Author name: Ruth Blair

In Search of Military Ancestors – Military Archives and Remembrance Projects

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These websites are actively remembering the efforts and recording the stories of military personnel involved in the conflicts of the 20th century. If your ancestor did not participate in the project you may find someone who served along side and learn something about their experiences during active service.

England

Captive Memories is a website that is home to an oral history project involving the 50,000 British servicemen who became Far East Prisoners of War in the Second World War. The dates they cover are December 1941 through March 1942. This is a database that you can search for interviews that were done of 62 FEPOWs. There are sections that provide links and other information.

There is the First World War Poetry Digital Archive which consists of collections of major poets of the time period, multimedia artifacts from the Imperial War Museum and an archive of over 6,500 items which were contributed to the project by the general public.

The Great War Archive not only has items relating to England but also some from Germany. Here you can find links to the Great War Archive Flickr Group, Europeana and Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.

The Imperial War Museum is a wealth of information for anyone doing research into the British military.

The Imperial War Museum has a Sound Archive that covers a broad range of experiences from the Boer War through the two World Wars and more modern conflicts. The recordings themselves are not available online but the catalogue will give you an idea of what is available at the Imperial War Museum.

There is a website in England dedicated to British Military Nurses and it provides information and links to help you with your research. She also has a blog called “This Intrepid Band” where she provides more information.

Canada

Dominion Institute and Canadian Heritage have a website called “The Memory Project” whose aim is to “explore over 90 years of military oral history, with firsthand accounts from the First World War through to the present day conflict in Afghanistan.” The website states that the stories were collected between 2003 and 2006. They have just received funding to start the Memory Project: Stories of the Korean War.

The Canadian Military Heritage Project provides links to websites to help with your research and it covers many different conflicts through the ages

United States

The Library of Congress in the United States has a similar project entitled “Experiencing War” from the Veterans History Project. There is an alphabetical listing of the participants.

Have you come across other websites that provide similar information? If so please leave a comment below.

©2011 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

Using the Auckland City Libraries to Find Images Relating to Canada

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If you are researching images relating to Canada have you tried the Auckland City Libraries?

They have an online database called “Heritage Images” and when using the search criteria of Canada you find there are seventy images to view.

You can choose the type of images you want to view: News & Newspapers; Research papers; Images; Reference sources; Books, and Magazines. Most of the images are late 19th and early 20th century.

There is an image for a grave marker for Samuel Morrin who was born 12 August 1842 in County of Two Mountains, Canada and died in Remuera Auckland on 15 April 1886. The County of Two Mountains is located in Quebec.

You can find an image for St. Paul’s church with the location being Ontario Canada.

There is a Canada Street in Auckland so you get a few images of the street in the search results.

Some references do not have images and this could be because they have not yet been digitized or for other reasons. You can find information on using and ordering images from the database here.

You never know where you might find information on your family. I wonder if someone is researching the Morrin family and do not know where Samuel ended up? If they find the Auckland City Libraries Heritage Images online he would not be a brick wall any more.

©2011 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

Ruth’s Recommendations

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Here are my favourite blog posts from this past week.

Free Genealogy Resources had a very good post this past week entitled “Tuesday’s Tip: Act Like You’re Moving.” When you move you usually go through everything and sort it and during this process you may discover a few surprises you had forgotten about. They suggest doing this with your genealogy files to see what treasures you have that may have been forgotten.

Family Search’s Tech Tips had three posts that were of interest this past week.

James Tanner wrote “Online Geographic Resources for Genealogists” where he describes using the Family History Library Catalog to search for records relating to a place. Other websites are examined to see how they can help you with the geography side of genealogy.

He also wrote “A Further Look at Restoring Damaged Photographs” where he takes you through the process of restoring an old photograph.

Denise Barrett Olson wrote “Digital Publishing: The Living Book of the Dead” where she looks at family histories that have already been written and incorporating them into the updated family history that you want to write. She looks at the importance of respecting the work that has previously been done while working with modern research methods and today’s technology. You do not have to write a book there are many other ways to document your family’s story.

This week the Ancestry Insider looked at the Family History Library Catalog with a post called “The FHLC is No More.” The Family History Library Catalog has been renamed “the FamilySearch Catalog.” They have brought the new catalog up to date with the old one. They will eventually be updating the new catalog nightly. There are problems with how the search returns are viewed in the new catalog. Read this post to find out more.

Kerry Scott of Clue Wagon wrote a piece called “In Which I Say “Geni” and “Crap,” But Not In The Way You Think” which gives an important perspective into the recent changes at Geni.com. She looks at the real issues which are that not everything needs to go on the internet, you need to be very careful about what you put the internet and most importantly you need to be careful about using what you find on the internet. No Kerry, you are not the only one who gets hives at the thought of a Great Big World Tree.

Are there any postings in the last week that you think need to be on this list? Let me know in the comments below.

©2011 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved