FamilySearch adds UK Prisoners of War 1715-1947 collection

FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org) has added the following collections:

Prisoners of War, 1715-1947
https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/4459223

Comprised of various records held by The National Archives (England) detailing refugees and individuals taken as prisoners of war during major conflicts around the globe. The records contain the names of military personnel, civilians, diplomats, missionaries, and merchant seamen from nations all over the world.

Images are only available to FamilySearch members, their family history centres, their affilates, or at the National Archives in England (which holds the originals).

From the FamilySearch wiki entry at https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Prisoners_of_War_-_FamilySearch_Historical_Records

Conflicts include:

• Napoleonic Wars, 1747-1889
• Crimean and Boer Wars, 1795-1951
• World War I, 1913-1918

Sources:

• ADM 1, Admiralty, and Ministry of Defence, Navy Department: Correspondence and Papers
• AIR 1, Air Ministry: Air Historical Branch: Papers (Series I)
• BT 167 Registry of Shipping and Seamen: Precedent Books, Establishment Papers, etc.
• CAB 45, Committee of Imperial Defence, Historical Branch and Cabinet Office, Historical Section: Official War Histories Correspondence and Papers
• CO 693, Colonial Office: Dominions (War of 1914-1918), Prisoners Original Correspondence
• FO 372, Foreign Office: Treaty Department and successors: General Correspondence from 1906
• FO 383, Foreign Office: Prisoners of War and Aliens Department: General Correspondence from 1906
• MT 9, Board of Trade and Ministry of Transport and successors: Marine, Harbours and Wrecks (M, H and W Series) Files
• WO 161, War Office: Miscellaneous Unregistered Papers, First World War
• WO 900, War Office: Specimens of Series of Documents Destroyed

 

Comment: Unfortunately, this is not an easy collection to use, as FamilySearch's default search fields are largely incompatible with the data fields presented in the returns. It looks like you can only search by name and date - and in most cases that I have seen so far, it seems to be the initial returned for a first name only.

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.