Lives of the First World War

[kiterunner]

The Imperial War Museum recently launched a site called Lives of the First World War. Probably lots of our members have seen it already, but we haven't had a thread about it yet:

https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org/dashboard

I have looked at it a few times but I still haven't really got to grips with it. I got an email offering me a 3 day free trial (of the premium content) so I really need to explore it before my 3 days expire. (Parts of the site are free to everyone and other parts you have to pay for. If you have an annual sub to Findmypast you should get a free membership of Lives of the First World War but you may need to contact FMP to get it.)

As far as I can see from looking through the lists of premium records, military and civilian, they are databases that are available on Findmypast, and the free records are available free elsewhere. If you don't have an FMP sub and you are thinking of subscribing to Lives of the First World War, at a cost of £6 per month or £50 per year, make sure to compare with the cost of a "Britain" subscription to FMP, bearing in mind that FMP also has many databases that are not available on Lives of the First World War.

I will admit that I have not read all the information about how to use the site etc yet but every time I look at it I am confused by the phrase "Life Stories" which seems to be the main purpose of the site. It seems to me that the idea is that you find the medal index card or army service papers for your relative and then connect it to other records such as BMD index entries, censuses, and add anything else that you have, and that is called a Life Story.

But it worries me that people could quite easily attach records or information to the wrong medal index card, especially if the service papers aren't available or if they don't want to pay to view the service papers. When you have found a medal index card and click to add information to the "Life Story", it comes up with a list of possible records similar to ancestry's hints, so it looks to me as though you could easily pick the wrong one and add it. The site says the idea is to create a "permanent memorial" so I hope they have some people checking the accuracy of the "Life Stories"!

It says on the site that "Every man and woman from across Britain and the Commonwealth who made a contribution during the First World War will have their own Life Story page." So I do hope this means that Merchant Navy seamen will be included, but they don't seem to be on there yet.

What do other people think of the site so far, and do you have any tips?

[kiterunner]

Hmph, I have spent a while adding records to my great-uncle's "Life Story", but I made the mistake of starting with the medal index card that only has his initials on it, and when I try to amend his first name to add in the full names, it doesn't let me. :(

[Merry]

I looked at it the other day, felt fairly confused and left it alone.

I've just gone back in and searched for a few people and found some. Really, I can't be bothered to learn how to connect the various records for an individual. If they are family then I'm more interested in having the info on my tree than somewhere else.

[Phoenix]

I think when I looked at it everything was taking so long to load that I abandoned hope.

[Janet in Yorkshire]

It takes a bit of getting used to, because it is about compiling a life story for each individual, rather than recording their family history. The theory is that you add a record as evidence, show HOW the record is linked to that particular person, and then extract facts from that information and add them to the profile categories.
Anyone can create a life story, you do not have to be a subscribing member. If you have not subscribed and cannot access the records on the site, you can add external references from any website (e.g FMP, Ancestry, cwgc ) and then add facts from these to the profile. You can also upload photos, scans of documents, personal reminiscences etc.
What you can't do, as a non-subscriber, is to form a "community" - a group of people who come from the same place. are members of your family, employees of a company etc.
The intent is to collect accurate information about everyone who played a part in WW1 and create a lasting digital profile about them. What happens at the end of the 4 years I'm not sure - presumably the IWM have some plans for this; whether the material can be accessed by visitors to one of the IWM branches I don't know, or whether or not this will be free.
You can only add to a life that is already listed from "seed material" - medal cards, CEF enlistment papers (more groups are to follow, including nurses and people in civilian life.)
So your person of interest may not appear yet.
From the site discussion group, it would seem many folk have subscribed expecting the site to be a huge database enabling them to find information about their granddad, gt uncle etc already on there. Much to their disappointment, there is no information that cannot already be found elsewhere, and none of the records are pre-matched with specific individuals.

Jay

[Joy Dean]

I am enjoying "remembering" those in my family and those who I liked reading about / listening to when they were alive such as Henry Allingham, Harry Patch, Arthur Halestrap and Bill Stone, and the people named on local memorials, too.

