Forces-war-recordsReviews 37

My late mother served in the WRAAF during WWII, looking up her entry on FWR I was suprised to find that that she had been awarded the 39-45 medal and the 39-45 Star. This despite the fact that she told me herself that she didn't quailfy for any medals. In addition, the 39-45 Star is awarded to groundstaff who served overseas with Bomber Command. Though she did serve with Bomber Command, she never served overseas.

My mother served as in the WAAF in World War Two. I already knew her service number. I went on this site and found the right entry. They claim to have millions of war records. So I paid a monthly fee to find out more about my mum's service. All I got was her name and her service number! Something I already knew! This site is a ripoff.

Avoid they hold no access to military records of any use to any researchers, happy to take your money though. Received refund/customer service was effective though.

There is no way to test what information you might access before subscribing, and when you subscribe you find there is little that can't be found in other ways. It's not worth it. But what really annoyed me, and the reason for one star (which is one star too many), is that when you cancel, and you press their cancel button, and therefore you have every reason to believe you have cancelled, it turns you haven't cancelled because it goes to another webpage where you're offered the chance to stay but below that offer is a nondescript link that you likely won't notice and so a month later they will whack you with another month's subscription because despite pressing cancel you haven't actually done so - and I consider that last act to be shifty and dishonest.

Despite knowing name, rank, service number and unit of three members of my family this site was unable to locate them. I joined because I had information from ancestry.com and hoped to add to it. They are charlatans.

No guarantee that they will have any details other than name and service number.
But you only discover this after you've paid...

Very limited information, unwillingness to refund subscription requested less than 3 hours after purchase. The site contains no more information than what can be found for free in the National Archives.

I had high hopes here, I had a service number and a paybook of the soldier in question. The site returned no information! I also looked up my Grandfather's details, very little showed up. Searching through my own files I found the letter from the MOD showing his medal entitlement and compared it to the records on this site, vastly different, no mention of him on the Korea medal list either, I have his Korea medal on my wall! No communication from the site. Like many others I thought I'd cancelled but was disappointed to see another month's subscription come off my account. Again, no email response from them. I've just come off the phone from the bank who have no blocked them from taking any more money. Do yourself a favour and avoid this site!

Records of family we found showed only injuries, awards and discipline findings, nothing interesting. Some members we knew had served in WWII we couldn't find, presumably because they had received none of the above. They didn't accurately show what we could expect to find before we subscribed. Worse still, we never realised that by signing up we defaulted to recurring monthly payments and ended up paying 3 months fees before we realised - we had only wanted 1 months membership.

Complete waste of time. Stay well clear. The information they hold is already in the public domain.

I subscribed to see if I could find any info about my grandparents. The records were REALLY limited and I found nothing my family couldn't tell me. So I decided that I would cancel my subscription.

Well - that's a lot easier said than done. What out for their trick - they have you click an option to cancel, which takes you to the next screen to provide a reason... When you choose your reason it then jumps to what looks like a confirmation page, but actually there is another tiny text link you need to click to finalise it.

Its a sneaky trick. They got 3 additional months payments out of me because I kept thinking the process had completed... all because I didn't read the bottom line of the page.

Customer service are completely unsympathetic. The company must be making thousands out of scamming people by making them think they have unsubscribe.

I honestly thought that I'd find details about my father's service (Royal Engineers to 1946), my father-in-law (Corps of Signals, Royal Scots Greys and Household Cavalry to 1945) followed by my wife's grandfathers, both of whom served to 1918. Amazingly, from the 26,000,000 records available, NONE of these men appeared. I've found more material from Mac Family Tree's connection to my FamilySearch user which has cost me nothing. For my subscription I seem to have bought access to a shop - hire a researcher; buy the medals; buy a book. Not good.

Did have high hopes for this site, but have been left very disappointed.
Prior to subscribing, their webpage tantalisingly lists the people you're researching... just to draw you in & makes big claims as to the data you'll access.
However, once you've subscribed, then you'll discover how little information they ACTUALLY hold.
For those I've researched the site holds little more than I already know. In fact, in some cases, it's actually incorrect. Some of it looks like assumed generalisations (e.g. Campaign medals etc. based on service/period). It's clearly bad value for money.
Have complained, but responce wasn't much help and simply outlined what THEY wanted from me to update THEIR data... and goes on to say my payment is for 'services' then gave a list of excuses about how I have already used those 'services' (i. E. thanks for your money, now we're keeping it!)
I subscribed to this site for information... not their idea of 'services'. Yes, they do offer to research names further, but again the feedback/info you get may be thin/basic & not much more than is already on the site (that is... if they can find it!)
Had I known how poor the data is on this site, I would NEVER have taken a 12mth subscription!
Despite all this, if you're STILL tempeted, do NOT subscribe for 12mths! Take the 1mth option & go review their scant information first!

This company finds records but to find out if it is the person you are looking for requires subscription. Some basic information, like the service number, for free would at least let you establish whether they had found the correct record. When you discover that it is just someone with the same name it is too late, you have paid for nothing. It is then difficult to find your way through their web site to prevent further subscriptions being taken from your bank. They are willing to do more research but that required hiring a researcher, with no guarantee that they will find the right record. They do, however, offer to sell you medals, even though they have found the wrong person. Avoid at all costs.

These sites are generally good for research but come with the price that you usually end up with continual emails or marketing calls. I should have known better but I was caught with the good old auto renew device where if I did not check my bank balance regularly I would be quite a bit out of pocket. Something should be done about the way in which these companies operate. I would imagine that a considerable part of their revenue is from members who fail to cancel the 'automatic' auto renew function.