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WW1 'BURNT' Records - LESS than we thought!

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DazedConfused

DazedConfused Report 13 Nov 2014 12:18

On the Breakfast show a few mornings ago, there was a young lady from the National Archives on, promoting the use of archives around the country.

It was only a short slot but one thing she did say which surprised me was that the Burnt Records contain only 20-25%. Yet we have always been led to believe it was around 30%.

This is even worse. A sad day indeed. :-\

Researching:
We are all of us in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars, Oscar Wilde New avatar, my dad age about 3/4 months, could have been worse, it could have been the awful nude on a rug!!

Kay????

Kay???? Report 13 Nov 2014 13:03

Also in 1930 many many RAMC records were destroyed by governing bodies. :-(

DazedConfused

DazedConfused Report 14 Nov 2014 12:48

When I paid to have someone research at the National Archives WW1 records (prior to then going on Ancestry) the man did say he was really surprised at how comprehensive the records for my ancestor were as in the 1930s (again) many army units did a cull of the paperwork held in their records.

So not only did the Luftwaffe do us a disservice, it would appear the army got their first.....
;-)

Researching:
We are all of us in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars, Oscar Wilde New avatar, my dad age about 3/4 months, could have been worse, it could have been the awful nude on a rug!!

DazedConfused

DazedConfused Report 18 Nov 2014 20:36

Nudge

Researching:
We are all of us in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars, Oscar Wilde New avatar, my dad age about 3/4 months, could have been worse, it could have been the awful nude on a rug!!

MarieCeleste

MarieCeleste Report 19 Nov 2014 08:19

Just looking at the thread heading "WW1 'BURNT' Records - LESS than we thought!" gives the impression that there were fewer burnt records than originally anticipated, i.e. more surviving.

Very remiss of NA not to update their website accordingly, they are STILL saying "This means that there is a roughly 40% chance of finding the service record of a soldier who was discharged at some time between 1914 and 1920."
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/service_records/sr_soldiers.htm

Elsewhere they say "Many army service records between 1914 and 1920 do not exist as they were destroyed by enemy bombing in 1940 - only about 40% survive.
The condition of the surviving service records can vary greatly - some are badly damaged."

I didn't see the breakfast TV item but I did attend a lecture recently where we were told that although around 40% of records survived only about 60% of those are actually legible which equates to roughly 25% of the original records.