Folks whats needed on this board is a good stickie with advice and guidance for researching relatives records from the wars.
Can we get one set up please with step by steps so I can send enquirers to look and learn?

OK I'll make a start.
Researching WW1.
Probably the best place to start for advice is by registering with the Great War Forum. They are very knowedgeable and hepful, but they also do this voluntarily, so remember to say please and thank you and you won't go far wrong (occasionally people don't ask nicely and they get short shrift because they got off on the wrong foot).
Before even posing a question I would advise following the links to the Long Long Trail website where an awful lot of questions about the British Army, Navy and Air Forces can be answered for you. Please take the time to read through and it will help you to avoid asking bone questions where the answer is staring you in the face.
Good hunting!

Good online resources:
Ancestry - for WW1 military records, census and civil BMD type archives.
FindMyPast - Similar to Ancestry
National Archives

All these either cost for membership or you have to pay direct for records.
Occasionally Ancestry and FindMyPast (like during Remembrance week or over Christmas) allow free access for short, limited periods, but you have to drop lucky or keep your eyes peeled for offers. These are usually flagged up on the Great War Forum, so that's another good reason to register.

Edited to add:
Some libraries allow free access online to Ancestry 'Library version', which is limited and sometimes slow but you might be able to get the set of records you need for nothing.

There you are Ugly.

Guys, keep it relevant.

Anyone seeking information on a person or unit should still start a new thread and leave this for research hints only

Happy to contribute as a partwork, and happy to be corrected

This is really about WW1 soldiers; it also comes with a caution that I once traced lots of soldiers but these days I don’t, so some of this may be OBE.

BEFORE YOU START

Establish what it is you know as facts – name, rank, number, regiment – from medals, letters, photographs, etc. Be cautious about family legend or jumping to conclusions.

This does not mean you should ignore what the family say but e.g. someone having a military medal can become someone having ‘the Military Medal’. Don’t assume that because he was from Loamshire he served in the Loamshires, or that a picture of him on a horse means he was in the cavalry. Remember that many soldiers served in several different regiments. Most of all, remember that army records were intended to allow the army to conduct its business, not for future genealogists.

Personally, I would approach things slightly differently based on two questions –

Died or survived? Officer or other rank?

DIED

The obvious starting point is the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) website. The ‘Debt of Honour’ register is primarily intended to record where/how casualties are commemorated. Some entries may include additional information about families, etc.

The second important source is ‘Soldiers Dies in the Great War’ (SDGW), compiled by the War Office. This is available on ‘Ancestry’ and many public libraries hold/can get a copy on CD. It generally contains slightly more detail than CWGC, in particular place of birth, residence and enlistment, but no details of commemoration. Be cautious – place of birth is what the soldier told the army on enlistment, place of residence ditto, and place of enlistment is, in some cases, probably more accurately place of approval.

The last is important for men in technical trades e.g. many ASC MT drivers have their place of enlistment given as ‘Grove Park’, which was the ASC MT depot, despite having ‘enlisted’ elsewhere – it’s where they approved for service as MT drivers. This becomes particularly important for men who transferred to technical trades from the infantry – in many cases they were discharged and immediately re-enlisted in their new corps. So a guy who enlisted into the Loamshires in Loamton in 1914, subsequently transferred to ASC as a MT driver, and was subsequently killed will appear as having enlisted in Grove Park. Clear?

SDGW also distinguishes between ‘killed in action’, ‘died of wounds’, and ‘died’ – together with more exotic ends. KIA generally means killed outright; DOW that the guy entered the casualty system (i.e. made it to the RAP); and ‘died’ covers organic disease, accidents, etc, etc. But don’t take it as gospel.

There are slight differences in the criteria for inclusion on CWGC and SDGW – not unusual to find a man on one and not the other.

Accuracy? Very high, in particular for CWGC, but given the number of casualties mistakes do happen. CWGC will change their registers if you have proof of the error.

More to follow

Gather as much info of the person to be researched, i.e name rank number, unit theatres etc.

Google units and see if they have a museum, which may hold records of the individual and/or theatres of ops and background info. (Where they trained before being deployed, order of battle, regimental histories etc. Some units were amalgamated)

You could as suggested above use the online resources, or could employ a researcher to check them at Kew. This often works out cheaper if you live some distance away, as they live locally and as they do it often will have a better idea where to look.

Some of the more friendly members of the Great War Forum have been known to do look ups at Kew as a favour. It depends whether they're already going and if the man concerned is from the regiment they're researching. There's also a list on the Great War Forum of people who hold copies of war diaries and are prepared to send extracts on request. You'll have to search on the forum for that thread.

Further to asking questions... If you can post everything you do already know with your question, it avoids about a dozen questions from the members going back and forth to winkle what information you have, out of you before they can research further. Make it easier for them and yourself by putting everything you know in the first post in the thread and save a lot of hassle.

Here's another good link. It's a chap called Geoff who very kindly set up a search engine to look for criteria outside the CWGC standard search boxes. You can search for unit or home town or specific dates. It's now only available for WW2 as the WW1 search engine went offline because of changes to CWGC records which meant it wouldn't work properly and Geoff took it down. Damn shame as it was very useful.
Here's Geoff's various search engines:

Geoff's Great War Pages

Here's a direct linky to Geoff's WW2 search engine of CWGC records

LOCAL SOURCES

If you have time and access, do not overlook local sources.

Local newspapers - it is amazing how much information is available about men enlisting, home on leave, wounded, casualties, etc. You even find soldiers' letters home being printed. The problem is the sheer slog involved in looking through several years of papers for one man. It probably works best for small towns and rural areas - the newspaper is likely to be weekly and there's simply fewer names to plough through.

Some local papers are available online

British Newspaper Archive | Home

and many local libraries have access to The Times archive.

Many localities, firms, schools, etc produced rolls of honour - some of these simply list the dead, others list all those who served with short bios. Local libraries are a good start.

War memorials - hmmmm. Generally speaking war memorials were private ventures by a local council, parish, school, etc - there was no set criteria for who was included, simply what the group concerned decided. This means that a man may be missing from the 'obvious' memorial; on the other hand he may appear on two or more. I know of parish memorials which carry the names of men who emigrated pre-war and died serving in the Canadian or Australian units but lack the names of men who enlisted into the British army from that parish. So don't obsess about memorials. But the occasion of their dedication often prompted details of the men named to appear in the local paper.

More to follow

World War 2 Talk - Powered by vBulletin a handy site with lots of links to other history sites

Ok can you get service records from the MoD if you have the death cert of the person you wish to trace but no service no?

Is this for WW1 service?