Searching tips and common problems.

[geoff501]

The Regiment of the record searched for should be selected in the Regiment/Corps field, or you can select a nationality (the default is set to UK) and the search will be made on ALL regiments of the nationality selected in this field.



For example to search for ROYAL AIR FORCE:



A few searches have been made by leaving Regiment/Corps set to UK and entering the required regiment into the Secondary Regt field. This is incorrect and the search will fail. The secondary field is for persons attached to other units at the time of death and the search for this field is only applied to the secondary field. (there are a few thousand such records, but much less than in WW1). This field should be left set to Not Selected unless it is required for the search.

The secondary field search was added mainly for data base compilers who could construct a more complete picture of those serving with a particular regiment.

An example of a record with a secondary field is 2/Lt. Budd, who died this day in 1944:

Name: BUDD, RALPH JAMES
Initials: R J
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Second Lieutenant
Regiment: Royal Ulster Rifles
Unit Text: London Irish Rifles
Secondary Regiment: Gordon Highlanders
Secondary Unit Text: seconded to The London Scottish
Date of Death: 12/01/1944
Service No: 313267
Additional Information: Son of James Budd Budd and M. Budd; husband of Edith Budd, of Barnet, Hertfordshire.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: Panel 11.
Cemetery: CASSINO MEMORIAL

[geoff501]

Ordinal numbers of units can be recorded in different ways in the Unit text field.
For example, both 3rd BN and 3 BN are used. Therefore try searching on both forms. I'm not 100% sure but suspect that particular regiments used a particular form (in the CWGC data) - however do try both forms.

geoff