Canadian Expeditionary Force Database, WWI - International Institute

Soldiers of the First World War
The Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) database contains the records of over 600,000 Canadians (soldiers, nurses, and chaplains) who enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the First World War (1914-1918).

The CEF database is an index to those personnel files, which are held by Library and Archives Canada. To date, images of the Attestation papers have been scanned and are also available online. By 2015 it is expected that all service files of the CEF will have been scanned and made available. Upon digitization the records will be made available at no charge to the public and long-term conservation of them will be assured.

If you have any ancestors who enlisted in WWI, you’ll be able to find out a great deal of information about them from these records. As the files are digitized, you will be able to see the information right on the Internet at the Library and Archives Canada website.

If the records have not yet been digitized, don’t worry! You can still order a copy of the records from the Library and Archives Canada. Just be sure to include the name, Regimental number, reference and accession number on your request. Information is given at the Library and Archives Canada website on how to order records.

Below is an example of the digitized attestation records that can be seen online. These are the attestation papers of William Carr:

Example of Attestation paper, front of form



Example of Attestation paper, back of form



Although these two pages provide a wealth of information to the genealogist (including parent’s names, religion, place of birth, birthday, trade, etc.), it does not constitute the entire file. The entire file is available and from it we learn details of his family or dependents, the regiment or corps to which he was assigned or transferred, where and when he saw action, any casualties (William Carr endured shell gas in February 1918), a copy of his discharge certificate, his medical history including his dental record (he had four fillings), his assigned movements, and pay particulars such as rate and record of collection of pay,

If the service file of the person of interest to you has not yet been digitized, be sure to send away to Library and Archives Canada for it. It’s a wonderful record for a genealogist to have.

In addition, if you have an ancestor who has been deceased more than 25 years, and served in WWII, you can also apply for those records as well. You will be asked to supply some record of the person’s death (such as an obituary or death certificate). Besides including the above information, I found that WWII records also included a photo of the soldier.

Other military databases are now available as well. These include courts-martials; loyalists; military medals, honours and awards; second world war service files of war dead; files related to South African War, war diaries, War of 1812 among others - and the list is constantly growing.

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