Forces War Records レビュー 1,194

I was able to find a few of my Great-great grandfathers records on my own, and his complete history with the support of a document specialist.

I am a beginner in the world of researching my ancestors who I am pleased to say survived both wars. Great uncles fought for USA in 1st and 2nd World War and another for the UK . I have been a basic user for free and I could see from my basic searches that I may need to upgrade to premium. Before I did this I emailed to ask quite detailed and specific questions about my research before deciding. I emailed late in an evening and woke to find a response had been sent by 7.30 the next morning. In this response , the gentleman gave me a very detailed help, guidance , signposting me to more possible appropriate searches. This was excellent . Furthermore, this email triggered further questions which again was answered very swiftly. As a result I will try other sites prior and then when I am more fully equipped with information I can come back. I am absolutely astounded and delighted to know how much information is now available online as 16 years ago when I first dabbled there was very little. The somewhat likely tedious task of archiving and having people willing to do it is a luxury we have here as the USA has not digitalised or are likely to do for WW1 or WW2. I can only say I am delighted with the involvement I have had with Forces War Records. What a privilege to be able to sit at home and search at leisure rather then the old fashioned way of trips to Kew and very slow slow building of evidence. Thank you and to your archiving teams.

I paid £44.95 for an annual subscription with FWR on Tuesday morning. My account is still showing as a basic one. No reply to email sent. They have had their 2 business days to reply. Looking at other reviews I would say this is a site to be avoided at all costs! Give me access or refund me.

CWG pen pushers can't even get it right My uncle can only be found by spelling his surname wrong,a disgrace he died 1914 -18 age 22yrs,and you can't even get his name right,contacted them with photos
of local war memorial that is correct also his fathers & brothers headstone ,but you want me to supply his birth certificate ,go to hell,do your job right .
Find entry & put it right .
HIS NAME, Lance corporal George William Cleverley (correct) Cleverly is wrong not the same family . His headquarters was Alnwick Castle Northumberland his id was 14188 11th btn Northumberland fusilliers ,died 18th July 1916 age 23 ,mother and father informed
son of Frederick John & Catherine Cleverly spelt wrong again ,is his headstone also wrong as in our local church are penpushers word blind .
Got your reply,looks like an automated reply ,as all information is shewn above ,SORT IT OUT , This will stay live .

I wrote a true and honest review which was not flattering about paid for research and Forces War Records removal of the documents - all factual.

They responded with a claim about some email they sent out forewarning people of a change. Not good enough. Its even less better to try and justify this with defence of some pithy email when hundreds of pounds of research was lost and I presumably have to pay for it again!

No, that is what is called "a have" by any measure. This is a rip off, plain and simple. Avoid and do your own research.

I've given this site one star to ensure that I can review this shite site! After signing up for this I now find I've less information than what was given originally through Ancestry? It would appear that by providing more information regarding my relations through both World Wars; they cannot find anything on any of them? This includes service number and rank?
They are fleecing us!

AVOID AVOID AVOID - RIP OFF! Awful website, dreadful search criteria, difficult to navigate, appallingly few records. They have SOME WW1 army records but I searched for four people whose records I have found on Ancestry and none of them came up. If you want to print anything it squashes the frame into a thin colum which you then can't read.

Very disappointed. No records at all of either of my Grandparent's WW2 service or my husbands Grandfather's WW2 service. Waste of money. Was trying to find additional information from the records we did find through the free sites on line.

Poor site overcharging for data that should be in the public domain. The "free" deal gives almost no access to anything useful.
Pretty shameful really, don't think that Dad fought for 5 years so the Ancestry can profit from his service...

Didn’t find much at all on my grandparents. However my unique email used just to log into this website has started to be used by spammers. Possibly they don’t have great email security so I’m glad they don’t have my payment details too.

EDIT. Thanks for getting back to me. Sadly the email i use for you starts 'forceswarrecords@...' and is only ever used when logging into your website. It's useless otherwise. So the spam from the Fake DVLA hoax could only come from you. I'd never need to use it elsewhere. But still you keep hoping it's not been you.

Absolutely appalling website. Supposedly, no records available for relatives who I know have served and died during WW2.
Tried to get my £8.95 back, but they don't reply.
The whole thing looks like a scam from start to finish.
wish that I had read the reviews in the first place. Phil White.

