Archives - First World War

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Help needed to index all Oklahoma First World War veterans
June Stone, a member of the Oklahoma Genealogical Society (OGS), is requesting help in collecting information about Oklahoma WWI veterans for an index to honor these veterans. There are some lists, by county, that are available at the Oklahoma Historical Society Library. The Department of Veterans Affairs has a list of those who were killed in action and the American Legion Department of Oklahoma does not have a list. Requested data includes full name, date and place of birth, date and place of death... rank, branch of service, medals earned, obituary, photos and anything that would contribute to the veteran's file. [ normantranscript.com :: 2008-07-29 :: Archives ]

Gary Nelson logs almost 700,000 photos of veterans' graves for Web site
Not everyone finds the Gary Nelson's photographs uplifting, but he thinks they are needed to remind people of the cost of war. Over the last 3 years he has taken almost 700,000 photos of veterans' graves or monuments for the "findagrave.com" site. Touring the world on his own dime, he has visited over 250 cemeteries to photograph the graves of soldiers from all over the world who fought in many wars. For the last several years his photos have been posted on Findagrave.com's International Wargraves Photography Project, but now Nelson plans to get his own site "thefallenremembered.org", up and running by the end of the year. [ gazette.net :: 2008-07-05 :: Photographs, Pictures & Images ]

Oxford researchers: Nationwide appeal for WW1 memorabilia for new archive
A nationwide drive for First World War memorabilia will form an online archive commemorating the 90th anniversary of Armistice Day. The archive - free resource, created by Oxford University English Faculty researchers - will be used to help future generations realize what the war meant to soldiers and families. People are being urged to go through their attics and take photos of items from the era hidden there. The appeal is looking for artefacts, letters, diaries and stories which have been handed down the generations. "Some of the items may be in a fragile condition... and are at risk of being lost forever." [ ukpress :: 2008-03-02 :: Memorabilia & Collectibles ]

Website hosts Britain's First World War records
The heroism of millions of Britain's WWI servicemen, from ordinary foot-soldiers to future ministers, is revealed on the internet for the first time. The exploits of famous names such as Harold Macmillan, Anthony Eden, Noel Coward and Harry Patch, the last remaining "Tommy", are among the stories published. The records of 5.5 million troops awarded medals 1914-1922 - the most comprehensive Great War collection in existence - are being issued by Ancestry.co.uk website. It will give people a chance to trace the wartime achievements of their ancestors, as most of the WW1 service records were destroyed during a German air raid in 1941. [ telegraph :: 2008-02-20 :: Archives ]

The British Army World War I Pension Records 1914-1920 online
After a column about the First World War Medal Cards index, there is another good online resource about soldiers who survived the conflict which is available to researchers. The British Army WWI Pension Records 1914-1920 have been digitised by the Ancestry website and through it you can track an individual's army career during the war. The db has service records of non-commissioned officers and other ranks who were discharged from the Army and claimed disability pensions for WWI service. These were men who did not re-enlist in the Army prior to WWII. The information includes name of soldier, age, birthplace, occupation, regiment number and next of kin. [ liverpoolecho :: 2007-12-13 ]

The Red Cross archives in Geneva reveal cost of World War I
The Red Cross documents-center contain poignant details in the many files listing those lost, killed or captured in the Great War. WWI archives look at first glance like little more than a series of glass cases, containing dusty file cards. But look closer, and the terrible scale of World War I is revealed. There are rows of boxes from floor to ceiling, whole shelves with the same surname: Smith, Smith, Smith. Muller, Muller, Muller... Each box contains thousands of file cards, and each refers to an individual human being, a soldier missing, imprisoned or killed. In 1914, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) set up its Prisoners of War Agency. [ - :: 2007-11-10 :: Archives ]

Town collects war archive about those who serve in the Great War
The experiences of the 450 Ilfracombe men who served in the First World War 1914-1918 have been collected into an archive at Ilfracombe Museum. The 4 weighty binders contain information, photographs and articles of a town and its sons at war. "It will be quite a nice resource for people to use and this has really put all the information into one place. We would like people to know this is here and is available for anyone to come in and look at - it's a useful family history resource and would perhaps be a good jumping off point for anyone researching their own background," said museum manager Sue Pullen. [ northdevongazette :: 2007-11-01 :: Archives ]

British World War One 1914-1920 Pension Records To Go Online
1914-1920 pension records of nearly a million British World War I heroes have been published on net. The collection lists the names of many soldiers discharged due to injuries sustained during or following service in the war. It has been published by ancestry.co.uk who used data from the original National Archives records. The collection, called The British Army WW1 Pension Records, has gone online to coincide with the 90th anniversary of the 1917 Passchendaele campaign. Family members can discover a wealth of information about relatives who served, like physical descriptions, regimental numbers, service histories and promotions. [ lse :: 2007-08-08 :: Archives ]

Australia's World War I archives website attracts global interest
A website with Australia's World War 1 records has had more than 200,000 hits since it was launched, with the figures peaking on Anzac Day. The National Archives scanned millions of pages of records to create online access to the military records of all Australians who served in WWI. The documents include letters and service information, which are vital for historical researchers. The director of access information services says Canada and the UK are now considering similar Internet access to their war records. The archives are located at www.naa.gov.au under "World War One Service Records Online". [ abc :: 2007-04-30 :: Archives ]

Australian World War One service Records Online
The National Archives of Australia has put its WWI service records online. This includes more than 376,000 records, 12.3 million pages of material, digitally scanned from the original paper records. Including enlistment documents, injuries sustained during the war, correspondence from family members, and even disciplinary documents - and They include records of service in the: First Australian Imperial Force (1st AIF), Australian Flying Corps, Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force, Royal Australian Naval Bridging Train, Australian Army Nursing Service, Home or Depot units for personnel who served within Australia during World War I. [ naa.gov.au :: 2007-04-14 :: Australia - Expeditionary Force ]

Records of British First World War soldiers go online
Details of 2.5 million British soldiers who fought in World War I are to be revealed online. In a remarkable development for researchers and social historians, the records have been put on a genealogy website. "This is not just military history, this is social history," said military specialist William Spencer, at the National Archives in Kew, where the documents are held. The records, known as the WO363 British Army Service records and the WO364 British Army Pension records, can be searched at "ancestry.co.uk". 100,000 records were put online with the rest following by the end of 2008. Many of original WW1 records were destroyed in 1940 by a German bomber. [ telegraph :: 2007-02-23 :: Archives ]

Digitised images and online record to reveal life in the trenches
Descendants of First World War soldiers will soon be able to find out about their relatives' physical appearance, wounds, battles, promotions and medals. Ancestry Website is working with the National Archives so that war documents containing digitised images and records of 2.5 million men who served in the war can be accessed on their site. The documents stored in 44,000 boxes and have been transferred to microfilm over the past five years. [ guardian :: 2006-07-23 :: Photographs, Pictures & Images ]

More than 5 million WW1 campaign medal records go online
Want to find out how your grandfather was honoured in the Great War? For the first time the medal records of more than 5 million men and women who served in the First World War are available online at DocumentsOnline. The records of the future King Edward VIII, Sir Winston Churchill, composer Ralph Vaughan Williams and war poet Wilfred Owen all appear along with many well known names. [ nationalarchives :: 2004-11-16 :: Archives ]

First World War in the News is an edited review of hand-picked World War I 1914-1918 articles.