Crowdsourcing Army for World War 1 archives

Operation War Diary is a cooperative effort by the British National Archives, the Imperial War Museum and crowdsourcing website Zooniverse aimed at making previously inaccessible data available to academics and amateur historians alike, creating a formidable “hive mind” concept to offer fresh perspectives on the First World War.
First World War unit diaries, digitised by the British National Archives, allow us to hear the voices of those that sacrificed their lives and are even more poignant now as there are no living veterans who can speak directly about the events of the war.
More than 10,000 people worldwide have volunteered to tag names, locations and other key details in the diaries since the site’s launch eight weeks ago and officials say their collective work — more than 260,000 named individuals and 332,000-plus locations — is equivalent to two years of archival work.
More than 200 diaries have already been verified using the data to digitally map and analyse patterns and trends in the four-year, unit-driven global conflict. Ranging from cover pages to maps to narrative reports, the diaries are catalogued by theatre of operations, unit and dates. Users can then select a diary “to work on” and provide missing pieces of the puzzle. Once completed, all of the data produced by Operation War Diary will be available for free. If you are interested in joining in, there is a ten minute tutorial to get started.
The story of the British Army on the Western Front during the First World War is waiting to be discovered in 1.5 million pages of unit war diaries. Operation War Diary needs your help to reveal the stories of those who fought in the global conflict that shaped the world we live in today.
Further information is available in an article by Joshua Rhett Miller  at  http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/04/27/website-uses-collaboration-to-analyze-wwi-diaries-documents/

First World War Portal

The British National archives are launching a new First World War portal and announcing plans to mark the centenary of the First World War with an extensive programme, spanning a five-year period from 2014 - 2019. The programme, First World War 100, which has primary sources at its heart, aims to attract a new audience for archives during the centenary, as well as offering historians and regular archive users fresh insights into this landmark conflict. The National Archives will open its collection of millions of First World War records through a rolling series of digitised record releases, including the unit war diaries, online and on site events and education resources from 2014, all of which will be accessible through this new portal. Online collections - such as medal cards, service records and prisoner of war interviews - and resources including the popular My Tommy's War blog posts form part of the new First World War portal and ongoing centenary programme to draw attention to lesser-known series of records and help people to discover the stories behind the war. The full news article can be found at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/news/885.htm

19th Century Immigrants to Britain

The records of thousands of 19th cnetury immigrants to Britain are now available to search and download at the UK National Archives.  The collection, which covers the period 1801 to 1871, inlcudes records relating to more than 7,000 people who applied to become British citizens under the 1844 Naturalisation act, as well as a small number of papers relating to denization, a form of British citizenship that conferred some but not all the rights of a British subject.

Applicants were required under the act to present a memorial to the Secretary of State at the Home Office stating their age, trade and duration of residence. These papers are now available online for the first time.

UK criminal records

FindMy Past is really coming to the fore with the records it is currently releasing online. In one of the latest releases, FindMyPast is working with the National Archives of England and Wales to put 2.5 million criminal records online. They date from 1770 to 1934 and is believed to be the biggest collection of historical crime, prison and punishment records. The documents will include photos, court papers and appeal letters. The documents will also include names and locations of victims and witnesses, so even if the criminal is not your ancestor, the information may still be relevant to your family history.

You can also learn more at http://www.findmypast.co.uk/content/news/crime-prisons-punishment

Please note that this is on the UK database, so if you have your own subscription, make sure you have access to the UK records, or if you use Manly Library’s subscription, accessing the database while in Manly Library, make sure you choose the UK site and not the Australian database.

Australian colonial images found in UK National Archives

A collection of photographs detailing the growth of the Australian colonies has been found in the London archives. The collection was put together by the British Colonial Office on the orders of the 2^nd Earl of Granville as a means of reporting on the progress in the colonial Australia.

The Australia Collection is made up of 45 albums, which includes 2,500 images, photographs and drawings of things considered important at the time. The records have now been digitised and catalogued. The collection is to be released online on Flickr and the UK Archives website.

British Network Rail

Network Rail has opened an online archive showcasing the heritage of today’s railway infrastructure in England. The archive brings together original documents from the earliest days of railway construction, allowing you to discover 19th Century engineering.
The railway has created large quantities of records, however not all information relating to the history Network Rail. These records have become widely dispersed in archives and museums across the country. The National Archives, Kew holds the main business records of English and Welsh railway companies nationalise in 1947.
The National Archives of Scotland, Edinburgh holds records relating to the development of railways in Scotland and the main business records of Scottish Railway companies nationalised in 1947.The National Railway Museum, York holds various collections relating to the history of civil engineering and signalling. They hold major collections of railway photography, posters and artwork.
Records relating to non-operational railway land and buildings belong to British Railways Board Residuary Ltd. BRB(R)’s policy is to deposit these records at the National Archives, the National Archives of Scotland, or a suitable archive repository. Searching in the National Register of Archives will tell you where records relating to a particular railway company, location or person are held.
Railway staff records from 1833 to 1963 are available through ancestry.com.
Image: High Level Bridge, Newcastle upon Tyne

The Queen’s Jubilee Celebrations Online

In celebration of her Diamond Jubilee, and of Queen Victoria's birthday on 24 May, Queen Elizabeth II has made the journals of Queen Victoria available to the public.

The journals, running to over 43,000 pages, provide a picture of Queen Victoria's life from the first entry in 1832 at the age of 13 until 10 days before her death aged 81 in 1901.

Digital images of every page in Queen Victoria's diaries are available at Queen Victoria's Journals . Full transcriptions and keyword searching of the journal entries cover the period from Queen Victoria's first diary entry in July 1832 to her marriage to Prince Albert in February 1840. This is an ongoing project and journal entries will continue to be transcribed.

The 141 volumes were made public by the Royal Archives and Bodleian Libraries at Oxford University. It took four months to scan all the journals at Windsor Castle, where they were stored.

The journals, launched on the anniversary of Queen Victoria's birthday, provide an account of significant moments in her life throughout her 63-year reign, from her coronation and marriage to Prince Albert to the Diamond Jubilee of 1897. Important historical events such as the Crimean and Boer Wars are also traced in the diaries.

Victoria insisted that the diaries should be rewritten after her death by one of her children, omitting anything unsuitable. Thirteen of the original diaries are also online.

Royal Archives has also undertaken an online partnership project with website Find my Past to enable the public to trace ancestors who have worked for the royal household. There are 50,000 searchable records from 1526 to 1924 which give details such as name, occupation, age, length of service and salary. For more information go to http://www.findmypast.co.uk/content/news/royal-archives

And there’s more:

The British National Archives has also digitized a collection of 60 congratulatory addresses presented to Queen Victoria. This new online exhibition contains 60 of their favorite messages of congratulations and good wishes from around the world.

The beautiful, rarely-seen congratulatory addresses in the Privy Purse series (PP 1) were presented to Queen Victoria to celebrate her Golden Jubilee in 1887 and Diamond Jubilee in 1897.

The senders are many and varied, but comprise principally institutions of local government; schools and colleges; social, cultural, educational and religious societies; military and medical establishments; and those of trades associations and manufacturing companies.