New address for IWM's Lives of the First World War

I have just noticed that the Lives of the First World War project, which ended in March of this year, is now back up and running at a new web address and platform at https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk.

From the site:

IWM’s Lives of the First World War tells the stories of individuals from across Britain and the Commonwealth who served in uniform and worked on the home front.

This innovative digital project ran from 12 May 2014 to 19 March 2019. From individuals and families, to communities and organisations, more than 160,000 people collaborated to piece together the lives of people who experienced the conflict, through sharing anecdotes and digitising material that has been hidden away in attics until now.

The project is no longer taking contributions, being now very much a permanent digital memorial site which allows you to search for individuals and communities that were established throughout the original project.

It's an impressive project, and well done to the IWM for bringing it back so quickly - have fun exploring!

Chris

Pre-order Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) for just £11.99 at https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-Family-History-on-the-Internet-Paperback/p/16483. Details of my genealogical research service are available at www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk. Further news published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

Lives of the First World War project to end 2019

From the Imperial War Museum (www.iwm.org.uk), news of the Lives of the First World War project (​https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org):

Findmypast and Imperial War Museums’ groundbreaking Lives of the First World War project enters its final year

Findmypast and IWM call on members of the public to preserve as many stories as possible before submissions cease on 18 March 2019

Findmypast and Imperial War Museums today announced their groundbreaking collaboration, Lives of the First World War, will cease taking submissions on 18 March 2019. From this date onwards, IWM will act as the custodian of the millions of contributions made by members of the public, creating a permanent digital memorial that will always remain free to access.

Lives of the First World War was launched in 2014 as the IWM’s flagship digital centenary project. Since then it has captured the stories of more than 7.6 million men and women from across Britain and the Commonwealth who contributed their ‘toil and sacrifice’ during the First World War.

Charlotte Czyzyk, Public Engagement and Project Manager for Lives of the First World War, said:
​
"From factory workers and members of the armed forces, to medics and conscientious objectors, Lives of the First World War has curated over 2.2 million biographical details, anecdotes and images thanks to the contributions of more than 130,000 dedicated members. These rich, personal life stories will be preserved by IWMs for future generations, serving as a powerful and permanent record of the ‘lost generation’."

As the project enters its final year, Findmypast and IWM are calling on members of the public to help them preserve as many stories as possible. By joining Lives of the First World War and uploading scans of photos, letters and diaries, by researching a name on a local war memorial, or by sharing anecdotes passed down through the generations, family historians will contribute to a permanent digital memorial that will help shape our understanding of this important period of world history, both now and in the future."

(With thanks to Charlotte Czyzyk)

Chris

For my genealogy guide books, visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html, whilst details of my research service are at www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk. Further content is also published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BritishGENES.

Imperial War Museum's War Memorials Register

From the Imperial War Museum (www.iwm.org.uk):

War Memorials Register

The IWM is compiling the War Memorials Register - the comprehensive national register of UK war memorials and the names of the individuals they commemorate. We currently hold records for over 74,000 memorials in the UK, Channel Islands and Isle of Man.

War memorials form an important part of our cultural heritage and reflect the changing face of commemoration as well as artistic, social, local, family, military and international history. The Register includes memorials to members of the armed forces, civilians and animals from all wars and to those who died in service.

We now display records of the names of individuals commemorated on war memorials. You can find these on the memorial listing. We will be adding more records to the names database throughout the First World War Centenary so please check back for updates.

To access the register visit https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials

Chris

For my genealogy guide books, visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html, whilst details of my research service are at www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk. Further content is also published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BritishGENES.

Reopening of American War Museum at IWM Duxford

From the Imperial War Museum:

The American Air Show at IWM Duxford
Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 May

Celebrating the reopening of the transformed American Air Museum

May Bank Holiday weekend (Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 May) will see the American Air Show at IWM Duxford, celebrating the reopening of the newly-transformed American Air Museum .

Over the weekend, vibrant flying displays will be accompanied by evocative living history, veterans’ voices and powerful film and music to show the developing relationship between Britain and America through the World Wars, Cold War and into the present day.

In addition to the dynamic flying display, visitors will be able to meet living history groups representing the United States Air Force in the Second World War and during the Vietnam era, listen to nostalgic music performed by Miss Holliday Swing, The Bluebird Belles and Pete Wayre and explore the newly-transformed American Air Museum, containing the best collection of American aircraft on display outside North America.

