Lives of the First World War

Mike, I don't know if it is standard, but I don't like it. I am not adding anything other than links to websites, for just this reason. Shame, because I have a lovely letter that my great uncle wrote to his mother, assuring her he was safe and well (yup, it was WW2 that did for him) but I'm not sharing it under those T&Cs.

 

Sorry Liberty - I wasn't suggesting for one moment that the work put in on free sources is any less rigorous than on any other, but what I meant was what guarantee is there that those resources will be kept online? What is supposed to be a permanent memorial shouldn't become littered with "Page Not Found" messages. We'll have to assume that data that is actually placed into each record within the "Lives of the First World War" will stay there, but if the sources of that data are changeable / moveable then gradually those sources might not be followable.

For example we might assume that the census data that the site itself proposes via the Official Records tab is going to be guaranteed for years to come. However if I decide instead to use as evidence for that same information a site that shows the same census data for free, because I'm not prepared to pay for the privilege of linking to the "Official Record" (and I'm not!), then I can't see how that link can be guaranteed for the future.

And I hope you're right about moderators being involved because, if individuals are able to cite other online records, what's to stop the kind of absurd mistakes that some people seem happy to make in their appalling online family trees?

Anyway, it's early days and I'm probably being overly picky, but I haven't been impressed thus far with how I see the site working.

 

Agree that so far it hasn't covered itself with glory, more's the pity.
I don't think there are any guarantees that sites will stay put. The most dodgy one I have linked is actually part of a forum/discussion which may well disappear. HOWEVER, it includes a posting that quotes the official record of the action in which Arthur Herdman was killed, including naming him (one of the 'privileges' of being an officer, I guess) so I thought it worth putting the link, even if not permanent.

Alexander has responded to my comment about moderators, agreeing they exist but that they will not check everything. However, since the whole tenor of the site is that nothing goes in without the evidence to back it, I would hope that online family trees are not accepted as a source of info.

 

I didn't get one either but I've just checked the website and I seem to have a free 3 month subscription also. I had previously thought I was still getting access to new "official records" because of my FMP subscription.

When it comes to adding a URL for an external source, this works fine for records on free sites but not for those on subscription/ppv sites.

 

I see​

"Lives of the First World War is temporarily down for scheduled maintenance"​

It would be nice to think this means an overhaul, and incorporating some the suggestions put forward for improvement​

 

Quick burst of "Always look on the bright side of life".....

 

I don't know if I'm missing something obvious, but I'm trying to add a date of death to one of the people I'm remembering on the site. I know the exact date of death via family but from official records all I have is the entry in the GRO consular death indexes which I've connected to him, but it only gives the death as between 1946 and 1950, so I can't even add in the year of death from that alone.

If I try to use the Personal Knowledge tab then it seems I only get the opportunity to add a story, and although I could presumably add his death details in there, I'd rather add it in the normal Death section.

I can't find anything in the Help on this so does anyone have any suggestions, please?

 

I really do want to "Always look on the bright side of life" at the Lives site .....
1. But when I checked an email today from Lives I learned that because Canadian attestation papers have been added as official records "more than half a million life stories have been created for those who served in the Canadian Expeditionary force." That struck me as rather a lot so I typed the phrase into their search engine and came up with 937 results. Useful but hardly mind boggling!!
2. and I do owe the site a small apology because I must have had an error in some of CWGC links that disappeared when I reloaded them.
3. and the only way (I think) to ensure that a reference to an external link does not go dead is to create a life story about whatever you consider the most valuable/interesting information you found at the site. It won't necessarily be verifiable from other sources but it has obviously struck a chord with the person "remembering".

 

Pauline, I am pretty certain that you are right; if you can't offer a link to something showing the exact details, then the info has to go as Personal Knowledge. (To lesser extent, the same sort of thing would be true for people dying in the UK,as you could offer link to the registration of death, but only a scan of the death certificate would allow you to put day and month.) You say you've put a link to the death index - can you write something in the box where it invites you to add a story, or more information? I have certainly done this for people who died in the course of the war where the entry on the official, military record says 'Died at sea' (presumably on a troop/hospital ship). This is not a cause of death in the site's drop down box, but I have added it to the box that says 'circumstances surrounding death'

 

I use the Firefox browser with the NoScript add-on. I now cannot log in to Lives unless I "allow" facebook.net.

Not everyone is on Facebook nor wants to be, so that's the end of my involvement with Lives.

 

Correction: I can log in to Lives using Firefox, but the site doesn't remember the people I have "remembered." If I "allow" facebook.net it all works just fine — but what has facebook got to do with my remembered servicemen?

I don't like being forced to accept Javascript activity linking to facebook or any other site.

Heh! Don't mind me, I just have a bit of a "thing" about social media taking over the world

 

I could write something in that death information box - I hadn't thought of that - and this would attach this information to him in the right place. But what I would really like is for the date of death to show under his name, which at present gives his date of death "not yet known", and it seems that unless I add the date of death into the Date of Death field, it will continue to show as "not yet known".

 

I think you can put in his date of death, and no Thought Police will come looking for you. Your evidence, for narrowing down to less than a 4 year band, is is personal knowledge.