Forces War Records Reviews

Feel like I have been conned! Paid my yearly fee looked on site for information about my father's military service only to be told nothing on there about him. Ministry of Defence have all the information I want and I will have to get 2 forms to get details £30 each! £60! Wish I hadn't bothered joining.

I honestly thought that I'd find details about my father's service (Royal Engineers to 1946), my father-in-law (Corps of Signals, Royal Scots Greys and Household Cavalry to 1945) followed by my wife's grandfathers, both of whom served to 1918. Amazingly, from the 26,000,000 records available, NONE of these men appeared. I've found more material from Mac Family Tree's connection to my FamilySearch user which has cost me nothing. For my subscription I seem to have bought access to a shop - hire a researcher; buy the medals; buy a book. Not good.

Subcribed to discover the information available was of no use to me and would require paying for researchers. To be fair when I complained, they refunded my money.

Subcribed to discover the information available is negligable and pretty useless. They want you to
Pay for researchers.

Did have high hopes for this site, but have been left very disappointed.
Prior to subscribing, their webpage tantalisingly lists the people you're researching... just to draw you in & makes big claims as to the data you'll access.
However, once you've subscribed, then you'll discover how little information they ACTUALLY hold.
For those I've researched the site holds little more than I already know. In fact, in some cases, it's actually incorrect. Some of it looks like assumed generalisations (e.g. Campaign medals etc. based on service/period). It's clearly bad value for money.
Have complained, but responce wasn't much help and simply outlined what THEY wanted from me to update THEIR data... and goes on to say my payment is for 'services' then gave a list of excuses about how I have already used those 'services' (i. E. thanks for your money, now we're keeping it!)
I subscribed to this site for information... not their idea of 'services'. Yes, they do offer to research names further, but again the feedback/info you get may be thin/basic & not much more than is already on the site (that is... if they can find it!)
Had I known how poor the data is on this site, I would NEVER have taken a 12mth subscription!
Despite all this, if you're STILL tempeted, do NOT subscribe for 12mths! Take the 1mth option & go review their scant information first!

Couldn't find my grandad on the site even when I entered his service number! A friend on Findmypast did much better and found lots of information.

Cancelled my subscription but they are still taking money. Got very little from this site I would not recommend it

This company finds records but to find out if it is the person you are looking for requires subscription. Some basic information, like the service number, for free would at least let you establish whether they had found the correct record. When you discover that it is just someone with the same name it is too late, you have paid for nothing. It is then difficult to find your way through their web site to prevent further subscriptions being taken from your bank. They are willing to do more research but that required hiring a researcher, with no guarantee that they will find the right record. They do, however, offer to sell you medals, even though they have found the wrong person. Avoid at all costs.

These sites are generally good for research but come with the price that you usually end up with continual emails or marketing calls. i should have known better but I was caught with the good old auto renew device where if I did not check my bank balance regularly I would be quite a bit out of pocket. Something should be done about the way in which these companies operate. I would imagine that a considerable part of their revenue is from members who fail to cancel the 'automatic' auto renew function.

Found no useful information on my grandfather and got charged repeated subscriptions. Waste of money.

I found them on google and entered the name of the RAF pilot I was researching. The response was that they had information about him if I paid £8.95. But they had no information on that name but keep sending me information about other irrelevant names AND keep taking further payments. I have complained but they do nothing but try to offer additional services.

Another Auto Renew Casualty, caught by the £5 offer and fell into the trap for another months membership that I don't want or need! Spend your money on Find My Past or Ancestry They also have auto renew but it seems to be more straightforward and I nave joined and rejoined both many times in the last ten years without been caught out like this.

Totally useless. Very little information on the individual I was researching and almost all of it was incorrect. They even said he was in the Army when in fact he was in the Royal Naval Reserve. No details on his medal entitlement or record of service. I found more information on the London Gazette site. Based on the scant and inaccurate information I asked for a refund, but got nowhere. A complete waste of time and money.

Tried to cancel three times, ticked the box as required and asked them to cancel but still being ignored. Disgusting company and rubbish information. DONT USE THEM

Like others I was tempted by the promise of access to millions of war records and registered. The follow up 'special discount' email seemed like good value for a month so I signed up. The site is rubbish! I searched 3 relatives (father, paternal grandfather and father in law) all who served in either WW1 or WW2. Just one record was found, that of my father, which simply said that he was in the RAF, his service number and a load of waffle about what medals he might have been entitled to. When cancelling auto renew they tried to sell me the services of a 'researcher'. At least it only cost me a fiver!

I found it didn't have anything more than I could find on other family tree sites who were offering a lot more value for the dollar/pound. In fact I found less despite all the advertising hype.

I took advantage of their trial offer then cancelled after ten days or so only to discover they had charged me for another month and didn't want to know about it when I contacted them so that's another minus from me.

It seemed they were trying to sell other services associated with the organisation, ie over the top priced personalised war records.

Sadly I have nothing good to say about my experience with them.

They say they have access to hundreds of records and then admit that many records are still not released and give you advice on how to approach the MOD. Could have said this before taking my money

The site implies that it holds all the war forces records. Before you pay to join and you search the records it brings up the findings with a list of medals and blurred out writing. It implies that they hold records for your specific search. AFTER paying the search confirms that they do not hold the specific record that you are looking for. You are really taking pot luck, if you join, as to whether they hold the record you are looking for. There is also NO telephone number advertised to contact them. And they did not reply to my email (replying to the one where they confirmed membership).
In my opinion, I feel that I was duped. My grandfather, who was a POW,
would be turning in his grave to know that this site is operating in this way.

The site is set up to con you to take out subscription, sometime some people maybe lucky to get some information but in general it is sparse, more often than not they do not have the information. When contacting them by email they basically treat you like you are an idiot. Do not go near this site or get pulled into paying their subscriptions, there are other better sites to help you find the information you are looking for.

Best site I have accessed for family search and found Canadian relative via 1 email from the support team which contained a link...£8.95 and success ! I have joined several ancestry sites at some expense and found nothing. Would highly recommend this site and their customer service and quick response was excellent.

Within 24 hrs I have found out info. regarding my Granddad, when and where the photo was taken and have now been able to order the Postcard of him I saw last night on their TV advert.

The site is based on filters, ie supply or pick information relevant to your search. EVERY time i would fill in my information to search for a particular record, then go back to listing, it would either freez, boot me out, or clear the filter choices taking you back to square one.....support would only say we can see you opened A record so as far as we are concerned no problem, yup I'm sure our relatives fighting in the war would have had same attitude......total rip off

Allan Graham

We have tried to contact the Forces War records, they are only available to contact by email and not by online chat or phone. We have contacted them several times and do not get replies. Their website is fairly useless and expensive. There is a lot more information and detail on other websites, once Ancestry is exhausted Find My Past is brilliant with war records, newspaper articles and more. I will never use War Forces again or recommend the website to any friend or family of mine.

very useful for little details and the fact they don't ignore minor wars and smaller collections of records is their biggest strength IMHO

All genealogy sites operate this policy as they assume your research like mine will take years! I think the site is very good once you have exhausted sites like Ancestry.