Highlights of the flying programme include:

Epic flying displays depicting the bomber operations of the Second World War, the war in the Pacific and the Vietnam War.

Thrilling contemporary displays by the Patrouille de France (Saturday only), the Red Arrows (Sunday only) and the Eurofighter Typhoon.

Two replica Royal Aircraft Factory SE5a biplanes and a replica Nieuport 17, representing the relationship created between Britain and America during the latter stages of the First World War.

Four North American Harvards, key training aircraft for British and American pilots, take to the skies to represent the British-American alliance reinforced while America remained neutral in the Second World War. The Harvards are followed by a Spartan Executive and a Ryan STA, glorious 1930s aircraft that were also used for training purposes.

Archive sound and film footage places visitors on an Eighth Air Force bomber airfield in the Second World War as the ground crew await the arrival of the last B-17 Flying Fortress to return from a mission. B-17 Flying Fortress Sally B flies in, accompanied by two P-51 Mustangs and aTF-51 Mustang, the fighter aircraft that accompanied the huge bombers for part of their mission. Following a poignant display by B-17 Flying Fortress Sally B, the Mustangs are intercepted by a Hispano Buchón (Messerschmitt Bf 109) and a thrilling tail chase ensues.

As two Douglas C-47 Skytrain aircraft fly in, large screens are filled with footage of American paratroopers and, in a filmed interview, Henry ‘Duke’ Boswell, a paratrooper in the Second World War, describes his experiences as a young man carrying out combat jumps, including on D-Day, 6 June 1944. The two C-47 aircraft are followed by a de Havilland Dragon Rapide and a Piper L-4 Club.

Demonstrating the war against Japan in the Pacific, a North American B-25 Mitchell, Mitsubishi A6M Zero Replica, Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, Grumman FM-2 Wildcat and Goodyear FG-1D Corsair, take to the skies accompanied by archive film footage of the Doolittle raid.

In commemoration of the decade-long Vietnam War two North American T-28 Fennecs take to the skies to the unmistakable sound of Jimi Hendrix. Bell UH-1 Iroquois (‘Huey’) and Hughes OH-6 Cayuse (‘Loach’) helicopters fly through accompanied by the dramatic Ride of the Valkyries by Wagner. The Vietnam display concludes with a display by a North American OV-10 Bronco and a Shorts SC-7 Skyvan to the rousing music of The Doors.

The story of British and American collaboration in conflict concludes with an exploration of modern warfare and the causes of conflict in the Gulf, Afghanistan and Iraq.

(With thanks to Esther Blaine)

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including A Decade of Irish Centenaries: Researching Ireland 1912-1923, Discover Scottish Church Records (2nd edition), Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. My Pinterest account is at https://www.pinterest.com/chrismpaton/.

New material added to WW2 American Air Museum website

From the Imperial War Museum at Duxford:

New historic material added to the American Air Museum website

Unseen personal snapshots and aerial photographs from the Second World War extend this remarkable digital resource

In October 2014, IWM Duxford launched a new crowd-sourcing website for the American Air Museum. The website is a digital record of the memories and stories of the men and women of the US Army Air Forces (USAAF) who found themselves serving their country from somewhere in England during the Second World War. It also records the memories of the British people who met and befriended them.

The American Air Museum website has been made possible through the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund, which awarded a grant of £980,000 to IWM Duxford, in December 2013, towards the redevelopment of the museum and the creation of the website.

Since we launched it, over 45,000 people have visited the website, from across the United Kingdom, United States and beyond. We have lots of regular users who are contributing their stories and photographs including key individuals who have made nearly 2,000 additions to the site.

We’ve now added fascinating new material to the American Air Museum website which makes it a bigger and more comprehensive historic resource.

English Heritage has donated over 700 aerial photographs of wartime airfields in use, or under construction, across the United Kingdom between 1940 and 1947. Many of these images have not been seen by the public before.

Mike Evans, Head of Archive at the English Heritage Archive said: “The aerial photographs in the care of the English Heritage Archive are a unique picture of the English landscape at a time when the pressures of war changed it out of all recognition. I am delighted that we have been able to contribute some of these images to the American Air Museum website, and so add another layer of information to the rich collections of photographs and memories which are already on the site."

These photographs show the pace at which the English landscape was changed by the war and by the arrival of the United States Army Air Forces. There are fascinating details in the images. In a number of the photographs of Duxford’s airfield, you can clearly see the baseball pitch, which has been demarcated by the running boots of servicemen, in the field behind the accommodation blocks.

