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FAQ about the army pensions records from Ancestry.com

There appears to be confusion about what the collection of "pension records", released by the National Archives and accessible over the Internet in collaboration with Ancestry.com, actually contains. Let's be straight about this.

The collection does not contain the records of every soldier who received a pension.
It is a sample, being records that were fortunate enough to have been withdrawn from the warehouse that was destroyed by fire in 1940. They were found at the Ministry of Pensions.

The papers in the collection are not pension records.
They are the contents of the man's army service record, including pension documentation, that survived exercises to "thin out" or "weed" the files after the Great War. In general, although there are known instances where this is not true, the collection contains no papers to men who died during the war or of officers or of men who did not receive a pension.

Is it worth searching the Ancestry.com collection?
Yes.

Is it worth paying their fee?
No. When you commission fourteeneighteen/research to carry out your project, we include the collection in our search. Oh and by the way we also check the originals as the indexing on Ancestry.com contains transcription errors that might stop us finding the record even if it is there.

But what if I already have the papers from there?
That's great! We can look up everything else for you and interpret what you have found. That way, you will get the best out of your investment in the Ancestry.com download. Just let us know when you place your order and we'll adjust our fee accordingly when we confirm your order.