No website without behind-the-scenes work. The War Dead Register is no exception. Four volunteers consult all birth certificates of the fallen on the website of the State Archives in Belgium to dedect possible errors and duplicate entries in the database. Since the start of this operation, more than 25,000 certificates have already been checked and many duplicate entries have been detected and have since been removed. And so we came to the conclusion that the First World War had more missing persons than was ever assumed. The initial official figure of 2,750 has now been revised to more than 5,600 missing. This result is entirely due to the diligent efforts of volunteers.
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First search generally, then specifically. Example: don’t look for “François Van Damme”, but try “Van Damme” first and filter the search.
The person you are looking for does not appear? Try another spelling. Example: don’t only try “Vanwymelbeke”, but also “Van Wymelbeke” or “Vanwijmelbeke”.
Attention: the War Dead Register only lists Belgian fallen soldiers.
The War Dead Register provides basic personal information (name, first name, date and place of birth, etc.) and does not contain military files (giving a complete overview of the military career). According to date of birth the files are kept either by the Royal Military Museum or by the Defence archives service. The files safeguarded at the Military Museum can be consulted on site (Parc du Cinquantenaire in Brussels). The files kept up till now by Defence are currently transferred to the General State Archives.
The date on which they will be once again available has not yet been determined.
Archives of the Royal Military Museum
Documentation Centre
Parc du Cinquantenaire 3
1000 Brussels
E-mail : cdoc.klm-mra@warheritage.be
Website: www.warheritage.be