Canadian Expeditionary Force - service papers

[Elaine ..Spain]

I may have missed this if it's been mentioned before, but for anyone who had ancestors in the Canadian Expeditionary Force you might like to check to see if their service papers are available. Apparently they are part way through the digitisation project so you may need to keep checking back if they are not available at the moment.

http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/first-world-war/first-world-war-1914-1918-cef/Pages/canadian-expeditionary-force.aspx

If you go to the website and click on SEARCH DATABASE, then search by name, when the image of the Attestation papers is shown you may see to the right a link to the digitised service file (pdf format) as shown in the image below.

attestation.jpg

I found a very interesting one yesterday (34 pages), although two others I looked for have not yet been digitised.

[TreeFlyingSquirrel]

Good advice.

[PhotoFamily]

Several years ago I paid to have some CEF papers digitized - I don't know if the service is still available. I found the attestation papers on Ancestry, and used the numbers on it to request the digitization.

[angelina]

Thank you very much indeed for the link I have found 2 of my grand uncles' records digitised. Both died in WW1 so it is good to have their records in full including exactly why one 'died of wounds'. I would never have thought of looking back again after i got the attestation papers so thank you again

[Janet]

I will have to keep on looking, as I have three cousins' attestation papers for the CEF, but I would never have looked for more, as I thought that the 1/2 pages was all we would get, so thank you for highlighting that.

Janet

[Elaine ..Spain]

I will have to keep on looking, as I have three cousins' attestation papers for the CEF, but I would never have looked for more, as I thought that the 1/2 pages was all we would get, so thank you for highlighting that.

Janet

Apparently they are working through the records alphabetically. Currently working on surnames begining with H - so if you have something at the end of the alphabet you might need a bit of patience!

[Janet in Yorkshire]

Thank you so much for this Elaine - I've struck gold.
Have found out my man was educated at Greshams school in Norfolk, where he served in the OTC. Whilst serving with the CEF, he was sent to a hospital in Guildford for an operation on his leg; shortly afterwards he was given permission to marry and the address for the payment of the wife's allotment was the same hospital. So, a wartime hospital romance! (I had seen the name of the wife on the Red Cross site and assumed - wrongly - that after her marriage, she had decided to do her bit.) He survived the war, they had a son and returned to Canada where a second boy was born, and finally came back to England.

Jay

[Paddy_Tyne]

Very Helpful ...Found my Grandfathers paperwork ...