Examples of extended Military Records
What this page is about is explore finding additional digitized military documents, in the departmental archives. Some departments offer a whole new world digging deeper into their online military respository. Others departments, not so much more beyond the military enlistments. On this page I will use the departments of Tarn-et-Garonne and Tarn online archives
In the Tarn-et-Garonne archives, there are listings of hundreds of veteran’s names in alphabetical order. What makes this special is the portraits and genealogical information for each veteran’s card, and genealogical information under the category ‘Cartes du combattant de 1914-1918‘. These are veterans’s identity cards’ of the First World War 1914-1918. A veteran must have this card and present it to apply for veteran’s benefits (including pensions) for himself and for his family. Example to the right is a veteran card for Georges Laurent Antoine, born 8 Aug 1900 in Nancy, the department of Meurthe-et-Moselle.
The Department of Tarn online archives has the same layout, the same exact records and viewer as the Department of Tarn-et-Garonne. In fact, if you’re researching those departments, you wouldn’t be able to tell which department you’re in, unless you look at the web address!
You can find additional military pictures, medals awarded, documents with military engagements with rank, army (infantry, calvary, ect) and unit in Tarn (the same with Tarn-et-Garonne), There may be additional images attached to the soldier you can view. In these examples, you can see a picture of Maurice Gimenez, and on the left side is stamp of ‘Coix du Combattant” .A recipient of this medal awarded to soldiers who fought heavily during the 1914-1918 world war.
His military achievements are covered through the next two images. As you can see from the image on the right, Manuel Gimenez was in the 5th regiment of Dragons, of the 4th division, 9th Brigade, with the rank of cavalier. He was born 8 Jan 1892, in Relezane, a city (commune) in the French colony of Algeria as it was known then.
On the left are medals he was awarded with. Starting from the left to right, the 1st medal, I believe (but not sure) is the 1914–1918 Commemorative war medal; the second medal is the “Croix du Combattant”, to honor those who fought heavily during the first World War; The 3rd medal is the ‘Inter-Allied Victory Medal; And the last medal I have no clue as what it is called or represents. If any of you war buffs know, contact me
As I said earlier, you might not find this extensive military goodies in other departmental archives, but the military enlistments are still a great find. What additional documents you couldn’t find in the military section, you might find in other topical sections of extended records and documents to make your day!