The collection covers the period immediately prior to embarkation for Australia, the period of duty in Australia and New Zealand and the period immediately following their departure from Australia. The LDS Church libraries assist in researching beyond that scope. The first entry for each soldier should indicate his age, while the last entry should show his birthplace, non-military occupation and his enlistment date. Other informative documents include the paymaster's declarations, stoppages of pay for imprisonment or time in hospital. Each pay sheet shows the number of days each soldier was entitled to pay, where he was stationed at the time of the Monthly Muster and how he was employed other than on normal guard duty.
Many early rolls are difficult to read because of fading, staining or the nature of the binding.
However tracing a soldier's records over the period he was enlisted provides a picture both of his military life and more personal dimension. The Returns are primarily numerical summaries of regiments. These provide, on a monthly basis, information about when a particular regiment was stationed in the colony and make it possible to pinpoint the time of arrival more exactly and to determine the location of troops. If information about the soldier's regiment or family detail is unavailable, knowing the colonies in which he was stationed is useful as regiments remained in one or two regions. These show only officers' names and not all regiments that served in Australia are listed.