Lives of the First World War

Do you mean by using the consular death index as the source and then inputting the exact date?

 

Yes. I can't see that there is anything to prevent it.

 

I guess only my sense of wanting to be sure I do everything "correctly".

But if you think about, if I had the death certificate, then I would presumably be referencing it with what is given in the index, and the information needed to obtain the certificate is what's in the index.

 

Your sense of correctness does you credit.
I think you have enough of a clear trail of evidence to justify putting the exact date of death, if that is what you would like to do. For myself and my relatives who survived the war, I have been content to enter only the year (which is possible for UK deaths). For those who died in the war I feel quite strongly that I would like to have the exact date if at all possible.

 

I have succeeded in putting in exact dates of birth and death, though the external link I cited just gave the quarter in which this happened. The dates now show up on my father's record.

 

I have been going through the names on the war memorial (Chevington, Northumberland) that Fred Hemsley (my grandma's first cousin unveiled).
One thing that is striking is that so many of them were in a single unit, 1st/7th Battalion. Northumberland Fusiliers - marked as Territorials, so I suppose they were members before the war. The unit looks as if it took terrible losses, having fought at Ypres, the Somme and Passchendaele, to name but a few.
The other thing I noted is one of the men who went a slightly different route, becoming a Corporal of Horse in the Household Cavalry, but died just the same. I found him in the 1911 census as a horseman on a farm - and the farm was that of Fred's father (my GGF's brother). One of those shiver down the spine moments

 

I know that this site is a work in progress but has anyone else tried searching/ adding information

I was geared up to share my Gt grandfather's story..and hit an issue concerning the 'seed' information. I thought it might be prudent to seek opinion before going into battle with the IWM over it!

 

Thank you Tim for posting me in the right place! I have been reading down this topic and see that I am not the only one to find the payment requests.
I have not been involved in the trial, and have only chanced upon LFWW yesterday. Have those who have posted stories all managed to end up with a name correct rank, regiment and service number at the top of the page? Mine ended up with the wrong regiment, and service number at the top, although the correct one is also buried in the 'evidence' provided by the site as seed information. I have ended up deleting the information I added because there is a risk that there is another soldier of the same name wrongly added to the medal card. I asked how the site could be sure, just because there are two service numbers and two regiments on the card, that my gt grandfather definitely served, unknown to his family,in two regiments. If this was the case why was only one at the top of the page? I was told they don't do research!! Has anyone challenged the seed information?

 

Thank you Alexander, and Tim
I am not as expert on genealogical research as regular users of this forum. Eight years ago when my father was dying I promised him I would make sure his research was not destroyed. I did a little more than that.I got the bug and took it much further. Sadly, the needs of the living have to take priority over researching the dead, and I cannot devote as much time to the subject as I would like to. I have however, learned a few key rules from my own mistakes and those made of others:
1. Stick with what is known and can be collaborated.
2. Don't claim someone as your relative without proof and then share the information as fact because it can mislead other researchers.
3. Family information CAN have a way of leaving things out.
4. Official records CAN be wrong!
So, yes of course I accept that my Gt Grandfather could have had two service numbers, however, the regiment his children waved him off to is the one others in his community would know about. This is an open, collaborative project that will have to draw in many people who know nothing about family history research if it is to succeed not only in being a memorial but also in being a resource for the future. For many novices, finding their relative or comrade of a relative will be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. What goes on top of each page therefore will either assist or seriously hinder those maiden searches. I fear that many will unwittingly attribute the story of someone with a common name, to the wrong page. If there is only room for one regiment and service number it should surely be the one that has the greater degree of proof?
I have for now, withdrawn the photograph I uploaded because the page with the "wrong" regiment at the top does not feel like "his". The trouble is there is no other page to put it and the rest of his poignant story on!

 

With my grandfather it is the later one shown at the top of the page. His family were living in Surrey when he first enlisted and he started out in the East Surrey Regiment. By the end of the war he was in the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment and that is what shows at the top of his page.

 

My father started off in the Norfolk regiment and was transferred to the Essex regiment as late as 1919 - and of course he therefore has two service numbers. I have been trying to find out via the internet what the British Army was doing in Italy in 1919, after the war had ended (he was in Genoa). I haven't had any success yet - any suggestions where I can check this out please?

 

I'm just adding information on someone for whom things are a bit complicated.

For a start, he seems to have more than one medal card and thus several entries on the site - once as Herbert W. Solman and more than once as W H Solman. I have asked for help on this to see if the entries can be combined, and I had already started adding information on him as Herbert W. before realising he was also there as W H.

His service records survive and there he is listed as William Herbert so I've added these forenames into the "served as" name field. However, he still shows as Herbert W. at the top of the page.

Just to complicate matters further, the GRO birth indexes show him as Albert Solman and he was baptised as William Albert. (And yes, I am sure he is the same person!)

Any thoughts on how best to enter his names? I think he was normally known as William, so I'd be reluctant to have Albert showing as his name at the top of the page.

 

Thanks for the tip, Alexander. Unfortunately there are no war diaries covering my father's service - but what a brilliant idea. It would certainly be great to follow day by day reports of an ancestor's wartime experiences. How I wish I had asked my father about the Great War when he was alive - but maybe he wouldn't have wanted to tell me much anyway. His war service certainly put him off setting foot abroad ever again!