New CEF Collection on Fold3 - An Overview

Just over a month ago Fold3 added a new collection to their site, the "Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1915-1919" collection. When this collection was first released I found that there was a bit of confusion in several Facebook groups I frequent and in some blogs as to what it held.

Like any collection that is new to me on the various genealogy sites I try to find a collection overview or description. On Fold3 they make it easy:

Screen capture from Fold3 for the Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1915-1919 collection.

Note that it doesn't say personnel records or service files. For those records you can search the "Canada, World War I CEF Personnel Files, 1914-1918" collection on Ancestry or the Personnel Records of the First World War database on Library and Archives Canada (LAC). I will often use the Ancestry collection as my initial starting place just because the Ancestry search engine is more flexible when it comes to name searches than the system on Library and Archives Canada. However, once I have the regiment number I will go the LAC database to download the available service file as a PDF instead of the individual images of the pages as found on Ancestry.

You might also see that the overview page on Fold3 provides a starting template for your source citation (always a nice thing to do), and the "Content Source". It was the content source that got my attention. The documents came from the Internet Archive, one of the favourite places on the Internet for free, generally out of copyright or public domain, material. A search on "Subject:(Canadian Expeditionary Force)" on the Internet Archive returns 151 results.

Yet if all this stuff is free on the Internet Archive why should I use a pay site like Fold3 to look at the same material?

For me, it is a trade off between time and money.

Let's look at an example. In this case, I'm interested in learning more about my McKinlay relatives that served in the First World War for Canada. I know of the following, all sons of Samuel McKinlay and Elizabeth Murdoch residing in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, that joined the CEF:

• Samuel McKinlay, 7656
• William Hamilton McKinlay, 111575
• Francis Murdoch McKinlay, 195145
  

I had already retrieved their service files from Library and Archives Canada so I knew when and where they enlisted, their service details, and in the case of Samuel, when and where he died. However, I'm always interested to see what else I can learn about their service.

When I searched the Fold3 "Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1915-1919" collection I used "McKinl?y" as the name since I know that it is often written as "McKinley".

I found "Samuel McKinley" recorded in the "1st Canadian Contingent of British Expeditionary Force" unit as being in the 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Brigade, "A" Company. Using the virtual filmstrip icon at the bottom of the image I quickly moved to the start of the book where I found that the title is "List of Officers and Men Serving in the First Canadian Contingent of the British Expeditionary Force, 1914". Yes, that book is on the Internet Archive, but to find Samuel McKinlay on the Internet Archive I would have had to have known to look in that one book and to read possibly the 364 page (includes the cover) to locate his entry. Fold3 took a few seconds to bring up the page.

For Francis, AKA Frank, his entry was found in the "Canadian Expeditionary Force 93rd Battalion Nominal Roll of Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers and Men". Unlike Samuel's entry which only had his regimental number, if I didn't have Franks details I would have learned that he was formerly with the 57th Regiment, his next of kind was Mrs. Catherine Wallace McKinlay and her address was 310 Margaret Ave., Peterboro', Ont. He was born in Scotland and taken on strength with the 93rd on 31 Aug 1915. Oh, and his all important regimental number was 195145.

Could I have found Francis in that book on the Internet Archives? Sure. But his name is 11 pages in (at least it is alphabetical) and I would have to know that he was in the 93th Battalion.

You might also come across some war diaries. I stumbled up on the transcriptions of the war diaries of the 7th Canadian Infantry Brigade. Yes, there are digitized originals available from Library and Archives Canada with search instructions on their "War Diaries of the First World War" page but you have to manually find the applicable diary via the Collection Search and then read each page i nthe hopes of finding a name of interest to you. Having some of the transcribed war diaries available and searchable might help you learn if a relative was mentioned.

Sometimes, if you are really lucky, the regimental books and histories might have a picture of your ancestor like that of the Photographic Record and Souvenir of the Canadian Grenadier Guards Overseas Battalion "Eighty Seventh" from 1916.

Fold3, Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1915-1919 (/title/1094/canadian-expeditionary-force-1915-1919 :accessed September 23, 2020), database and images, https://www.fold3.com/title/1094/canadian-expeditionary-force-1915-1919; Photographic Record and Souvenir of the Canadian Grenadier Guards Overseas Battalion "Eighty Seventh", p 35

This collection of Fold3 doesn't give the sort of details found in the service file but you may uncover additional information about your relative that served in the First World War for Canada. It is one more collection in your Canadian genealogy research toolkit.