I have added external references and added facts from them, and uploaded images. I do not use the records in the lives of the first world war site.
https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org/lifestory/6235159

Here are some in my family:
a great-uncle https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org/lifestory/1777124
my Grandad https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org/lifestory/5197161
a great-uncle (by marriage) https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org/lifestory/5164548
a cousin of my mother https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org/lifestory/1514779

And when I wondered about other great-uncles, I was given help here http://support.livesofthefirstworldwar.org/forums/245307-discussion/suggestions/6272067-are-there-names-still-be-uploaded

[Nell]

I saw this a while ago and found it difficult to add information in the way I wanted to. In any case one of my grandfather's was in the Royal Engineers, laying railway track rather than fighting and the other was too old and was in a training camp in Kent. I've already documented their lives elsewhere.

[BlueSavannah]

Taken a look at this website today and quite liked it. Agreed all the information can be found elsewhere but for a free member, I think its a good idea to add information to men that served in WW1.

I've added my great x 2 grandfather here:
https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org/lifestory/2123495

[Joy Dean]

Taken a look at this website today and quite liked it. Agreed all the information can be found elsewhere but for a free member, I think its a good idea to add information to men that served in WW1.

I've added my great x 2 grandfather here:
https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org/lifestory/2123495

And I have "remembered" him.

[kiterunner]

I still get annoyed when I receive emails from that site saying things like

"We've recently added the Life Stories of over 157,000 Merchant Navy personnel who were involved during the First World War.

These Life Stories were uncovered in a National Archives registry, listing all personnel to receive a First World War Mercantile Marine Medal and/or the British War Medal."

It sounds extremely exciting - life stories of merchant seamen! Maybe I could find my great-grandfather's complete life story! But then I realise they are just talking about the index to the medal index cards which was recently added to FMP and was already available on other sites (the images have to be purchased from TNA site). In no way could a medal index card be described as a "life story". I do hope nobody has been fooled into paying for membership of their site thinking they will find a life story of their ancestor.

[Merry]

That's unacceptable, especially as the site is run by the Imperial War Museum which people would probably assume was trustworthy.

[Merry]

I'm not very impressed by their "life story" of Merchant Navy Seaman Charles Algernon Fryatt (in the same email) as it contains hardly any information and barely makes sense.

[kiterunner]

I'm not very impressed by their "life story" of Merchant Navy Seaman Charles Algernon Fryatt (in the same email) as it contains hardly any information and barely makes sense.

His Wikipedia entry explains it much better:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Fryatt

You would think the Lives of the First World War email would at least point out that there was no legal basis for the Germans court-martialling him and that it caused outrage!

[kiterunner]

I looked my great-grandfather up on the site to see what exactly they show for his "life story" and it only has the following, taken from the new database:

War Work: Merchant Navy Added by Imperial War Museums
Surname: Bristow Added by Imperial War Museums
First names: Robert Salter Added by Imperial War Museums

(just to clarify - they only have an index to the Merchant Navy medal index cards and if you want to view the image, you have to pay to download it from TNA, but I can't see mention of that in the email.)

[Merry]

His Wikipedia entry explains it much better:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Fryatt

You would think the Lives of the First World War email would at least point out that there was no legal basis for the Germans court-martialling him and that it caused outrage!

Exactly!

[524919]

I think they are trying to offer something different to 'just' records. I am sure the business case for funding talked about user-generated content, engaging different audiences, a unique selling point in the online heritage environment etc. I am uncomfortable with the ease with which unverified or inaccurate information could be linked and perpetuated. All of which makes me sound a bit cheerless - I applaud the idea of a new approach and the genuine attempt to connect people with historical material in a new way. I just think someone new to chronicling their family history would get more from Ancestry or FMP.

[kiterunner]

I've just received an email which says:

The Lives of the First World War 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. We encourage you to read our FAQs for further details. All Lives of the First World War URLs will be redirected temporarily to a holding page, until we launch the permanent digital memorial on iwm.org.uk in June 2019.