You can browse all of the English Heritage aerial photographs on the American Air Museum website with the following search - http://www.americanairmuseum.com/media?search=EH

The American Air Museum website launched with 5,000 images from the Roger Freeman Collection. Roger Freeman (1928-2005) was a hugely respected aviation historian and native of East Anglia.

We are delighted to announce that a further 5,000 images from Roger’s collection have been added to the digital collection on the American Air Museum website. Many of these images have not, up to now, been publically available.

The photographs show the variety of experiences of serving members of the United States Army Air Forces in Britain during the Second World War. Images depict the different roles undertaken by members of USAAF and also the aircraft, combat missions and events , alongside the off-duty leisure time and local communities.

As a result of user feedback, we’ve also added a series of new features to the website, including the ability to see a timeline of edits and additions you’ve made to the website. You’ll also be able to see what other users have edited by clicking on their activity tab. We’ve made changes to our map function, including markers for aircraft crash sites and cemeteries. It is now easier to see if a person is buried or commemorated at an existing cemetery, as we’ve cross-referenced our entries for the burials of airmen with the American Battle Monuments Commission cemetery at which they are remembered.

Jenny Cousins, Project Leader, American Air Museum said: “The photographs that the museum has in its collection only have meaning if we know and understand what they depict. 70 years on from the Second World War, there are still people alive who lived through it and have strong, formative memories of it. We have a last opportunity to capture these stories, to record their testimony and to retain it for future generations. We’d love to see some people who worked in aircraft factories or building the airfields adding themselves to our database. Everyone’s experience of war is important to us. We’re touched by the public response we’ve had to making this collection freely available online. People have really got behind the spirit of what we are trying to do – reveal the extraordinary lives of ordinary people.”

Discover the American Air Museum website at www.americanairmuseum.com

See our film clip of personal stories here http://Youtu.be/pGRYq9hwdEo

(With thanks to Esther Blaine)

Chris

For details on my range of genealogy guide books please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. To commission me for genealogical research, please visit my research site at www.scotlandsgreateststory.co.uk.

Imperial War Museum anti-cuts petition

I've been asked to flag up a petition to Urgently reverse current and future cuts to the UK Imperial War Museum's annual operating grant in aid so that it can maintain services and preserve its standing as an international centre for study, research and education. No problem.

Here's the full blurb:

One hundred years after the outbreak of the First World War, the Imperial War Museum is under threat.

The Museum is facing an annual deficit of £4m because of cuts in government funding.

It has drawn up proposals to:

• close its unique library and dispose of the majority of its collection
• cut important education services
• cut 60-80 jobs
• close the widely emulated ‘Explore History’ facility in London.

The Museum’s library gives ordinary people access to research materials on all aspects of British and Commonwealth involvement in conflict since 1914.

Prospect trade union believes the world's leading authority on conflict will be irreparably damaged by the £4m deficit.

It has launched this petition to help ensure that the Imperial War Museum continues to provide for, and encourage, the study and understanding of the history of modern war and ‘wartime experience'.

Please show your support by signing today.

Imperial War Museum Library

The Imperial War Museum Library is a collecting department in its own right and plays a key role in helping IWM staff do their jobs - curating exhibitions, helping to identify and understand artefacts and furthering their own knowledge.

IWM aspires to be a highly-respected authority on its subject matter, but this will be impossible without a library.

Once the Library and its professional staff are gone, the damage will be done.

It will be impossible to replace this unique collection of primary and secondary printed materials and the dedicated people who care for them and make them available to the public - remotely or in person.

The Library acquired its first item in April 1917 - a programme for a 'Dick Whittington' pantomime staged by the 85th Field Ambulance in Salonika - and has been a vital part of the Museum ever since.

The Research Room

The Research Room, available to all for more in-depth research, will continue to operate but at a reduced level, and without access to library materials.

These materials are vital for providing context to personal papers and interviews and are the most commonly used items in the Research Room.

Education

IWM attracted 433,000 learners in 2013-14 and 256,000 children took part in its on and off-site education programmes.

School educational visits to the paying branches at Duxford, HMS Belfast and Churchill War Rooms, with on-site teaching sessions led by museum and education professionals, are under threat.

The Museum is justifying the cuts at these original historic sites because of changes to the national curriculum and their ‘narrower exhibition focus’.

Formal education bookings at Duxford are steady and IWM London is already full to capacity.

