General question about fire destroyed records

[Little Nell]

It is also possible to build up some sort of picture even without the service record.

Neither my grandfather's record nor that of his brother survived the fire and they were in the same regiment. 

However, from my grandfather's medal card and the medal roll information I eventually found out his battalion.  There was a letter in his papers from the Ministry of Pensions which set out the timeline of his service (enlistment, service abroad, date when he was wounded).  With this, I was able to look at the War Diary and found the action when he was wounded and was even able to pinpoint the location on a trench map. 

This was far more than I had hoped for.

Nell

[jonw65]

As far as I know, the WO 363/364 records have never been on fiche.
The surviving records were microfilmed and the films gradually made available at Kew (which is how I first saw them)
Since when the films have been digitized and they have been online for a good few years now.

Now try WO 363 and WO 364 in the reference box, answer zilch.
If there had been a record burnt or unburnt for him, it would have been listed there.

Just to prove it, enter Arthur Heath and WO 363 and you will see his record has survived.  Clicking on the title shows you can see it on Findmypast and Ancestry (check "other ways") and view free at Kew.

I'm not so sure that you can use Discovery to ascertain whether any particular soldier's record survives in WO 363 or WO 364
The search for Arthur Heath in WO 363 brings up
Heath Arthur - Heath Charles H
Reference WO 363/H1322

This is the film containing surname Heath, from Arthur to Charles H.
That's not just the one Arthur by the way. There are many!
Any second names seem to be just given as an initial. But it's not so likely that an actual record in those two classes would be for "Charles H"? More probably Charles Henry, Charles Horace, etc.
Different matter for the medal rolls index cards.

how do i find out if my relatives are one of those records?

If you are unable to search on ancestry or findmypast (though the free index on the latter is of some use) you can try the index on familysearch
https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2125045

From which we can see that there is after all a record for a James W Muir. Sadly not the Royal Engineer. James William Muir, born Lochinver, Sutherland, Scotland, and he was in the Seaforth Highlanders
The small print tells us it is in WO 364
John

[MaxD]

I hope it is not too presumptuous of me to say that I believe the contributions to this post show only too clearly that finding detail of a serviceman's record is not always an easy process and sometimes requires, as the posts from Little Nell and John show, a modicum of experience and knowledge of just what is and isn't out there and where.

To someone who is interested only in one individual, then the simple answer to the original question on this thread should have been - in the first instance post his name on Rootschat*.  I, and I am sure others far more expert than I, will use every trick in the book to find, if there is one, the answer or, if none appears, suggest further lines of attack.  Another answer might be to join a local Family History Society who will have their own resident military buff who will be only too delighted to help out.  The welter of information, sometimes slightly at variance, in the last three posts illustrates the difficulty of trying to explain on line in a few words all the wrinkles used by (in my case) the hopefully knowledgeable amateur.

MaxD

*Other sites dealing exclusively with military matters are available!

[mmm45]

Also out there are the pension records now with Western Front Association after been rescued by them.There is a cost to search them though and not online.

Ady

[squatt]

Thanks for all the posts, very informative.

By asking questions then i can learn....

By asking questions in an open forum like this we can all learn...

Local history Groups in general are pretty good, but there focus usually comes from the focus of there general membership.

I know 4 or 5 different groups and none have any military focus, I gave a little talk at one a couple of weeks back and although the group membership had an excellent knowledge and personal experience of the war years, none had made it an area of research.

So you guy are an invaluable resource. Big pat on the back for everyone who contributes 

regards