Army Service Numbers 1881-1918: a 2018 retrospective

As 2018 draws to a close, here's what I achieved this year.

• Including this one, I published 48 Army Service Numbers blog posts
• I wrote 36 Army Ancestry Research  blog posts
• I answered over 500 British Army research enquiries 
• I wrote 23 blog posts on my British Army Ancestors website and added several hundred photos. I know of at least two success stories where members of the public have found ancestors as a result of this new initiative and I remain committed to it
• I set up a British Army Ancestors Facebook page and publish mini biographies daily. Today's post, for instance, features Walter Holmes of the 20th Public Schools Battalion, Royal Fusiliers who is the man seated in the right in the photo at the top of this post.

In addition to the blogging and the tweeting (somewhat reduced this year, and for that matter, I am undecided whether I will stay with Twitter) and the research enquiries, I also continued with my own research projects. I have still to complete Times casualties published in March 1915 but I did complete my transcription of soldiers overseas who were enumerated in the 1911 census. I also completed the publication of my Princess Mary tin data: British soldiers who were captured on or before Christmas Day 1914.

I also ventured into the world of digital publishing. Having won two large book auctions in 2017 I now have digital, fully OCRd copies of the Rifle Brigade Chronicle and King's Royal Rifle Corps Chronicles to 1920. I have a complete run of the RB Chronicle from 1890 to 1920 but I am missing the years 1915 and 1919 for the KRRC Chronicle. I also set up separate pages on this blog offering books for sale and original photographs for sale.

So what else is in store for 2019?

I will continue with the daily posting on the British Army Ancestors Facebook page and I plan enhancements for the site. I may start posting 1911 Census transcriptions on my British Army Ancestors site, and I certainly plan more indexing of men in the army who were enumerated on returns in England, Wales and Ireland.

I will probably post fewer posts on this blog in 2019 but having celebrated 10 years of publishing on this platform this year, I look forward to the start of another decade's publishing.

To all visitors to this blog, I wish you a very happy 2019.

I research soldiers! 

Contact me if you need help.