Attestation Papers of Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF)

In 1996, the Library and Archives Canada (LAC) started working on the transcription of the Attestation Papers of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) of the First World War. There were 600,000 Canadians who signed up for service in the war, which lasted from 1914 to 1918.

The LAC hired students from Renfrew, Ontario over the summer of 1996 to start work by scanning and processing the images. The Gatineau Preservation Centre Team worked on the project from 1997-1998, and the LAC team worked on it from 1999 to 2000.

You can find the person in the online database at <www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/cef/index-e.html>, and by putting the name in the search feature, and it will give you the soldier's rank, reference number, the date of birth, and the digitized copy of the Attestation Paper itself, which contains even more information.

Also, one can find chaplains and nurses online in this database.

On the other hand, I see where Ancestry.ca has issued the Attestation Papers!

They say that the papers were issued to mark Remembrance Day in Canada - but if the Attestation Papers and other information are already on the Canada Genealogy Centre's website - isn't this duplication of effort?

By the way, the "other information" which is available from the CGC is the record of service, casualty form, discharge certificate, war service gratuity, hospital cards, medical history sheet, body temperature chart, last pay certificate, dental history chart, and medical examination upon leaving the service.

You can get this information by simply filing out the form contained online at <www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy/022-300.001-e.html>.

"The Last Hundred Days" of WWI

Do you know that on November 11th, Canada will mark 90 years since the First World War ended?

More than 100,000 Canadians fought in that war and this year, the period from August 8th to the signing of the armistice on November 11th will be called "The Last Hundred Days."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a statement (08/08/08) that "Over 'The Last Hundred Days', Canadian soldiers advanced 130 km and 30 Canadians and Newfoundlanders earned the Victorian Cross."

If you are searching for your WWI ancestor, the best place to start your search is at the Canadian Genealogy Centre at <www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/022/022-909.006-e.html>.

There you will see the 600,000 personal records of Canadians who enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF).

If you enter the last name and the first name of your ancestor in the search engine, you will see the actual enlistment papers that your relative signed - the enlist papers that got him into WWI.

Also on the site is a section devoted to the Aboriginal Soldiers, the Royal Newfoundland Regiment and Newfoundland Forestry Corps, the Air Force and the Navy. (Some of these files may not be online - check with the LAC first to see if they are, or have to be, borrowed since they would be on microfilm.)

If you would like, you can also go to the Veterans Affairs Canada <www.vac-acc.gc.ca> site for information about the graves and memorials of the 116,000 Canadians and Newfoundlanders who died.

The site contains digital images of photographs and personal memorabilia about individual Canadians.