PRO's "Procat" database (which can be accessed via their website) is an extremely useful tool, but there are areas where it can produce incomplete references which will lead to inadequate searches being made. WW1 Other Ranks service records in classes WO363 and 364 are a prime example of this problem - which is not really a "failure" on the part of Procat but rather a natural consequence of the way in which the original printed indexes to WO363 and WO364 were compiled. The real problem here is that it is possible to obtain at least partial results using Procat and therefore delude yourself into thinking that you have found the relevant film references - and either you yourself follow through and make inadequate searches, or you instruct someone else to make searches based on your information, with the same results.

By way of example - try looking for WO363 and WO364 film references in Procat for my grandfather Pte 1944 John Tulloch, Queens Own Cameron Highlanders. Forget the complications and simply search using the keyword "Tulloch" - Procat will whiz away and come back with a "hit" in WO363 - film reference WO363/T1144 which contains the name range "Tulloch, George to Tully, Arthur", so any files for "Tulloch, John" should be located on that film. Procat will give a completely negative result for a WO364 search - as far as the database is concerned the surname doesnt exist within that class.

What is the "real" situation ? - use the original printed indexes at PRO and you can work out what films you should really be looking at >

In this case Procat is in fact correct with it's WO363 result - film WO363/T1144 is the only film in that class which could contain the name Tulloch, John, because the name does not occur in the misfile series associated with class WO363, where misfile film No136 ends with surname Tuffey and film No137 begins with surname Tulloh. - BUT - Procat has been unable to detect four films in WO364 where Tulloch, John could appear >

WO364/4298 contains names in the range Tullis, George to Tumbridge, Henry
WO364/4914 contains miscellaneous misfiles in the surname range F to W
WO364/5726 contains names in the range Tuff, Ernest W to Turner, Alfred
WO364/5804 contains misfiles in the range Sarginson, Thomas to Wishart, David

Procat cannot "find" these film references because "Tulloch" does not appear as either the first or last name on these rolls of film, so the name does not appear on the original printed name range index - and it was the name range index which was loaded into the Procat database. Consequently, Procat will fail to deliver the goods with almost every keyword search within record classes WO363 & 364 - and wholly inadequate searches will result.

If you make your own searches of the surviving WW1 service records you should almost always be looking at a minimum of two films for a man who died in service, and five or six rolls of film for a man who survived the war. If you have someone else search the records for you then make sure they give you the reference numbers of the films which were searched - any decent researcher will have advised you of the references as a matter of course, so if you dont get that information up-front go back and ask for it, and depending upon what that advice is you will immediately have a pretty good indication as to whether the searches have been properly carried out.