Military service and pension files — where to find them free
Enlistment, service, discharge and pension papers. Pension files in particular name spouses, children and witnesses.
Public archives Provara searches for military service and pension files
Passenger lists, naturalizations, military service and pension files, homestead/land files, census images, federal records
Civil registration (birth, marriage, death), church books, population registers, notarial and tax rolls, militia — 207 archives
8.4M veteran and dependent burials: names, birth/death dates, cemetery, branch, rank, wars
Immigration and passenger indexes, naturalisations, wills, inquests, hospital deaths, gaol registers, orphanages, Boer War — 12 of 128 CC BY indexes searched live
How to ask
In Provara, ask Provara whether an ancestor served and what the file holds. With web search on, it searches all 4 live archives above in one call, reads the best hits, and proposes only what the record it read supports — with the record beside the claim.
Start freeEvery licence on these pages was read from the archive's own terms on the date shown. Provara proposes only what a record it has read supports, shows the record beside the claim, and marks anything unsourced as a hypothesis. Nothing on this page states a fact about any person.