by Lisa Cooke | Apr 14, 2014 | 01 What's New, British, History, images, Inspiration, Military, Photographs
British volunteers for “Kitchener’s Army” waiting for their pay in the churchyard of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London. August 1914. Wikimedia Commons Image
One man has spent years rescuing thousands of WWI photos, letters and other artifacts from the trash. The full story, reported recently by the U.K’s MailOnline, tells the story of this heroic effort.
According to the article, dustman (garbage collector) Bob Smethurst began started this rescue mission about thirty years ago. As he dumped waste cans, he would sometimes spot old pictures, letters and other memorabilia spilling into the masher. He’d rescue them when he could. Now he’s got an enormous collection.
Mr. Smethurst noticed a lot of this World War I material being thrown out during the 1970s and 1980s as veterans died of old age. He guesses that a similar amount of World War II material has been heading to landfills or burn piles in recent years.
Have you ever rescued someone’s family artifacts from oblivion? Tell us about it on the Genealogy Gems Facebook page. A hat tip to Premium Member Kimberly for alerting me to this article!
by Lisa Cooke | Mar 13, 2014 | 01 What's New, British, Inspiration, Irish, Military
Tyne Cot Cemetery. Photo by Sgt Jez Doak, RAF/MOD, via Wikimedia Commons at http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/War_Graves_at_Tyne_Cot_Cemetary%2C_Belgium_MOD_45156481.jpg
The Press (York, UK) recently reported a story about 10 brothers who all enlisted to fight in World War I and the hubbub that followed.
“The family became minor celebrities because of the brothers’ service, and their story was used as a recruitment tool as the war went on,” reports the Press. Fortunately, most of these Irish immigrant boys came home alive. The story reports the recent discovery of one of their graves.
Have you ever found something like this in your family–stories of extraordinary sacrifice made during wartime? Tell us about it on the Genealogy Gems Facebook page!
by Lisa Cooke | Dec 1, 2013 | 01 What's New, FamilySearch, Military, Records & databases
FamilySearch recently added another 192 million+ images and indexed records from North and South America and Europe to its growing FREE online collections. In the list at the bottom of this post you’ll find content from Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Spain, Switzerland, the United States, and Wales.
Notable collection updates include the 314,910 images from the Spain, Province of Barcelona, Municipal Records, 1387–1936,
collection, the 576,176 indexed records from the United States Veterans Administration Pension Payment Cards, 1907–1933, collection, and the 189,395,454
Sample image from “United States Veterans Administration Pension Payment Cards, 1907-1933.” Index and images. FamilySearch. https://familysearch.org : accessed 2013.
indexed records from the United States Public Records Index.
Here’s an example of a V.A. pension card, created by the Bureau of Pensions and Veterans Administration to record payments to veterans, widows and other dependents. FamilySearch describes the cards this way: “On the front of the cards for invalid veterans are recorded the name of veteran, his certificate number, his unit or arm of Service, the disability for which pensioned, the law or laws under which pensioned, the class of pension or certificate, the rate of pension, the effective date of pension, the date of the certificate, any fees paid, the name of the pension agency or group transferred from (if applicable), the date of death, the date the Bureau was notified, the former roll number, and ‘home.’ On the reverse side of the form appears the name of the veteran, his certificate number, and the record of the individual payments. The army and navy widow’s cards are similar to the invalids’ cards with the addition of the widow’s name and occasionally information regarding payments made to minors, but they do not indicate if the veteran had a disability.”
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Collection
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Indexed Records
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Digital Images
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Comments
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| Brazil, Mato Grosso, Civil Registration, 1848-2013 |
0 |
126,870 |
Added images to an existing collection. |
| Brazil, Minas Gerais, Catholic Church Records, 1706-1999 |
0 |
827 |
Added images to an existing collection. |
| Brazil, Pernambuco, Civil Registration, 1804-2013 |
0 |
94,516 |
Added images to an existing collection. |
| Colombia, Catholic Church Records, 1600-2012 |
0 |
111,526 |
Added images to an existing collection. |
| Peru, Puno, Civil Registration, 1890-2005 |
0 |
176,918 |
Added images to an existing collection. |
| Spain, Province of Barcelona, Municipal Records, 1387-1936 |
0 |
314,910 |
Added images to an existing collection. |
| Switzerland, Fribourg, Census, 1839 |
0 |
2,552 |
New browsable image collection. |
| Switzerland, Fribourg, Census, 1842 |
0 |
2,851 |
New browsable image collection. |
| Switzerland, Fribourg, Census, 1845 |
0 |
3,062 |
New browsable image collection. |
| Switzerland, Fribourg, Census, 1850 |
0 |
2,968 |
New browsable image collection. |
| Switzerland, Fribourg, Census, 1860 |
0 |
20,530 |
New browsable image collection. |
| Switzerland, Fribourg, Census, 1870 |
0 |
22,554 |
New browsable image collection. |
| U.S., Alabama, County Marriages, 1809-1950 |
324,971 |
690,459 |
Added indexed records and images to an existing collection. |
| United States Public Records Index |
189,395,454 |
0 |
Added indexed records to an existing collection. |
| United States Veterans Administration Pension Payment Cards, 1907-1933 |
576,176 |
0 |
Added indexed records to an existing collection. |
| United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 |
644,004 |
0 |
Added indexed records to an existing collection. |
| Wales, Court and Miscellaneous Records, 1542-1911 |
0 |
84,676 |
Added images to an existing collection. |
by Lisa Cooke | May 22, 2013 | 01 What's New, British, Findmypast, Military, Records & databases
Military image at Findmypast.com.
If you have relatives who have served in the military, why don’t you plan a little extra genealogical web surfing time this week? Here are two sites offering free temporary access to records:
1) In honor of Memorial Day in the United States, findmypast.com is offering free searching of its collection of U.S. and international military records from midnight EDT on Thursday, May 23 until midnight EDT on Memorial Day, Monday, May 27.
Findmypast.com hosts over 26 million military records, with an emphasis on 20th-century records. That’s a plus for U.S. military records because so many from the 20th century were destroyed in a huge fire at the National Personnel Records Center in 1973. For the U.S., you’ll find World War I draft registration cards; World War II Army enlistments and prisoner of war records; Korean War casualties and POWs; Vietnam War casualties and even “casualties returned alive” (people thought to be dead but who came home) and an Army casualty file for 1961-1981.
There’s a much longer list for military records for the U.K. and Australasia, and a short, separate list of Irish military records. I’m guessing many of you in the English-speaking world have relatives who appear in these records.
Anyone can access these records by registering at findmypast.com.
2) In honor of Memorial Day next week, MyHeritage is granting free access to millions of military records from their most popular collections. The records can be accessed from here.
The free offer ends on May 28.
The collections will help you journey back in time to some of the most important conflicts in world history, which impacted American families as well as millions of families worldwide.
Here is the link to their official blog post – http://blog.myheritage.com/2013/05/memorial-day-free-access-to-us-military-records/
