Lives of the First World War

Exciting news today for genealogists and historians researching World War One! The Imperial War Museum and brightsolid, the online publishing and technology arm of publishing group DC Thomson, are working in partnership to create Lives of the First World War.  This innovative and interactive digital platform is in honour of the First World War centenary next year.

Lives of the First World War will become a permanent digital memorial to more than 8 million men and women from across Britain and the Commonwealth, and will be an amazing digital legacy for future generations.

You can watch a short film here about the new digital platform, and find out how to get involved here.  When the site goes fully live, people will be able to upload images and stories about their WWI ancestors. Even if you don't have a family connection, volunteers will be needed to help with checking/transcribing/indexing records.






Images:
Photo montage, 'Lives of the First World War'.
WWI pilots ( IWM E(AUS)2661).
Private W. C. Tickle. His mother's handwritten note on the photograph (taken a few days before his death) describes him as "One of the very best". Pte Tickle is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial. (IWM HU 93549).

All images © IWM.

TheGenealogist’s New Releases

Good news for family historians seeking information on ancestors who served in the world wars: at the recent Who Do You Think You Are Live! show, theGenealogist.co.uk launched two new datasets to aid your search: War Memorial and Casualty Lists.

The War Memorial database, which includes images of memorials like this one for Islington Borough Council staff (right), has links to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website. Each transcript for a memorial includes links to Google Maps with Streetview so that you can see exactly where the memorial to your relative is located.

Initially the Casualty Lists database will cover the War Office’s ‘Weekly Casualty Lists’ from 1917-18 and will later be expanded to include the daily casualty lists from September 1914 to the final reports of 1919.

TheGenealogist.co.uk has also launched its Naturalization and Denization collection, which includes Huguenots, and you can see an example of a naturalization record for Stephen Romilly (left), showing his parents’ names and birthplace.

And if you have Lancashire ancestors, theGenealogist has just added thousands more parish records including some for Farnworth with Kearsley, Little Bolton, East Crompton, Gorton St James and Turton.   Happy hunting!

Sacrifice in the Trenches: WWI Ancestors

This blog post is a tribute to two relatives who died in the Great War long before I was born. They made the ultimate sacrifice for King and Country.

Two of my great-uncles, Herbert and Harry (Henry) Dickman from Pendlebury, were killed in France in 1916.

Herbert Dickman (service number 15647) born c.1899, served as a private in the 8th battalion of the Royal Fusiliers, and his date of death is given by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website as 7 March 1916, aged twenty-five. He was a POW, and died of his wounds.

His brother Harry Dickman (service number 15080), who was two years younger, was a private in the 16th battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers (2nd Salford Pals); his date of death is given as 30 July 1916, during the battle of the Somme. I believe that the battalion was at Haillicourt around that time. Both soldiers are commemorated on the Loos memorial.

Brothers Harry and Herbert worked at Agecroft Colliery before the Great War, and their names can be seen on its war memorial, along with the names of many others from the pit who died in the ‘war to end all wars’. 
If you have a Lancashire ancestor who served in the armed forces, some sources for military history are included in my new book Tracing Your Lancashire Ancestors, which has just been released.
Update May 2014: If you have an ancestor who served in WW1, you may like to visit the Lives of the First World War website.

Images: Agecroft Colliery War Memorial. © Sue Wilkes.
Private Harry Dickman, from an undated, unattributed news cutting in the author’s collection.

Postcards in the author’s collection, date circa 1919:
Lens (near Loos) before and after the war, Boulevard des Ecoles.
Lens before and after the war, Pit No.5.
Ypres Cloth Hall before the Great War.

Find My Past Preview: Firing Squad

This week’s Find My Past programme, which airs on Yesterday at 9pm on Thursday, traces the desperately sad story of a WW1 soldier shot for desertion, and the stories of the people and their families involved. Over three hundred men were shot for desertion, even though many of them may have suffered from shell shock owing to the horrors of trench warfare. There’s a memorial in Staffordshire dedicated to these soldiers – some of whom were only teenagers.

Images supplied courtesy of Find My Past.