German WW2 military killed-in-action 1939-1948 records - New Ancestry release

Ancestry has released a new collection of World War 2 records which contains index cards for German military personnel killed-in-action.

The records come from the German Federal Archives and its newly established Department PA (Information on Personal Data related to World Wars I and II) located in Berlin. They are pre-printed, double-sided index cards which generally include:

• Name;

• Date and place of Birth;

• Rank, Unit and Military ID number;

• Time, date and place of death;

• Type of casualty;

• Where known, the date and place of burial and grave number;

• Cross-reference to the German Casualty List.

During the war and post-war period, notifications of death for deceased military members were lodged with the relevant Civil Registry. This explains the unusual listing of a war time agency as the Informant.

The records are in German and the images have been scanned in colour. Ancestry recommends you search the database using German spelling of words. So if your German language skills are not up to scratch you'll need to read the index cards in conjunction with Google Translate or an old fashioned German-English dictionary.

Click here for direct access to the collection. NB: Ancestry is free to search but you will need a current subscription to view the records. Nevertheless, even without a subscription, you can still see some usable information, for example, the individual's name and year of death (see below).

Conclusion

This is a very welcome addition to German military personnel records and complements Ancestry's World War 1 military records which have been online for several years.

Happy military Ancestor hunting.

Therese

Your Family Genealogist

Pictures : courtesy of Pixabay.