This military records research guide includes a list of databases, records, and other resources that may be helpful in searching for an individual soldier. This includes resources here at the South Peace Regional Archives, as well as resources preserved by Library and Archives Canada (LAC), the Alberta Genealogical Society, the Government of Canada and other national governments, and other organizations.
Our internal databases, especially the surname database, community book index, and newspaper indices, are a good starting point for researching soldiers who lived in the South Peace at some point.
The SPRA has an assortment of resources related to military history outside of our Soldiers’ Memorial Exhibit, including relvant databases to help find individuals, research articles, and transcriptions of a few soldier memoirs with links below:
- Peace River Country Land Settlement Database
- Kaylee Dyck – Telling Our Stories “Marriage Records in Military Personnel Files”
- Kaylee Dyck – Telling Our Stories “Researching a Prisoner of War”
- D. W. Patterson Memoirs
- Edward Heller Memoirs see transcription here
Library and Archives Canada (LAC) holds a number of collections related to Canadian military personnel, with a focus on the World War I. Below links are included that the LAC and Canadian Government have produced.
Guides for Accessing Military Records:
- First World War Records
- Royal Canadian Navy Service Files
- Military Abbreviations
- Using the LAC Land Grants Database
Databases and Collections:
- Digitized Service Files
- Medal Cards
- Circumstances of Death Registers
- Western Canada Land Grants
- Land Grants – Liber Numbers
The Alberta Genealogical Society provides a few different online indexes that can be helpful for both general and military historical research:
These resources from other countries, including databases, indexes, and articles can be useful for finding information about Canadian military personnel.
The United Kingdom:
- British Records
- British Red Cross Records
- British Casualty Clearing Stations
- Locations of British Hospitals & Casualty Clearing Stations
Australia:
France:
The United States:
Included below are links to different online memorials of World War I and World War II. The RCMP Graves database may also be a useful resource to search, as many RCMP officers during World War I and World War II served in the military:
- Lives of the First World War
- Canadian Great War Project
- Canadian Virtual War Memorial
- Commonwealth War Graves Commission
- RCMP Graves
This list contains links to a variety of external resources that may help in searching for military records:
Most of the resources above were curated for researching World War I veterans. Researching a World War II veteran may present some challenges as these military service files have not all been made publicly available due to privacy restrictions. Here are some resources to help you get started:
- SPRA’s surname, community book, and newspaper indices
- Military Medals
- Obituary Index
- Gravemarker Index
- Find A Grave (often more current than index above)
- Canadian Virtual War Memorial
- Commonwealth War Graves Commission
- Library & Archives Canada World War II resources
- World War II service files – war dead (LAC)