‘Explore History’ attracted 55,000 visitors in 2013. It is a popular resource open to all, seven days a week, allowing the public to explore IWM’s collections and find out about objects or subjects not on display.

Westminster government funding

IWM was founded in 1917 as a place of study and memorial. Its London museum was refurbished at a cost of £40m and re-opened in July 2014. Demand for its services has never been higher.

IWM is successful in generating its own revenue - less than 50 per cent of its funding comes from the Westminster government, but that income is vital to the organisation's future.

IWM has faced funding cuts over several years but has not yet suffered the mass redundancies and reorganisations that have occurred in other national museums and galleries.

But the cuts announced in November 2014 will put the Museum’s educational and research functions in danger and experienced professional staff will be forced to leave.

Prospect fears that this is only the start and that further damaging cuts are likely unless there is widespread public support to maintain adequate levels of funding.

Please sign our petition and consider making a donation to IWM here: https://www.justgiving.com/iwm/ highlighting that your donation is a response to Prospect's petition.

The petition is available to sign at https://www.change.org/p/rt-hon-george-osborne-mp-urgently-reverse-current-and-future-cuts-to-the-uk-imperial-war-museum-s-annual-operating-grant-in-aid-so-that-it-can-maintain-services-and-preserve-its-standing-as-an-international-centre-for-study-research-and-education

(With thanks to @Save_IWMLibrary)

Chris

For details on my range of genealogy guide books please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. To commission me for genealogical research, please visit my research site at www.scotlandsgreateststory.co.uk.

Petition to save Imperial War Museum

A petition has been launched online to help save the Imperial War Museum (www.iwm.org.uk), which is being forced to find savings to stop an annual £4 million deficit due to funding cuts to be implemented as part of the UK Government's austerity agenda. The museum's services at London, Manchester and Duxford are all likely to be affected.

Here's the initial part of the petition:

One hundred years after the outbreak of the First World War, the Imperial War Museum is under threat.

The Museum is facing an annual deficit of £4m because of cuts in government funding.

It has drawn up proposals to:

• close its unique library and dispose of the majority of its collection

• cut important education services

• cut 60-80 jobs

• close the widely emulated ‘Explore History’ facility in London.

The Museum’s library gives ordinary people access to research materials on all aspects of British and Commonwealth involvement in conflict since 1914.

Prospect trade union believes the world's leading authority on conflict will be irreparably damaged by the £4m deficit.

It has launched this petition to help ensure that the Imperial War Museum continues to provide for, and encourage, the study and understanding of the history of modern war and ‘wartime experience'.


For more information, to sign the petition and/or make a donation to the museum, visit https://www.change.org/p/rt-hon-george-osborne-mp-urgently-reverse-current-and-future-cuts-to-the-uk-imperial-war-museum-s-annual-operating-grant-in-aid-so-that-it-can-maintain-services-and-preserve-its-standing-as-an-international-centre-for-study-research-and-education.

There's also more on the cuts in a Financial Times story at www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2c1d49f8-6bfa-11e4-b939-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3JLAmfmbV.

(With thanks to @wdytyamagazine via Twitter)

Chris

Stuck for a Christmas gift?! I have a series of genealogy books available in the UK, Australia and Canada, on Scottish, Irish and British based subject areas. Further details at http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. Santa approves!

Lives of the First World War launches officially

As I announced last week, the new Lives of the First World War project has today left beta testing and has been opened to the general public to participate. The project, a collaboration between the Imperial War Museum and DC Thomson Family History, aims to document the lives of all those who fought in the war on behalf of the British and British Empire based forces.

It is available at https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org, whilst a getting started guide is accessible for newcomers at https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org/getting-started.

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians. And for those wishing to take Scottish ancestral research a bit further, my next Pharos course, Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the Old Parish Records, commences May 14th 2014.

Lives of the First World War site to launch Mon 12th

The Lives of the First World War web based project (www.livesofthefirstworldwar.org), a collaboration with DC Thomson Family History and the Imperial War Museum, is due to launch next Monday 12th May, with full access granted to the public. Until now a few beta testers have been at play with the site, and for them, access will be temporarily closed over this coming weekend to allow the team to finalise the launch of the full version.

In the meantime, you can read the site blog at at http://www.livesofthefirstworldwar.org/blog/ for a sense of what's been happening so far.

More news next week!

