how do i trace my father

[marymcnichol]

My father was a G.I. in 2nd world war. How do i trace him?

[notanotherminer]

Hi Mary and welcome to Brit-Gen

As Forum rules do not allow details of possible living persons to be posted our members would be unable to help directly.

If he was never married to your mother and has had no contact since returning to America I would say that you are going to find it extremely difficult to trace him.

Maybe one of our American members might know how to find the details of US servicemen but even if you were able to contact the military I think they would need proof of relationship before they considered sharing any information.

[Waitabit]

Hello Mary, have you tried Ancestry for your Fathers Army records? You should also be able to obtain other personal info for him.
If you don't have a subscription, you can do a trial search with them. Just remember to discontinue if you don't want to then buy a subscription.

Also try 'Tribal Pages' or Genes Re-united for others who may be connected to him.

[Coromandel]

Welcome to the forum

The gitrace.org site looks useful: it aims 'to help people trace their American GI fathers/families'. There's advice on where to search as well as contact details for local groups, including one in the north-west of the UK.

[Cole]

Hi, I too am searching for my father, I was born in 1946 and my mum and dad were both in the army. Coincidently he was from Whiston, Liverpool. I have just come back from there searching the archives in Kirkby and Huyton. I am lucky because I did find a child maintenance order in some court records, sadly no dob or address BUT, he was arrested for non payment, I am now searching police records. I know how you feel, I didn't know where to start but keep a it, go down every avenue. What I have found is that all the people I have been talking to have been VERY nice and helpful. I for one am not giving up even though I now live in Cyprus and have to go back and forth to the UK. GOOD LUCK AND REMEMBER, THE INFO IS OUT THERE SOMEWHERE.