Getting Started: People, Places, Artifacts & Publications
Pick what you want to find—an artifact, a Highlander, or anything on the site.
Choose your mission
Artifacts
Find objects, uniforms, medals, kit, photos, and documents.
- (Optional) Choose an Era filter or a Classification filter or both to narrow results.
- Enter one or two search terms (try: badge, kilt). If you mean a phrase – e.g “gas mask” – be sure to use quotes.
- Open a result to see photos, details, and related links.
Highlanders
Research a person: service details, awards, school attended, etc.
- (Optional) Use filters like Fate, Era, or Key Appointment.
- Search by name or service number (if you have it). If the name is two words, use quotes: “John Smith”.
- Open the record to explore service, medals, grave/memorial details, and linked artifacts.
Cemeteries & Memorials
Learn everything about where our heros are buried or commemorated.
- Find a cemetery near me where Highlanders are buried
- Find which Highlanders are in a specific cemetery
- Directions to the cemetery where a specific Highlander is buried
Regimental publications
A) Browse and read an issue
Pick an issue and open it. Click View PDF to read it.
B) Find mentions of a person or topic across all publications
C) Start with one year or multiple years
Try entering 1985 1986. No earlier than 1949.
Try a quick search
If you don’t know what to type, start with one of these:
Artifacts (phrases): “trench periscope” • “field dressing”
Artifacts (single words): grenade • badge • kilt • sporran • bayonet
Highlanders: (a surname) • (a school name) • Afghanistan • service number
Both: Use the “Search everything” button above and enter Marshall to find all mentions of Marshall in both the artifacts and Highlanders databases.
Places (Cemeteries/Memorials): “Menin Gate” • “Vimy Ridge” • Holten • Agira
Publications: Falcon 1949 • 1967 • 2014 2015 2016 •
Start with one search term. If you get too many results, add a second search term
How search works (short and simple)
Filters + search terms = fastest results
Filters narrow what you’re looking at.
Search terms target what you want.
Using both usually gets you the best answer quickest.
Example: searching for Vimy ridge usually produces fewer results than searching for Vimy alone — and they’ll be more relevant.
Search terms: how the system matches what you type
When you enter more than one search term, the system tries to be helpful in two passes:
First pass (strict): it looks for records that match ALL the search terms.
Second pass (broader): if the first pass finds no results, it shows records that match at least one of the search terms.
This behaviour is the same for all search tools on this site: Artifacts, Highlanders, Cemeteries, Publications, and Search Everything.
Example:
If you search for: Vimy Ridge
The system first looks for records containing both “Vimy” and “Ridge.”
If there are none, it will show records containing either “Vimy” or “Ridge.”
Important: use quotes for exact phrases
If you want an exact phrase match, put the phrase in quotation marks: Type: “gas mask” This tells the system to search for the phrase as a single unit – i.e. the two words will be together in the same order as the search term.
When to use quotes: exact terms, and multi-word phrases (examples: “trench warfare”, “Menin Gate”, “Vimy Ridge”).