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Lives of the First World War

So sorry - I got confused. My father was transferred to the Essex regiment in 1919 (obviously they couldn't demob everyone at once when the war finished) but in fact he was in Italy in 1918. I think he was with the 3rd battalion of the Norfolk regiment and I am trying to find out exactly where he served. He started in France in 1917, then Belgium and finally Italy - by then he seems to have been in the 1st battalion. It looks as if there was some merging of battalions - I suppose reflecting the level of casualties. Apologies again for getting my dates mixed up.
 
EileenF said:
So sorry - I got confused. My father was transferred to the Essex regiment in 1919 (obviously they couldn't demob everyone at once when the war finished) but in fact he was in Italy in 1918. I think he was with the 3rd battalion of the Norfolk regiment and I am trying to find out exactly where he served. He started in France in 1917, then Belgium and finally Italy - by then he seems to have been in the 1st battalion. It looks as if there was some merging of battalions - I suppose reflecting the level of casualties. Apologies again for getting my dates mixed up.
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Here's the relevant page from the Long, Long Trail site in case you haven't already found it.
 
EileenF said:
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!
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My father left his home country as soon as he could and only ever returned for 2 very short trips. The war left him a disillusioned man.
 
Alexander Bisset said:
To answer your question on service numbers; if there are two service numbers/regiments etc. on the medal card then for reasons of clarity and space only one of them is used at the top of the page. I can't recall off the top of my head if it's the earlier or later one that's used.
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If you are improving the facts against a person you have the ability to say at what date this was correct. Thus, if you have an address for him from the 1901 census, and a different one from 1911, you can make separate entries for address and against each enter that this was known in 1901 or 1911 respectively. Similarly if someone has different ranks/ regiments/ service numbers (and my word! how they changed for some of these guys!) you can make a separate entry for each. In the case that someone was killed, the record of soldiers killed in the war will give his date of death and his details (as will the CWG site). I have made sure that these are entered together e.g. L/Cpl, Norfolk Regiment, 6th Battalion, no. 123456 - known on 4 Nov 1917 (his date of death). I am pretty sure this over-rides earlier similar sets of details. If the man was not killed in the war it is usually much harder to know in which order regiments/ service numbers came. (Thank you, Liberty, what a helpful comment......)


Pauline said:
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.
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Pauline, I see your Solmans are still causing problems.

The site is not rushing to combine records,although they do 'invite' you to tell them of any candidates. You can put your own link between the entries; go to the entry you are using as your base, and search for the other medal card, and add a link.
The name at the top of the page is what is the latest entry under names. If you have not changed the actual name, it will remain as it was. I guess if you are the only one modifying the records, you can decide what is the correct entry (which seems to be debatable anyway!)
 
Margery said:
My father left his home country as soon as he could and only ever returned for 2 very short trips. The war left him a dissolutioned man.
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Of course I meant "disillusioned". Tim/Alexander, can you correct my message, please:oops:.
 
Liberty said:
Pauline, I see your Solmans are still causing problems.

The site is not rushing to combine records,although they do 'invite' you to tell them of any candidates. You can put your own link between the entries; go to the entry you are using as your base, and search for the other medal card, and add a link.
The name at the top of the page is what is the latest entry under names. If you have not changed the actual name, it will remain as it was. I guess if you are the only one modifying the records, you can decide what is the correct entry (which seems to be debatable anyway!)
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I've been impressed with how quickly I had a response from the support people - they say they are looking into the duplication and have advised I keep adding information to the entry I've started on. I will look into linking the other medal cards to him as you suggest - thanks for that.

Meanwhile I decided to add the baptism as an external source, having found the correct reference for the relevant baptism register in an online catalogue, and have added his forenames from that. So he now shows at the top of the page as William Albert Solman, and serving as William Herbert Solman.
 
I may be missing something obvious, but is there any way to amend the details of a source once you've added it to someone?

I added a birth certificate as an external source, entered all the required details for it, and then started adding various facts from the certificate. Then I noticed I'd made a typo in the source title and couldn't find any way to correct this other than deleting the source (which inevitably deleted all the facts I had added from it) and re-entering it all.

It seems easy enough to amend facts added from a source but not the details of the source itself.
 
Is it just me/ my computer or are there problems with the 'Lives' site this morning? They seem to have overhauled the layout, so when you get the search results, there is no longer a banner at the top referring to the individual. There seems to be no way to return from that search page to the individual, and I can't actually attach a record to the 'life'.

Some of this COULD be just me, as my husband did a thorough overhaul of the computer last night, and a twitched a few things, but the site has had few problems, so I don't know......
 
Liberty said:
Is it just me/ my computer or are there problems with the 'Lives' site this morning? They seem to have overhauled the layout, so when you get the search results, there is no longer a banner at the top referring to the individual. There seems to be no way to return from that search page to the individual, and I can't actually attach a record to the 'life'.

Some of this COULD be just me, as my husband did a thorough overhaul of the computer last night, and a twitched a few things, but the site has had few problems, so I don't know......
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If there were problems earlier they seem to be sorted now - I've just tried it, done a search and I'm still getting the top banner with the button to connect the record and the link to return to the individual.
 
Pauline said:
If there were problems earlier they seem to be sorted now - I've just tried it, done a search and I'm still getting the top banner with the button to connect the record and the link to return to the individual.
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Thanks for looking, Pauline. I guess it must be my computer - this morning (after my husband's updating it) it refuses to open Chrome, so it evidently needs some fine tuning. I shall leave that to him, though, lest I be accused of breaking something.
 
Ah husbands fixing things!!! I guess in traditional IT style he fixed three things and broke three things but came out ahead so left it at that. Your role as an end user is clearly to be grateful he looked at it at all :D
 
Alexander Bisset said:
Ah husbands fixing things!!! I guess in traditional IT style he fixed three things and broke three things but came out ahead so left it at that. Your role as an end user is clearly to be grateful he looked at it at all :D
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I wonder if it took him as long as IT would take to "fix" the issue? ;)
 
I'm sure you'll be pleased to know that after another session of computer-fixing by my husband, I can now get back on Chrome, and the 'Lives' site looks the same as ever. Phew. And, yes, the net effect from the user-point-of-view is that all is back where it was on Monday. [I am told that our drivers are now up to date, but I doubt if I would have noticed, let alone know what that means (and don't feel you have to tell me, lads)]
 
I don't fix issues Tim, I turn up ask the user to show me what is wrong. They show me it working perfectly, vehemently insist that it wasn't working earlier and I leave with another accusation that the PC must have been scared of me.
 
For those having difficulty finding the records to connect - you gotta think wide!!!

I just connected a service record for someone, which showed that he was resident Norfolk but born Wyndham, Glamorgan, Wales. I was pretty certain he was born Wymondham, Norfolk, so had a look at the image. I had visions of him saying the name of the town (which is pronounced Windam) and some smart Alec writing down what he heard, adding the county he thought belonged. Actually, in nice clear writing it says 'Wymondham' , and 'Norfolk'. I.e. the fault was not with clerical staff THEN but transcribers NOW. I have reported the transcription error, but find it rather worrying.
 
Just wanted to comment that my three London visits went well. I learned so much at the free course at City Lit and thoroughly recommend a visit to the Cartoon Museum. The war portrait exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery is over but has an on line presence.
 
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