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  1. #1
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    Default RAF Operation Record Books

    not sure when they were added but @nc*stry now has a file "Royal Air Force Operation Record Books 1911-1963"

    I tried putting my father's name into the search box and got zero results, but when I found his squadron and trawled through hundreds of pages his name appeared several times

  2. #2

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    There goes the afternoon! Many thanks…

    Anc’s search engine can be “interesting”..

    (later)

    I went into their UK operation and "Airman Records" which I thought might be most general.
    I tried my Dad's name plus number, nothing. Then tried just name. 36 hits, all of whom were born 1900 or before. A search on our (very common) surname plus his birth year (1922) gave nothing. Searching only on birth year and no name gave 3 hits.

    It does talk about "airmen" - it's just possible that they mean "aircrew". My Dad was signals.

    I then went into the "operations" database and just searched on "signals", nothing else. Of 96 hits, only 3 were not officers. I checked on one of the 3 and got a page of Warrent Officers, all signals or engineers and all members of squadrons (and thus aircrew).

    Don't lose heart if you can't find your relative.
    Of course, Anc. is limited by the names in the records of course. Have fun trying to outwit their search engines!

  3. #3
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    Default

    yes, sorry the dataset is called

    "UK, Royal Air Force Operations Record Books, 1911-1963"

    then to the right hand side is a box with a list of all the squadrons

  4. #4

    Default

    No need to apologise.
    I enjoy testing these systems, and it helps when a member asks something!

    Interesting. I clicked at random on one of those little boxes to the right of a name. I got a page showing events at a given location, about half of which referred to Officers and Airmen. I tried 2 airmen from that page and searched surname and number, no hits.

  5. #5
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    Default

    Did you read the (literally) small print at the bottom of the search page which says

    Please note: All images are available to view, however, indexes are only available upto, and including, 1940.
    Findmypast have a dataset Royal Air Force, Operations Record Books 1939-1945 which can be searched by year and/or squadron. They helpfully have a 'browse squadron' list, though it's fiddly expanding the alphabetical list. I didn't expand the whole list but I did notice that there were several items under C labelled 'closed extract'.
    The squadrons listed included those belonging to universities.
    Out of interest, I searched the Ancestry dataset via both the 'keyword' and 'Unit' boxes for Aberystwyth University Air Squadron but got nil returns.
    Vulcan XH558 - “Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.”

  6. #6

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    I saw the small print, but since they don't specify 1940 as year of joining or leaving, I assumed it meant "year they appeared in a record".

    I'll have another go later. It could be assumed that all RAF Operations involved aircrew, not ground crew, but the "Airmen records" should include both. Your, Wimsey's and my results all suggest that the indexing is much more limited than the actual records.
    Perfect for a deadline-free weekend!

  7. #7
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    Default

    in the Ancestry version University Air Squadrons are at the bottom of that drop drown menu after all the numbered squadrons

    UAS: Aberdeen
    UAS: Aberystwyth
    UAS: Birmingham

    etc. etc.

  8. #8
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    Default

    Thanks to the hint in wimsey's post #7, further 'research' leads me to further advice.

    Use the dropdown menu on the right-hand side of the page on Ancestry.
    When you select the name of a squadron and wait a couple of seconds it flashes up the relevant dates for that squadron.
    Aberystwyth wouldn't show up in the any of the main search boxes because it didn't start until 1941 and the indexing ends in 1940.

    Also listed are squadrons from the Royal Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand Air Forces (between numbers 400 and 490), and Penang Squadron which is the Malayan Air Force.

    ADDED: FMP also list the dates the squadrons were active, but it takes an extra click to find those details.
    Vulcan XH558 - “Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.”

  9. #9
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    Default

    ORBS are interesting but we could never argue their viability due to the fact (clearly) a unit only contains X amount of people and then mentioned their names several times throughout generally with a few additions/subtractions as time goes by.

    So, in short, probably no argument to pay for indexing by name. A shame, especially for those who don't know the unit!

  10. #10

    Default

    There's also the fact that outside the squadrons, RAF service folk don't move as a unit as the army regiments do. The ground trades (eg signals) tended to move as individuals, often between a specific group of bases.

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