Tuesday 15 July 2014

Europeana First World War roadshow to visit Yorkshire

Europeana's First World War roadshow returns to England in early August - the following is an abridged press release:

Yorkshire’s Forgotten WW1 Family Stories.
People across the region urged to contribute to unique online WW1 archive Europeana 1914-18

Europeana 1914-18 World War One Family History Roadshow
British Library, Boston Spa, Wetherby, West Yorks, LS23 7BQ
Saturday, August 2, 2014 11.00am – 5.00pm

Do you have a box hidden deep in the attic or under the bed that holds your great grandfather’s diaries from 1914-1918? His army medals? Or a photo with a special story behind it? If so, it could be part of a unique European WW1 project, shared worldwide to commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of the war.

The British Library’s northern site at Boston Spa has joined forces with Europeana - Europe’s digital museum, library and archive. We will be working together to gather and tell people’s family stories from 1914-1918. These valuable stories will then be shared via Europeana’s online archive - the most important pan European online resource of original WW1 source material. http://www.europeana1914-1918.eu/en

And we need your help!

We need people to bring photographs, letters, diaries, film or audio recordings, together with the stories of whom they belonged to and why they are important to their families to the Europeana 1914-1918 Family History Roadshow at the British Library, Boston Spa on Saturday, August 2.

Historians and experts from the York Museums Trust, Lancaster University and local history societies will be on hand to talk about the significance of finds, while staff from the British Library will professionally digitise the objects which will be uploaded to the dedicated Europeana 1914-1918 website.

Visitors on the day will also have a chance to discover the British Library’s newly refurbished Boston Spa Reading Room, where you can consult the Library’s vast collection of research journals, books and periodicals, along with free access to more than 8 million pages of digitised historic newspapers. There will also be a range of WW1 themed activities, including local curator talks from experts at The Castle Museum, York, film screenings from the Yorkshire Film Archive and a WW1 brass band.

Europeana have been holding Family History Roadshows in more than 20 countries across Europe in the lead up to the WW1 Centenary. Each individual story - that otherwise might never be told outside of the family - is essential to creating a unique global archive and perspective of WW1. Through this archive, stories from countries across Europe will be shared online, accessed by others worldwide and saved for future generations. And now it’s the time for the people of Yorkshire to come forward with their stories.

The British Library have led the UK’s contribution to Europeana 1914-1918, as part of the First World War Centenary programme. They have created a brand new British Library First World War website with over 500 items from across Europe and articles by leading experts and teachers’ notes. www.bl.uk/world-war-one

The British Library has digitised 10,000 items (more than 350,000 images) of a wide range of materials related to the First World War from its print collections. Personal diaries, trench maps, printed books, WW1 poetry, literary manuscripts, photographs and music scores are among the broad selection of the Library’s contribution, which can be found at www.europeana1914-1918.eu

(With thanks to Wendy Archer)

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

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