Is there anyway to find ancestors who fought in the Napoleonic Wars?
Family legend has it that a number of ancestors fought and some died in the Napoleonic wars. Is there anyway to check this, preferably on line?
Tagged with: ancestors • family legend • napoleonic wars
Filed under: Research
The PRO in London, England has a few records of Napoleon records consisting of prisoners taken from ship battles.
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/default.htm
Medals of Ste. Helene
The Saint Helena medal, created in 1857 by Napoleon III, was awarded to the 405,000 soldiers still living in 1857, who had fought with Napoleon I during the 1792-1815 wars
http://www.stehelene.org/php/accueil.php?lang=en
Some French military records begin as early as the 1500s. Many have been centralized at the Military Archives in Vincennes, but conscription records are kept at the departmental archives. Military records are rarely used in genealogical research because they are difficult to access and few are indexed; additionally, they are kept confidential for 120 years from the soldier’s birth. To use these records, in most instances you will need to know the soldier’s specific regiment or sailor’s ship. The military archives in Vincennes have not been microfilmed.
You must keep in mind that the Napoleanic Wars were in many ways the first real world war. Britain, the USA, France, all the German states, Spain, Savoy, Belgium, the Holy Roman Empire/Austro-Hungarian Empire, Russia, Sweden are just some of the more important players. Each will have a differing degree of difficulty in finding complete records. The USA and Britain may be the easiest. Sweden’s probably are pretty good. I wouldn’t make any bets on Russia, and who knows what’s happened with the Austro-Hungarian.
If your family tradition mentions specific military units or battles that would be a major place to begin.