RAF operations books become fully searchable online for the first time

For the first time, RAF operations books are fully searchable by name, aircraft, location and many other fields, making it easier to find your aviation ancestors, thanks to TheGenealogist.

In a release of over half a million records, this is the first batch of RAF operations records books (ORBs) to join TheGenealogist’s ever-expanding military records collection.

The operations records books are for squadrons primarily after the First World War but there are a few early squadron records from 1911 to 1918.

These documents tell the stories of these brave aircrew who battled against the odds and give insights into their everyday lives.

You can use the collection to follow an airman’s war time experiences from these fully searchable Air Ministry operations record books which cover various Royal Air Force, dominion and Allied Air Force squadrons that came under British Command. These AIR 27 records from The National Archives allow

the family history researcher a fascinating insight into their relatives serving in a number of wartime air force units.

In recent days we have been sad to hear of the death of the last surviving Battle of Britain ace pilot from World War Two. Wing Commander Paul Farnes died aged 101 in January and so it is, therefore, poignant that as one of the last from among the 3,000 airmen – known as The Few – who had defended Britain’s skies in 1940 he appears in this release of RAF records from TheGenealogist.

Wing Commander Farnes had six confirmed enemy aircraft destroyed, two shared destroyed, two possible destroyed and 11 damaged in his impressive war time tally making him qualify as an ace (a pilot who shot down five or more enemy planes).

The records provide summaries of events and can reveal the death of aviators, crashes, as well as less traumatic details such as weather and places patrolled by the planes and where the squadrons were based as the war wore on. As aircrew personnel are named in these reports, those wanting to follow where an ancestor had been posted to and what may have happened to them will find these records extremely informative.

Of value to researchers are the duties recorded in these documents so that you can find the assignments the men took part in. This includes bombing, convoy escort, submarine hunt, attack docks and shipping, dive bombing raids and more.

Use these records to:

• Add colour to an aircrewman’s story
• Read the war movements of personnel in air force units
• Discover if a pilot, navigator, radio operator or gunner is mentioned in the action
• Find if an airman is listed for receiving an honour or an award
• Note the names of squadron members wounded, killed, or did not return.

Lloyd George Domesday records for Greenwich

TheGenealogist has just released over 57,700 individuals from the Greenwich area into its Lloyd George Domesday Survey Records on the Map Explorer. These fully searchable property records enable researchers to find where ancestors from Greenwich lived in the 1910–1915 period. This release now brings the total coverage of Lloyd George Domesday Survey Records to over half a million individuals.

By using TheGenealogist’s powerful Map Explorer, family history researchers searching for where their ancestors lived in the period before the First World War are able to see the actual plots for buildings and explore the district as it was in that period on large scale OS maps linked to the field books containing descriptions of the properties.

The Map Explorer benefits from a number of georeferenced historic map overlays and modern base maps, allowing users to see how the topography has changed over the years by simply sliding the opacity controls.

The Lloyd George Domesday Survey records are sourced from The National Archives and are being digitised by TheGenealogist. For more on the Greenwich release, see this article here .