, entries in ink, and entries stamped later are not the same kind of evidence. The medium often tells you when an entry was made.

Common traps in this record type

A local archive, a museum, and a national catalogue hold different pieces of the same story, and none of them alone is the whole story. A record destroyed, a record never created, and a record held elsewhere look identical from a search screen. The catalogue description is what tells them apart.

• A record that transferred to another holder.
• A proof of death question for the case in hand.
• A next of kin question for the case in hand.
• An officer file held on a different route from an other ranks file.

How do you work through it step by step?

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 a step fails three times with three different filters, stop and change the record type. Persistence with one record type past three failures is rarely rewarded. The sequence below is a default, not a law. If a step produces a surprise, follow the surprise, and return to the sequence afterwards.

• Fix the service, the dates, and the branch of service from what you already know.
• Check the holder current guidance for proof of death and next of kin requirements for your case.
• Prepare the identifying details the holder asks for, name, number, unit and dates, before making any request.
• Note what is released and what is withheld, and keep the holder reply with the record.

What should you check next?

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. Check the next record in the chain, not the next story about the same person.

If the next step is unclear, return to the timeline and find its weakest link. The weakest dated entry, not the most interesting gap, is what to strengthen next. A referenced gap is better than an unreferenced bridge. Mark the gaps, and return to them with a named record in mind.