Wars and Genealogy: Find Your Military Ancestors with Our Guide

A military ancestor? Follow our practical guide to trace their career in specialized records and databases.

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Contents:

● Military records at Departmental Archives - How to find the military record of an ancestor?

- Where to find the military record of an ancestor overseas? 

- I can't find the military record of an ancestor, why? What to do?

● The Memory of Men Database from the Ministry of the Armed Forces

● The Grand Memorial Database from the Ministry of Culture

● The Historical Service of Defense

● Other useful databases for searching a soldier

Have you heard about an ancestor who might have been in the war, but you don't know how to find their record? Thanks to military archives and online tools, you can reconstruct their career and discover surprising details about their past. Here's how to do it: 

Military records at Departmental Archives

Many military archive documents are kept at the Departmental Archives (series R). Most often, only the military records are digitized and accessible online, but you can also consult on-site the cantonal census tables, the list of draws by canton, the list of conscripts, the list of the contingent as well as the cantonal census registers.