WW1 Lantern slides found in Belfast church loft

Here's a great story - a series of 77 lantern slides from the First World War, depicting soldiers from Belfast who were serving at the front, were recently found last month in the organ loft of Alexandra Presbyterian Church in the city. The church is comprised of the congregations from York Street and Castleton Presbyterian churches, and the images are believed to have been commissioned by the Castleton congregation in 1918, with a note in the kirk session minutes attesting to the fact.

The Castleton Lanterns project at http://castletonlanterns.co.uk is now looking for assistance from the public to try to identify the names of each of the soldiers depicted. Visit the site for details on how you can help, as well as to see the images - the names of the soldiers from the congregation are listed at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~econnolly/rohpci/rohcastleton.html. The task is now to match the images to the names.

Amazing find!

(With thanks to Eddie Connolly @teddiec)

Chris

My new book, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet, is now available from Pen and Sword. My next Pharos Scottish course, Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the Old Parish Registers, starts May 15th - see http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/scotland-1750-1850-beyond-oprs-starts.html. Time to smash a few brick walls...!