Filed under RAF Service Records: A Method Guide
What to check first in this record
Reserve and Auxiliary Air Force service can appear in separate papers from regular service, and a person may have more than one period of service. Treat each period as its own research thread and do not merge two periods into one timeline until the dates and numbers line up.
Search for the person you can prove, not the person you hope to find. The provable person has a number, a unit and a date range; the hoped-for person has only a story. The question to carry into every record is small: does this name, number, unit and date belong to the person I started with, or to someone like them? The record you need is usually the one for the dates you have, not the one with the most dramatic story attached to it.
The order to work in
Work in date order, one record at a time, and write each finding into the timeline with its reference before opening the next record. 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. 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. If you find yourself copying a whole page into your notes, stop and ask what single fact you actually need from it. Copy the fact, and the reference, not the page.
| Step | What to do |
|---|---|
| 1 | Fix the service dates first, so you know which holder is likely to hold the file. |
| 2 | Note the service number exactly, including any change after remustering or re-enlistment. |
| 3 | List postings in date order, and treat each posting as a separate check against unit records. |
| 4 | Test every later record, medal or casualty entry, against the personal file before adding it to the timeline. |
How do you read what you find?
Read the file backwards as well as forwards. A later sheet often explains an earlier entry that looked, at first reading, like an error. A summary page at the front of a file is a later compilation, and compilations introduce errors. Use it as a map, and verify its claims sheet by sheet. 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.
Common traps in this record type
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. Do not spend a session repeating a search that failed. Spend it on a different record type, a different holder, or a different filter, and note what changed.
A person recorded under a middle name, a nickname, or a stepfather surname will not be found by a search on the name you know. Collect name variants first. 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.
The next record in the chain
Where a guide points to a holder, check the holder guidance before you act on the pointer. Pointers age, and guidance changes. If the next record is a unit record, carry the posting dates with you. If it is a personal record, carry the number. The filter you carry decides what you find. Keep the person, the number and the dates together, and the rest of the chain follows.
Primary sources for this guide
Claims in this guide are kept general and point to official holders, so you can check the current position with the holder itself. This guide is general educational information only. It is not personal professional advice, it does not offer a record lookup service, and it does not determine any individual's service.