Hi Everyone. This is a difficult one! All i know about my gt grandfather, is that he was a private in the 3rd royal berkshire regiment. he went to france in 1915. Now i have been told that his service records are on ancestry.co.uk. i am not on ancestry at the moment due to lack of funds! but when i was with them about a yr ago, it would only come up with a name and you would have to click on every single one of them to find out if it was my Thomas. any ideas? many thanks
Hi CTK, Welcome to the forum clocktowerkay. I gather you have read the unit history from 1915 to 1918 for background to the battles he would of taken part in etc. Like you i have not got either ancestry or find your past but have made a promise to myself i will get it as a birthday present to myself next year after my wedding is paid for. Does it say on the ancestry list when you put his name in what regiment the people were in? I have not used ancestry to find military records before so i am not sure how its set up. How many Thomas Ryder's served during WW1? Don't think there could of been that many. You may also find the unit's war diaries a huge help as well. Though they may not have mentioned 'other ranks' by name you would be able to see what life was like for Thomas while he was in the front line and resting in the rear as well. Once you have the war diaries you can then think about getting trench maps which will show you where he was while on the front line and maybe in the future plan a visit to some of the areas that he walked. The war diaries and the trench maps can be found either at Kew or you maybe lucky enough to find them at the regimental museum. Here is the website for the museum and yes i know its called the wardrobe for some unexplained reason, haha. http://www.thewardrobe.org.uk/home I am afraid its a case of clicking on every Thomas Ryder on ancestry as i have just had a quick look on the website. Regards Sniper
