As of today, 543,142 of 640,000 files are available online in our Personnel Records of the First World War database. Please visit the Digitization of the Canadian Expeditionary Force Service Files page for more details on the digitization project.
Library and Archives Canada is digitizing the service files systematically, from box 1 to box 10686, which roughly corresponds to alphabetical order. Please note that over the years, the content of some boxes has had to be moved and, you might find that the file you want, with a surname that is supposed to have been digitized, is now located in another box that has not yet been digitized. So far, we have digitized the following files:
- Latest box digitized: Box 9247 and last name Staunton.
Please check the database regularly for new additions and if you still have questions after checking the database, you may contact us directly at 1-866-578-7777 for more assistance.
Reblogged this on Roots to the Past and commented:
First update of 2018.
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Wonderful to see the continuing advances of this important project. Hoping for more material relating to my great-uncle Albin Joseph Sumara… next box! 🙂 Cheers to the team at LAC!
Thank you for the good wishes!
Hi Mark, can you please contact me. I think I can help you out with more information about your great uncle Albin(“Alby”) Sumara who was killed in action on november 1st 1944 at Knokke Belgium.
Hello Frank! Thanks for your note. I do have Albin’s 54-page service record, but of course any other information would be welcome. Just last night I discovered that he shipped out with the CMRs on the Herschel out of Quebec on 18 July 1915.
The aspect of his story that ‘grabs’ me is the fact that he was an immigrant to Canada from what is now Czechia in 1904… and returned to Europe just over a decade later where he was killed fighting in service of his new homeland. And the sorrow continues… his nephew, Albin Frank Sumara, was KIA in WWII during the Battle of the Scheldt.
Do feel free to contact me directly. “sumararesearch” –at– mac-dot-com (written so as to avoid the crawlers which harvest email addresses from public sites).
Now if only we could send you a photo or 2 of the soldier that matches the file and you could upload the photo with the file to give future generations a face with a name
We can do that now with the Virtual War Memorial – it may be asking too much to see the two efforts merged or linked. I’m frankly surprised that the DOD hasn’t taken up heritage projects with gusto. I wouldn’t want to see them go all jingoistic, but promotion of the stories of Canadians who served would, I believe, go a long way to inspiring recruitment. Well… that and properly funding the forces, decent pay and support for military families, and a post-service health care regime that doesn’t require veterans to prove they haven’t grown their legs back…. that would be nice… In any case, the LAC digitization project deserves kudos for connecting us to our military past.
http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/detail/250693?Albin%20Joseph%20Sumara