Basically there was a basic lack of info on the site and just a summary of my dads war records. Stuff I already knew basically. Bit pointless and wouldn't waste time or money. I cancelled within an hour, still charged me for a month though.

I’ve had a very frustrating experience with Forces War Records. Customer service claims they respond within two days, but in reality, they only reply to messages submitted via their contact form. Replies to their own emails are ignored, which makes follow-up extremely difficult. I’ve contacted them multiple times, yet the issue remains unresolved.

I rely on access to military records for my business, so this ongoing issue has been incredibly disruptive. To make matters worse, I’ve now missed out on a 40% annual discount because of their delays. While they added five days to my membership as a “goodwill gesture,” it’s of little value when I still can’t even log in.

Their contact system is clunky, communication is inconsistent, and I’ve had no meaningful resolution. I’m extremely disappointed in both the service and the lack of urgency shown.

A dreadful experience. I haven't been able to find anything on my ancestors that definitely served, were awarded medals.
This is simply another way for Ancestry to make money - really galling if you have already paid them for a supposedly 'complete' experience

I've been researching my family tree for 20+ years during which time I've accumulated extensive experience retrieving information both in person from various archives and via subscriptions to all the major genealogy websites. Forces War Records is, by FAR, the worst repository I have ever consulted!

The search facility is utterly abysmal - not only is it not in the least bit user friendly/intuitive, but it fails to retrieve even basic, confirmed information. And I'm not referring to WW2 records that may not yet have been released (hint: if in the UK try submitting a Freedom of Information request to the National Archive), but also those from the 19th century that are most definitely in the public domain.

Just one example; searching for my great great grandfather's service record drew almost a complete blank even though I used various combinations of search terms including his name/regiment/service number/service dates, all of which I know to be correct. According to Forces War Records, no one of his name apparently ever served as a gunner in the Royal Artillery in the Crimean War...which is a wee bit weird, given that I've easily located his information, including full service history and medal records, on other sites. The ONLY result I managed to retrieve for him from Forces War Records was the 1861 census return - an appallingly poor success rate for a website that claims to specialise in military records, especially given that census data is so readily available on every other genealogy site.

This was not a one-off - ALL searches for information about various family members who I'd previously confirmed has having served in the British military during the 19th and early 20th centuries proved equally fruitless. While I accept that a given website may not carry a fully comprehensive range of resources, I would expect a site selling itself on a slogan of "discover your military ancestors" to have at least major data sets available. However, the information on this site - at least, for British military records - is clearly either nonexistent or the search facility simply fails to retrieve the data correctly.

Frankly, the information available from Forces War Records is so limited/irretrievable that the site seems utterly pointless. Save your money, go elsewhere and avoid this site.

Did a free trial,wish they denign they do,last year.Cancelled within the allotted time,but they say I upgraded to a membership.So now asking for all the monies they have taken without my consent.I,m retired on basic pension so not happy at all. I record all my activities in my diary and no way did I up grade a membership.Only discovered this today by going through my bank account.

Signed up for this and subscribed - however for some reason the payment thing was slow and then appeared to stop, but their system keeps up with error messages and I am unable to put it through again despite their system apparantly sayin that I have no subscription and/or details of any credit card being put in to it. Contacted customer service who were not very helpful saying it was just a free account and that I need to upgrade, which their system wont let me do as it is already done. Have explained to them but just not very helpful and/or not very knowledgeable so they have lost out on my custom now.

A frustrating and annoying experience. I registered and searched but no use. I have my Father's, my Uncle's and my Grandfather's medals from WW1 & WW2, so I know they served. But no information of any use on Forces War Records without paying for a subscription to find out if it's the correct person. It's a long list that's brought up on screen. In most cases, the names don't match up and I refuse point blank to pay a subscription to access information that may or may not relate to my relatives.

I have just resubscribed to Forces War Records but my experience mirrors those the last few comments - virtually nothing is coming up. Results I found last time aren't showing and the site seems to have become impossible to navigate. What is going on? I shall certainly cancel at the end of my first month - very disappointing.

Over the last few weeks every service number I have had belonging to airmen in bomber command has come back with no hits, why.... These service numbers are legitimate but no records coming up... Example 1461487, should be Gray W J ... nothing shows up what am I paying for?