Using the Arme and Unit filters: We will look closely at this panel on the right. You will see three filters with green arrows. Tutorial 1 dealt with using the ‘nom de l’inventaire, filter, but tutorial 2 will focus on the ‘Arme’ and ‘Unité’ filters. We’ll skip the ‘cote’ filter for this demonstration.
‘Filter by Arme“Use the drop down filter for Arme. This will show you the the types of army and divisions; artillery, cavalry, infantry, dragons (look that up) royal police units, Hussards, Swiss soldiers, French gardes, Chasseurs, and the rest. Click on one, let’s say Dragons, and it will bring you to the results page of all regiments of the Dragons, the years available and the region, province, duchies and properties they are attached to. There you will find the ‘eye’ to click on to bring up the image documents.
‘Filter by Unité‘: After the Memoire des l’Hommes website update., you’ll find the drop-down menu is now the blue button, that when clicked, you will find every military unit is arranged in alphabetical order..
I chose “R” for regiments, and you can see all the regiments that are attached to names of provinces, regions, duchies and ect. For this demonstration, let’s use Régiment d’artillerie de Richecourt. This military unit only has one batch of records.
On page 100 of this roster, you’ll find the table of the soldier’s names and the names that they go by, the names of their parents, date and place of birth, physical features and date of enlistment. Notice that some of the soldiers have signed up for just 6 years (6 ans) of service. At the very top is the name of a commanding officer and town this regiment is attached under.
Included in these some of these records contain military engagements, rank, injuries, deaths, mustered out, desertions and place and date of death during the engagements.
Rooting around for the right record collection can be a lot of fun or a lot of frustration (or both). I hope these navigation tutorials help you along the way. If you find these tutorials helpful and appreciate the amount of work that goes into constructing these pages, would you consider leaving a tip to say thanks?