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians. And for those wishing to take Scottish ancestral research a bit further, my next Pharos course, Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the Old Parish Records, commences May 14th 2014.

New D-Day exhibitions at IWM Duxford

Details of forthcoming exhibitions at the Imperial War Museum at Duxford (www.iwm.org.uk):

D-Day-The Last of the Liberators photographic exhibition
By Robin Savage
Produced by the Airborne Forces Museum(Airborne Assault) and Helion Books
April to December
Mezzanine Gallery, AirSpace

D-Day -The Last of the Liberators is a collection of photographic portraits of some of the last surviving British Normandy veterans. It records, in a unique way, the stories of these remarkable individuals and their emotional but dignified return to the locations, in many cases the exact spot, which are tied to their most profound personal memories of the campaign; places where they saw action or were wounded, where they experienced instances of miraculous chance or where they witnessed their friends being
taken away from them through the horror of battle.

The photographs in the exhibition are 15 of those from a new book of the same name. Taken during the 68th and 69th anniversaries by photographer Robin Savage, they are a record of some of the final visits these brave and dignified men and women will make to the places that imprinted themselves indelibly on their lives.

D-Day -The Last of the Liberators is included in general admission to IWM Duxford. Visitors aged 15 and under enjoy free admission to the museum.


The Padre’s Trail in the Land Warfare exhibition
From May 2014

Our Land Warfare exhibition houses one of the finest collections of tanks,military vehicles and artillery in the country. It charts the technological advances that have changed the face of ground warfare.

The Normandy Experience in Land Warfare vividly tells the story of the D-Day Landings through sound, film and military vehicles set in evocative dioramas.

As part of our commemoration of the 70th anniversary of D-Day, we are adding a layer of interpretation to The Normandy Experience which gives a very personal view of the D-Day Landings and how it felt to be in the thick of the action.

Captain Leslie Skinner was an army chaplain who landed on the coast of Normandy on the morning of 6 June 1944 with the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry tank regiment. Apart from 29 days spent at home recovering from his wounds, he spent the rest of the war with the Sherwood Rangers as they fought through France and into Germany. It is Captain Skinner’s story that is told in his own voice via extracts from the diary he meticulously kept throughout his time with the Sherwood Rangers.

He saw it as his duty to find the bodies of men who were killed as the Regiment’s tanks advanced. On many occasions, he risked his life to ensure that his comrades’ bodies were recovered or buried. The work could be harrowing and he refused to allow the other tank crews to help.

Padre Skinner travelled all over the front line and the battlefield, talking to the troops and listening to their worries. As this extract from his diary shows, he experienced at first-hand the stark realities of warfare.

25 June 1944: “In burst of machine gun fire I dived into slit trench on top of young soldier… it was his first show and he was all alone. I assured him that the machine gun fire was way up in the air…he picked up a ration box lid and held it above ground. Burst [of fire] cut it in two. It shook me. When firing stopped I moved out. He, poor devil, had to stay. About 11:30…Shrapnel got me across forehead and knocked me out. Lots of blood but soon conscious.”

The Padre’s Trail is included in general admission to IWM Duxford.

(With thanks to Esther Blaine at the IWM)

Chris

My latest genealogy books are Tracing Your Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), Discover Scottish Civil Registration Records, and Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet. My next Pharos course is Scottish Research Online, which commences Feb 27th 2014, 5 weeks, price £45.99.

Lives of the First World War project from IWM and Brightsolid

More news on a huge project development from the Imperial War Museum and Brightsolid, which was first announced at Who Do You Think You Are Live in February:

IWM & brightsolid partner to create digital platform
Lives of the First World War

IWM (Imperial War Museums) 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 – an innovative and interactive digital platform to mark the First World War Centenary.

Lives of the First World War will hold the stories of over 8 million men and women who served in uniform and worked on the home front. It will be the official place for communities across the world to connect, explore, reveal and share even more about these people’s lives.

This innovative platform will bring fascinating records from museums, libraries, archives and family collections across the globe together in one place. The team behind Lives of the First World War are working with national and international institutions and archives to make this happen.

Over the course of the centenary, Lives of the First World War will become the permanent digital memorial to more than 8 million men and women from across Britain and the Commonwealth - a significant digital legacy for future generations.

The platform will go live later this year, in time for the start of centenary commemorations from summer 2014. Further information, including a short film about Lives of the First World War can now be found at www.livesofthefirstworldwar.org.

