Filed under RAF People, Trades and Ranks: A Method Guide
What should you look for first?
Musterings changed when the service reorganised, when a person remustered, or when wartime needs reshaped trades. A change on the record is normal and is worth dating, because it often explains a posting change.
A person who served in two periods, two units, or two services will look like two people until the threads are joined by dates and numbers. The catalogue entry is a record in its own right. Read it fully before you open the record it describes, because it tells you what you are about to see.
A step by step way through
Do not let a tool, a website, or an index set the order of your work. Tools serve steps; steps do not serve tools. Order matters more than speed here. The same records, opened in a different order, produce a different timeline, and only one of those orders can be checked. When you close a record, write one line saying what it proved, what it suggested, and what it left open. Three lines per record keep a project honest.
| Step | What to do |
|---|---|
| 1 | List every rank and trade entry with its date, in date order. |
| 2 | Note acting rank separately from substantive rank, where the record distinguishes them. |
| 3 | Check a trade title against a period glossary or museum source for that date, not against modern usage. |
| 4 | Use the trade to narrow the next records, then let postings supply the detail. |
Reading what the record actually says
A medical entry, a pay entry, or a disciplinary entry should not be read as a character judgement. These are administrative categories, and they record process, not personality. 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. An entry that flatters, an entry that blames, and an entry that is purely routine are written for different readers. The reader shapes the wording.
Where this kind of research usually stalls
A gap in a record is a finding, not a failure. Note the gap, its dates, and what kind of record might fill it, instead of filling it with a plausible story. If a unit record is missing for the exact week you need, the neighbouring weeks, and the higher formation record for that week, may still fix place and date. A search that returns nothing proves only that nothing matched those terms in that catalogue on that day. It does not prove the record does not exist.
The next record in the chain
Note the reference of this record before you leave it. A timeline without references cannot be revisited, and a revisit is where most errors get caught. The neighbouring guides are not a reading list. They are the next links in a chain, and the chain order matters more than the reading order.
The cluster around this guide is a chain, not a shelf. Reading it in chain order, following the links at the foot of each page, keeps the person in view. Trust the process: fix the person, date the entries, note the references, and let the timeline assemble itself link by link.
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.