Tracing Your WW2 Army Ancestors Workshop
For those interested in Family History
Uncovering a relative’s wartime story can feel like piecing together a tricky puzzle scattered across archives, service records, and long forgotten paperwork with a language all of its own. This workshop guides you through the process of tracing soldiers who served in the British Army during the Second World War, showing you where to look, what survives, and how to interpret what you find.
We’ll explore the major sources for wartime service – personnel files, unit war diaries, casualty lists, medal records, POW documentation, and more, explaining how each fits into the wider picture of a soldier’s experience. You’ll learn how to follow an ancestor from enlistment to demobilisation, how to decode the jargon of military paperwork, and how to place an individual story within the broader context of the Army’s campaigns.
Whether you’re starting from a single photograph or already have a bundle of documents you’re struggling to make sense of, this workshop will equip you with practical methods, research pathways, and the confidence to push your family’s wartime story further.
11.00 - 13.00
Pre-booking is required.
The venue is the Society's new centre at the University of Reading's London Road Campus. The campus is well served by public transport, there is also free parking on Saturdays.
Image: Lieutenant A. R. Tanner, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
About Berkshire Family History Society
This workshop is organised by Berkshire Family History Society CIO, a registered charity number 1204390.
