Military Medical Records from WWII: A Powerful Source to Enrich the Story of Your French Ancestors

Military medical records from the Second World War can help genealogists bring depth and personal detail to the stories of their French ancestors. Much of this material is preserved centrally at the Service des Archives Médicales Hospitalières des Armées (SAMHA) in Limoges, which holds hospital registers, evacuation documents and individual medical files created by the French Army’s health service. These records are especially worth exploring if your ancestor served in the French Army during the war. Even a short hospital stay was often documented, and these documents add another meaningful piece to the larger puzzle of understanding your family’s history.

Written by Glenn Henskens

1. What Are French Military Medical Records?

During WWII, soldiers and many civilians passed through a structured military medical system that generated a large amount of documentation. These records include:

  • Hospital admission and discharge registers
  • Nominative patient lists
  • Individual medical dossiers
  • Observation sheets and surgical notes
  • Billets d’hôpital
  • Evacuation and transport forms
  • Casualty bulletins
  • Logs created by field and evacuation hospitals

Almost all these documents have survived in France and are now preserved at the Service des Archives Médicales Hospitalières des Armées (SAMHA) or the Service Historique de la Défense (SHD).

2. Why These Records Should Matter to Genealogists

Military medical records reveal details that often do not appear in traditional military service files. They help you understand what your ancestor experienced, how they were wounded or ill, and where they received care.

 

Reconstruct the Wartime Path
Hospital registers and evacuation forms can show where and when a person was treated. This helps trace their presence on specific fronts or campaigns.

 

Reveal Injuries and Circumstances
Individual medical files contain descriptions of wounds, surgeries and treatment outcomes. They reflect the human side of military service.

 

Give Life to Family Stories
Many families know an ancestor was injured or ill during the war but lack details. A single hospital note or evacuation form can bring clarity and emotional depth.

 

Include Civilian Experiences
Civilians injured during bombings or military actions were often treated in military hospitals. The Service des Archives Médicales Hospitalières des Armées (SAMHA) preserves records for these individuals as well.

3. Where Military Medical Records Are Preserved

Service des Archives Médicales Hospitalières des Armées (SAMHA)
The SAMHA in Limoges is the central archive for almost all French military medical documentation from the early twentieth century to today. Its holdings include:

  • Individual patient files
  • Hospital admission and discharge registers
  • Nominative patient lists
  • Collective WWII registers
  • Billets d’hôpital
  • Evacuation and observation forms

These records cover both soldiers and civilians treated by the military health service.

 

Service Historique de la Défense (SHD)
The SHD in Vincennes preserves the war diaries and operational logs (journaux de marche et opérations) of mobile medical units, including:

  • Hôpitaux d’évacuation
  • Hôpitaux de campagne
  • Ambulances chirurgicales

These daily logs do not list individual names but help identify which medical units operated in a region at a specific moment.

 

Mémoire des Hommes (Ministère des Armées)
Mémoire des Hommes is a fully digital and freely accessible online database. You can consult it from anywhere to search for wartime deaths and view information about the hospital or ambulance where a person died.

 

French Red Cross Archives
The archives of the French Red Cross preserve documentation of ambulance services, especially the Corps des conductrices ambulancières. Additional information may exist in municipal hospital archives or at AP-HP (Paris public hospitals).

4. What You Can Discover in These Records

A WWII medical record may provide:

  • Full identity details
  • Unit information
  • Date and place of injury
  • Nature of the wound or illness
  • Surgery notes and medical observations
  • Evacuation information
  • Discharge or death details

Registers show entries by date with regiment and injury type. Evacuation forms may reveal how a patient arrived, such as by ambulance train, and where they were sent next.

 

These details help reconstruct not only military movements but also the personal medical journey of your ancestor.

5. How to Access Military Medical Records

Requesting Records from the Service des Archives Médicales Hospitalières des Armées (SAMHA)
SAMHA requires:

  • Proof of identity
  • Proof of relationship
  • All identifying information available (name, birth date, unit, approximate injury dates)

Important:
Because SAMHA requires official proof of relationship, documents from SAMHA cannot be requested through GenealogyDirect’s Document Service. Relatives must submit the request themselves.

 

Access Rules for the Service Historique de la Défense (SHD)
Access rules are different from SAMHA:

  • No proof of kinship is required for most SHD materials
  • War diaries and unit logs can be consulted in person in Vincennes
  • Requests can also be made remotely for copies
  • These documents are not digitized, but they are not restricted like personal medical files

 

Using Mémoire des Hommes
Mémoire des Hommes is completely digital, open to everyone, and can be researched online without visiting an archive.

6. Practical Tips for Successful Research

  • Gather as much detail as possible before contacting the archives
  • Identify the person’s military unit to locate the likely medical formations
  • Remember that civilians may also appear in military medical registers
  • Expect correspondence rather than online access for SAMHA and SHD
  • Use any hospital or ambulance numbers found in other documents as research leads