World War I lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918 and impacted the lives of everyone in the UK, whether or not they actually fought in the war.
Often the starting point for researching a WWI ancestor is an item of memorabilia such as a medal, photograph or letter. Alternately, you may have a family story which you wish to learn more about. Each of these items provides its own set of clues towards identifying key pieces of information for researching a military ancestor – name, unit with which they served and, ideally, a service number.
The following article gives an example of tracing an ancestor using the information on a medal together with other suggestions for researching a WWI ancestor.