Diane Lees, Director-General of IWM said: “The Imperial War Museum was established while the First World War was still being fought to ensure that future generations would understand the causes and consequences of the war and to remember the men and women who played their role.

“Now that the First World War is outside living memory, we are the voice of those veterans and the custodians of their stories – which we can now tell through Lives of the First World War. We will be encouraging people of all ages, in all communities to join us in this project to actively remember these men and women.

“I am delighted that IWM will be working with brightsolid. Their focus on innovation, their specialism in telling stories and making history accessible along with their international reach makes them our perfect partner on Lives of the First World War.”

Chris van der Kuyl, Chief Executive of brightsolid, said: “We are proud to be working with IWM to create a digital memorial that will be an enduring and fitting tribute to the men and women of the First World War. I am sure that as the centenary approaches, members of the public will deepen these stories by uploading their own content in order to create a rich narrative tapestry for every man or woman whose life was shaped by the War.

“The UK has an incalculable wealth of historical archives. Institutions like IWM are world leaders in making those records available online to millions of people worldwide. We are only beginning to realise the cultural potential of these archives.”

Brightsolid’s partnership with IWM consolidates its position as a private sector partner for leading public institutions digitising historical archives. The Group recently launched the British Newspaper Archive in partnership with the British Library, embarking on a project to digitise, and make fully-searchable, up to 40 million historic pages from the national newspaper collection over the next 10 years and has previously delivered the highly successful 1911census.co.uk project in partnership with The National Archives (TNA). In addition, brightsolid is the private sector provider for ScotlandsPeople, a partnership with National Records of Scotland and the Court of the Lord Lyon that serves an integrated online portal for Scottish genealogy records dating back to 1538.

Lives of the First World War will be a part of IWM’s extensive programme to mark the First World War Centenary. IWM’s programme includes new First World War Galleries at IWM London (opening summer 2014) and a major temporary exhibition at IWM North. IWM is also leading the First World War Centenary Partnership, a growing network of over 1,000 local, national and international cultural and educational organisations spanning 25 countries. The Centenary Partnership will present a four-year vibrant programme of cultural events and activities engaging millions of people across the world.

(With thanks to Carolynne Bull-Edwards)

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...!

IWM sound archive goes online

The Imperial War Museum has made available online some 14,000 interviews relating to the Western Front and Gallipoli in the First World War. The recordings are accessible at www.iwm.org.uk/collections-research/about/sound - for more on the background read Family Tree magazine's blog post at http://family-tree.co.uk/2013/03/iwm-sound-archive-launched-online/

(With thanks to Family Tree magazine)

Chris

My new book, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet, is now available from Pen and Sword. For my other genealogy books, please visit  http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html; whilst for my online Scottish based genealogy courses please visit the Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Ltd site.

IWM withdraws from War Memorials Online

From Frances Moreton of War Memorials Online (www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk)

Between January 2012 and January 2013, War Memorials Trust, IWM’s War Memorials Archive and English Heritage worked together to develop War Memorials Online, by sharing information, data and expertise.

Following IWM’s concerns about the unmediated editing of data it was decided that, in the interests of compiling the national register which is under its care, IWM’s War Memorials Archive would withdraw from the current project and remove its data.

War Memorials Online remains as a project focussed on obtaining information related to the condition of war memorials in the UK. The information gathered on the War Memorials Online website will help build a picture of the condition of Britain’s war memorials as we approach the First World War Centenary and it will contribute to ensuring adequate resources are available to make certain our war memorials are in good repair for centenary events.

IWM’s data will be removed from the website by the end of January 2013. Content checked or submitted by Third Parties (the public) or that provided by War Memorials Trust or English Heritage will remain on the website. War Memorials Online has benefited greatly from the contribution of IWM’s War Memorials Archive and will continue to be run by War Memorials Trust with the support of English Heritage. Information on war memorials submitted to War Memorials Online is accessible to the public and will be made available to the IWM’s War Memorials Archive, Historic Environment Records and other heritage bodies to support the protection and conservation of the nation’s war memorial heritage.

Any queries on the above should be directed to Kevin Redgate, War Memorials Online Administrator on info@warmemorialsonline.org.uk.

(With thanks to Francis Moreton)

Chris

Pre-order my new book, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet, through Pen and Sword (30 April 2013), or purchase early at Who Do You Think You Are Live 2013 in London. For my other genealogy books, please visit  http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html; whilst for my online Scottish based genealogy courses please visit the Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Ltd site.