Library and Archives Canada update on WWI files

As of Feb 17, 125,954 of 640,000 files are available online via our Soldiers of the First World War: 1914–1918 database.

WWI: The First World War Society

If you had anyone in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the First World War, you should read this notice -

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War, OGS has launched a new Heritage Society. The First World War Society is a lineage Society open to anyone who can show descent from a person who served in a documented capacity on the Allied side of the First World War.

To qualify for this Society, your research must show that your named ancestor(s) fits in the category above, and then show the line of descent from that ancestor(s) to you or the person you wish named on the certificate.

For more information and an application form visit the Heritage Societies area on the OGS website is http://www.ogs.on.ca/heritage_societies.php#WW1

LAC: Canadian WWI Records will be free in 2015

As part of the 100th anniversary commemoration of the First World War, LAC is digitizing the remaining 640,000 Canadian Expeditionary Force members’ personnel service files. To be able to perform this major undertaking, LAC will temporarily close portions of the CEF service files, with 75% of the collection remaining open at all times during the project. At the end of the digitization project, expected in 2015, Canadians will have unprecedented online access to this rich resource and will be able to research high-quality digital copies of the more than 650,000 service files for free. At that point , LAC will no longer take orders for copies.  For more information on this initiative, please consult the Fact Sheet: Digitization of Canadian Expeditionary Force Service Files, which will provide updates on the portion of the collection being worked on. 

Great War, Shorncliffe, Folkestone, Kent

While researching my grandfathers time spent in the Great War

I came across this blog

 

http://dearoldgirl.blogspot.ca/

 

It is a collection of letters written by a man born in England that immigrated to Canada and enlisted in the Great War, leaving behind his wife and children in Canada. He was stationed in Shorncliffe, Folkestone, Kent as was my grandfather and gives me a insight to my grandfather's time spent there

 

Scroll to the bottom of the blog to find all the archived letters written

Canadian Expeditionary Force

Another Great site for research on your ancestors that served in the Great War

Canadian Expeditionary Force Study Group

Dedicated to the Study of the Canadian Expeditionary ForceThe Great War of 1914 - 1919

http://cefresearch.ca/

Soldiers of the Great War

If your ancestors were in the Great War be sure to check out this amazing site

 

Records can be viewed for free or you can obtain a membership and have access to the index

 

http://www.stepshort.co.uk/

 

The English coastal port of Folkestone was the ‘artery’ through which millions of men and women passed between 1914 and 1918, on their way to or from the Western Front. For them, Folkestone had a special meaning; it was ‘Blighty’.

Folkestone was also the point of arrival for the Belgian Royal Family and served as a temporary home not just for them, but for over 100,000 other Belgian and French refugees from the fighting.

Read More

World War 1 Service Records Abbreviations

Getting the service records is a simple task, however translating them is another story

 

Collections Canada has approx 6000 abbreviations listed on their website, which is very helpful

 

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy/022-909.011-e.html

 

 

Is there anyone out there that can help with this one R.C.D.R.R.
it is not on the list?

Red Cross WWI Records

Thanks to John D. Reid of the " Canada's Ango - Celtic Connections"


Digitization of the archives of the International Agency for Prisoners of War (1914-1919) started in late 2010 and was to be completed in early 2014. That's according to information from the ICRC posted in July 2011. The collection is a "series of lists, around 500,000 pages, and a card index counting 6 million cards."
Its one of the databases I'm looking forward to this year.
In the meantime there's news of a British Red Cross project to digitize some 244,000 personnel records for volunteers from the First World War with the resulting database to be free to access online.
via BritishGENES at http://goo.gl/DUhU2e