Last Chance To Add To WW1 Database
Sadly, the Lives of the First World War site ( livesofthefirstworldwar. org) will close to additions on Tuesday 19 March 2019. Voices have been raised on the feedback and discussion forums that too many are still unremembered and may not get added to the database by the deadline.
I heard about the website from WDYTYA? Magazine and added information from my family tree. This year, knowing about the closure, I have been adding information for anyone I happen
to talk to about it. Recently I added the story of Private Albert Burchell, because I read about it online. Albert scratched his service numbers on the back of his violin while on the frontline, and it was played again in a new composition as part of the 100-year remembrance. The violin is on display at our local museum. How had his story not been added? Has the Imperial War Museum (IWM) contacted all of the UK’s regimental museums asking them to add the evidence and life stories they have?
I also found that although service records existed online on Ancestry, the information from these had also not been added to the Lives database, even though they clearly have the service numbers. This is a huge resource that would have provided detailed evidence to support the limited information on the medal records.
It is wonderful that more than 550,000 have been remembered, but that leaves over seven million as just Medal Card information alone, unknown now forever. It seems that the Lives is closing just when a legacy digital archive is being created.
Jane Evans, by email
EDITOR REPLIES: I contacted IWM for a response, and staff have said: “Lives of the First World War was designed to coincide with the peak in public interest in this conflict, during the years 2014 to 2019. The legacy of Lives of the First World War will be a permanent digital memorial on iwm.org.uk, which will be free to access and search. This will be available at the end of June 2019. To allow the Lives of the First World War team time to process the data before it moves to IWM, the website will be closed from 12.01am on Tuesday 19 March 2019. We will not be able to accept any further contributions of material after this time.”