Giving records a closer look

                                                                  A pile of military records

I write for the BC Genealogy Society's newsletter. I've been a member of the BCGS for years and have gained a lot from the association. In the past, I volunteered at their library. Since they started the online newsletter, I volunteer by contributing written articles.

As the next newsletter was due to be published in November, the piece of writing I sent in this time was about my father's experiences in World War II. As part of my research, I pulled out his military records. I remember ordering them from the Royal Air Force, RAF Disclosures Division. That was back in 2013 or 2014. (There's a postmark on the envelope.) They took ages to come in. I recall looking at the paperwork and trying to make heads or tails out of it. Back then, understanding them seemed pretty hopeless but I did email an expert in interpreting RAF records, only what he sent back didn't make much sense. That was probably because I only scanned part of the document to send to him. After his confusing response, I put the records aside to look at later.

Now, unlike in many other cases, that later time was actually here. As I looked through the documents to find information, I was surprised by how many pieces of paper there were. I only remembered looking at the two buff coloured ones on stiff paper which detailed such things as his description, home address and cryptic notes about his various assignments. Now I found photocopies of more records. There were three more pages and, interestingly, a new family address much further away from dockland. I hadn't known that the family absented themselves from the area or, at least, spent their nights in what might have been deemed a safer area of London, Harringay, which was in North London.

I wonder what other surprises I will find as I explore the war records further. I also have an account my father wrote about his wartime experiences and this will be the first time that I look at the official record and his account together. It's time to give this information a much closer look.