Tutorial #1: Adding Facts & Photos on Lives of the First World War

Lives of the First World War is a wonderful new website but it is rather complicated to use. Since I have been using the site for some time as a beta tester, I've developed a tutorial on adding photos, documents and facts to a soldier's Life Story:

Search for a soldier of interest. Click on the name when it appears in the results page. A new page loads (image below)

If you want to add a photo you click on "upload an image" If you wish to add other evidence such as a URL or a transcription from a document you click on "Add an External Reference" Note that you cannot add a fact until you have added the evidence.

As an example I know when Leonard Peer died. But I can't add that fact until I add the supporting  evidence, such as a death certificate or gravestone or obituary.

 ADDING A PHOTO AND MAKING IT A PROFILE PICTURE
 I want to add a photo of Leonard so I chose "Upload an image"

 

After uploading my image I can see my caption "Leonard Lancelot Peer" added to the Evidence list. Clicking on his name opens a new window (below) with the photo I uploaded and the option to make this photo his profile picture. There is also an option to add facts from his photo. So if his photo had writing on the back giving some information such as his date of birth or his parents' names for example, I could add those facts now. 

 

ADDING A PIECE OF EVIDENCE

Now I want to add Leonard's data from his gravestone in Woodlawn Cemetery. I have the plot number and inscription. I'm not uploading an image but I am choosing to Add an External Reference. Below you can see the new window that pops up. I must fill out each field as all are required. The field for Reference Number can be filled out with "No Reference Number available" or you could put the Plot and Grave Number.

After adding a few external references I can go back and see the new list of Evidence for Leonard. This is when I get to start adding the facts from each piece of evidence.

 

ADDING FACTS

Clicking on the Woodlawn Cemetery Records I just added brings up yet another window. This window displays the information you added earlier and has a button to select so that you can add facts such as Leonard's death date to his Life Story

And here you are in the area where facts can be added. There is a lengthy list for various topics such as family, civilian, military and so on. Because this fact is based on his Cemetery Record only, I now add his year of death. This is the window you will see no matter what evidence you click on. So if I had clicked on his Marriage Certificate Evidence that I previously entered, I would add his date of marriage, his spouse's name and his parents' names here in the Facts section.

That is all there is to adding to a soldier's Life Story. The site is not easy to use but once you get the hang of it, it is simple repetition and following specific steps. 

SUMMARY

1. Choose a soldier of interest

2. Add EVIDENCE (documents, certificates, gravestone information, photos, URL to an online bio, etc)

3. Now add FACTS that are found with each specific piece of EVIDENCE. For example a gravestone usually provides birth and death dates, the soldier's full military file provides other details, a birth certificate provides parents' names, etc.

TIP

Do you plan on adding Life Stories or photos to several soldiers' Stories? If like me you probably won't remember who you've added and who you have left to add, here is an easy tip. Click on the REMEMBER icon under the soldier's name after you have added his or her details. By going into your Account and choosing your Dashboard, a list of all your Remembered soldiers appears.

Watch for my next Tutorial on creating a Community.

Honouring WW1 Soldiers - a New Website

A few of my remembered soldiers

In January Olive Tree Genealogy was pleased to be asked to help beta test a new website Lives of the First World War.

Lives of the First World War is one of the Imperial War Museum’s major centenary projects, which looks to uncover the life stories of the men and women who served Britain and the Commonwealth during the First World War.

After several months of testing, the site went live in May. I personally have spent many enjoyable hours adding photos, documents and stories to soldiers from England and Canada and absolutely love this site. Honouring and remembering our soldiers is so important and this site allows descendants, historians and genealogists to do so.


The site is a bit complicated to use but the investment of time to add the photos and stories is, in my opinion, well worth it. Lives of the First World War aims for quality which means strict adherence to their requirements for adding information. I will be providing a tutorial on adding stories and documents to an individual as well as setting up a community but for now, please do check the site out and start adding your photographs and data.

One small tip to get you started - you cannot add information or edit any fields until you add the document to support your facts. Above is a screen dump to show you choices of the type of evidence (documentation) you can add. This specific soldier is my husband's 2nd great-grandfather Sam Sandercock and you can see the records I have already attached to Sam. 

For help you can refer to their Guide to Getting Started. As well, their support desk is quick to respond to requests for help. 

You can also follow Lives of the First World War on Facebook or Twitter

Lives of the First World War: A New Project Online

Image © IWM (Q 001580)

Recently Olive Tree Genealogy received an interesting email about a project called Lives of the First World War. 

 Lives of the First World War is one of the Imperial War Museum’s (IWM) major centenary projects, which looks to uncover the life stories of the men and women who served Britain and the Commonwealth during the First World War. 

The platform will bring together a wide range of record sets, including material from museums, libraries, archives and family collections, together in one place, enabling users to explore documents, link them together and start telling the stories of those who served in uniform and worked on the home front.

More information on Lives of the First World War can be found here. You can also follow the project on Facebook and on Twitter

Credit: Image © IWM (Q 001580) published here with permission