History of Wigan   (Help with ancient and recent history.)

Hilly.

If your relative had a middle name, try searching with the full name, first name and middle initial, middle name only with last name. Also, three sets of war records are generally available to search: the Enlistment/Service Record, the Pension Record (severe wounds were evaluated to determine qualification for this pension) and Awards and Decoration Cards. If you have the war medals, his service number should be on the edge of the medal. You can use that number to search along with just his last name. The cards will have his Regiment, Rank at end of service and the years served, not much else, but are the most likely to have survived the WW2 Blitz Fire as they were stored in a different location from the Service Records. You may get a number of pages of possible hits. Take the time to check them all, You will start to see a repetitive search pattern emerge on an alphabetical basis and his name may pop up.

His birthdate, and location, will be a big help as well if a lot of similar names show up.

Good luck!


David