The following is being distributed at the request of The Rooms Corporation:
The Rooms has completed a multi-year project to digitize all First World War military service files and personnel records of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment and the Newfoundland Forestry Corps. In 2015 The Rooms launched the project as part of the commemoration of Newfoundland and Labrador’s role in the First World War. The project to digitize all the service files is now complete – ensuring that all individuals who served are preserved and represented.
Over 6,000 service files are available through the database, and on-line at The Rooms website, with the remainder to be uploaded in the coming weeks. The files can be found at www.therooms.ca/thegreatwar/in-depth/military-service-files/introduction.
The Rooms has also created an indexed database to allow for more efficient searching and access to the files. Records can now be searched by information including name, regimental number, religion, community, fatality, Prisoner of War date (or in any combination thereof) and results can be sorted via the database as well. The revised database includes all 6,800 names identified in the service files and service ledgers of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment and Newfoundland Forestry Companies.
A presentation on the multi-year digitization project and the military service files will take place at The Rooms at 2:30 pm, November 15, 2018. For further details on the process of digitization of service files and personnel records, please see the backgrounder below.
Quotes
“This legacy project by The Rooms to digitize military service files and records from the First World War will serve as a great resource to help this generation – and the next – to never forget. As we commemorate the centennial of the Armistice, I commend The Rooms for their hard work and dedication in telling Newfoundland and Labrador’s war story. Through Honour 100, the Provincial Government is reconnecting Newfoundlanders and Labradorians with their history, honouring our veterans and creating a legacy of remembrance that stretches past the commemoration years, which this new exhibit certainly does.”
Honourable Christopher Mitchelmore
Minister of Tourism, Culture, Industry and Innovation
“It has been a great privilege for The Rooms to be entrusted with creating legacy projects that foster a greater understanding about the First World War and its impact. Today, on the eve of the centenary of the end of the Great War, it is our duty to remember and commemorate the service and sacrifices of our forefathers.”
Margaret E. Allan
Chair, Board of Directors, The Rooms Corporation
“These records are of great significance to the people of this province. They represent the most significant source for the study of our rich military history and the role the Royal Newfoundland Regiment and Newfoundland Forestry Unit played in it”.
Dean Brinton
CEO, The Rooms Corporation
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Learn more
First World War Military Service Files 
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Media contact
Jena Mitchell
The Rooms
709-757-8144
jenamitchell@therooms.ca
BACKGROUNDER
Digitization of Military Service Files of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment and Newfoundland Forestry Corps
The 323 microfilm reels available through the database at The Rooms contain military service files for close to 7,000 individuals who served with the Royal Newfoundland Regiment and the Newfoundland Forestry Corps in the First World War. The records were originally created and maintained by the Newfoundland Department of the Militia in St. John’s and typically, the files consist of attestation papers, medical examination forms, conduct sheets, movement cards and pay documents, casualty related forms and correspondence to and from the Department of Militia. Some files even contain photographs, sketches and prisoner of war accounts.
Microfilm copies of the original records (which reside at Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa) were received by the Provincial Archives in June 2002 after a collaborative microfilming project between the Archives, the National Archives of Canada and the Genealogical Society of Utah. The microfilm files were immediately popular with researchers but were only available by visiting the Provincial Archives in person, or through requesting photocopies of microfilm prints. Microfilm copies of the service files will continue to be available for research at The Rooms and at Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa as they have for decades.
Additional archival records to complement the military service files including photographs, wills and government records are also part of The Rooms collections. These records can be accessed by visiting The Rooms, contacting archives@therooms.ca, by phone at 709-757-8037 or on-line at www.therooms.ca/thegreatwar/in-depth/military-service-files/introduction using the “Search the Archives” option.