Medieval soldiers’ records march onto Web
| July 21, 2009 | 1:36 PM
More journal entries from John Moore »
Could you have an ancestor who was swinging a sword or firing arrows on the battlefield in medieval times?
Well, strike a blow for genealogy. The service records of 250,000 warriors who fought in the Hundred Years War are now available online at the Medieval Soldier Database.
The free Web site — medievalsoldier.org — could prove to be a veritable arsenal of information about your family’s military past. It contains full profiles of individual soldiers, showing the campaigns they fought in, whether they were knighted, what they were paid and even how often they were sick.
Archers, horsemen, spear throwers — they’re all there, ready to leap across the ages and off the computer screen to introduce themselves to you. Just stay clear of the trebuchet.
The database is part of a British research project by scholars at the University of Reading and the University of Southampton. They say the extensive service records were created in medieval times because the English government wanted to document that the money being spent on the war was being used properly.
Let the conquest for the missing pieces of your family tree begin.
Read more at the London Daily Mail.
Other genealogy resources:
Cindi’s List
Family Search
Find a Grave
archers, database, england, hundred years war, medieval, soldiers, trebuchet, university of reading, university of southampton, warriors
