seaforths Posted 4 August , 2014 Share Posted 4 August , 2014 Well I was going to try and resist looking until I get files from my recent trip into some semblance of order but... Initially, I searched and found nothing and my head seriously went down (almost sought permission for bottom lip to wobble). The search methods are mad - no rhyme or reason and I returned after a little while refusing to believe there was no record of him (granddad). I fiddled around and eventually: At Dulmen nowhere near where I thought he would be but having looked at a lot of POW stuff, the Germans attempted to hide unofficial camps and had them parented by official camps sometimes hundreds of miles away from where they were so I will continue researching. I now know the company he was with when he was transferred battalions and I also note that he is still lying about his age!! My mother always thought that he must have communicated with his sister after doing a runner. Sadly, that doesn't seem to be the case and I don't think he communicated with anyone at home so I doubt if I will find a card or any correspondence regarding him. Well done Red Cross - even if the searching methods are a little cumbersome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stebie9173 Posted 4 August , 2014 Share Posted 4 August , 2014 Ah, found him. The search IS rather quirky. e.g. Brooksbank that I was searching for is under "Broockbank" along with Brookbanks, Brooksbanks, Brocksbank, etc. One extra snippet of information on top of what I knew plus confirmations of what I had already found/worked out elsewhere. I wouldn't have wanted to pay £200+ for that information but what I have got today was worth the wait. Steve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwfwarsaw Posted 4 August , 2014 Share Posted 4 August , 2014 Hi, The Red Cross press release about that is below. I've already found one family-related record. I think this is going to be an invaluable tool for many of us! Best regards, Jonathan Public opening of the International Prisoners of War Agency (IPWA) web platform on 4 August: http://www.icrc.org/ww1The archives of the International Prisoners of War Agency (IPWA), a body created during the early days of the First World War by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), bear witness to the scale of the suffering endured by victims of the war across the world. Seven million soldiers were taken prisoner, large numbers of civilians were interned on enemy soil and millions more endured military occupation or were forced to flee combat zones or occupied territories.The objective of the IPWA was to centralize information about prisoners of war in order to pass it on to their loved ones and help restore contact between family members. It was a huge task: during and after the war, IPWA volunteers made index cards and lists of nearly two and a half million prisoners of war, preserving more than five millions index cards and 500 000 register pages. In connection with the commemorations of the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War, the ICRC has made digital copies of thousands of index cards and other documents in the IPWA archives which it will make available on a new web platform to be launched on 4 August.In addition to containing general documents relating to ICRC negotiations with States on conditions of detention, the platform will enable users to search index cards and lists produced by the IPWA during the war. It will also include historical postcards from France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and elsewhere, and certain ICRC reports on the conditions in which prisoners of war were being held in Europe, Egypt, India, Russia and Japan. The index cards and general archives, which have been entirely restored, are included in the Memory of the World Register of UNESCO.The web platform will allow users to search for prisoners by nationality or by family name. Because of the way the index cards were originally organized, however, users may find that searches are not entirely straightforward; that is why a tutorial is available to guide them. The site will be steadily updated over the coming six months as further information is placed online, but it already offers access to all civilian-internee index cards and to 80 per cent of the cards for military prisoners from Belgium, France, the United Kingdom and Germany. Cards containing tracing requests made by families during the First World War can also already be consulted.The new web platform offers a unique way to discover our common history, thanks above all to the fact that one hundred years ago, all over the world and despite the general chaos, military forces, civil society, and National Red Cross Societies cooperated with the ICRC in a joint effort to restore contact between family members.English: http://www.icrc.org/ww1Français: http://www.icrc.org/grandeguerre For more information , please contact:David-Pierre Marquet, ICRC Library and Public Archives, tel: +41 22 730 2221 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David_Blanchard Posted 4 August , 2014 Share Posted 4 August , 2014 Excellent after all this time I now know that my Great Uncle Tom Williams, 5 NF, ended up in Limburg POW camp. And it confirms my suspicions that he was taken POW the same day as my Grandfather Pte George Edward Burridge 8 DLI, whose record is also here. End up in Dulman Camp. Both POW 27 May 1918 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwfwarsaw Posted 4 August , 2014 Share Posted 4 August , 2014 This is absolutely fascinating. I found the (sadly fruitless) search request made by my great-grand-mother for her first husband, who went missing at Loos, which was incredibly poignant. I attach his file, in case any GWF members with an interest in the Devonshires or Loos fancy a look. I haven't been in the GWF for a while (mea culpa). I also have a mercenary reason (mea culpa again), because in my day job I'm a journalist. I'm writing an article about the archive, and would be very interested to hear from any GWF members who have family stories about the role of the Red Cross in confirming that a relative was still alive and, potentially, in assisting in their post-war repatriation. Please private message or send a response in the open format, as you wish. With kind regards to all, Jonathan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaforths Posted 4 August , 2014 Share Posted 4 August , 2014 Nothing on my great uncle, not even an index card. Hopefully YET can be added to that statement. Steve. Steve the spellings of names is not good. I am locating Mc listed under Mac and Ramsay, I found him among the Ramsey. I am using the surname letter range at the top of the list to find men and then scrolling through the whole lot until I reach their regiment. Then I open that and find their cards under the regiment with the correct spelling on the cards. Hope this helps. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevem49 Posted 4 August , 2014 Share Posted 4 August , 2014 A friend of mine who's Great Uncle was a 9th battalion man captured on Somme, found her man straight away using surname search and only found a slight problem with the printing. Steve M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew B. Posted 4 August , 2014 Share Posted 4 August , 2014 Just chanced on this from another forum. I just looked for the only one I am interested in - (then) Captain Reginald William Gaskell of the 9th Bohpals, Indian Army. He was taken PoW in hand to hand fighting at Festubert 23rd November 1914. By November of 1916 he was in Fort 9, Ingolstadt where he is mentioned by A J. Evans in his book ‘The Escaping Club”. He made one attempt to escape to tunnel out and one in a wicker basket. In June 1917 he, and the other British officers, were transferred to Fort Zorndorf, Custrin camp Transferred to Holzminden camp by late September 1917. He, with Lieut (later Major) J. C. Thorn 7th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, escaped from Holzminden camp and were out for ten days, nearly making the Dutch border before being recaptured. Can I find a card for this busy prisoner of war? No! Pity. Matthew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_B Posted 4 August , 2014 Share Posted 4 August , 2014 I've been away from the GWF for a lomg time, so delighted to see members are on the ball as ever. I've not got the hang of it yet, but just found my Grandfather's cousin Reuben's index card, brother of George KIA in 1915. Confirms1821 Reuben Burge East Surreys taken prisoner on first day of the Kaiserschlacht. See : http://grandeguerre.icrc.org/en/File/Details/1941500/3/2/# As the index and record pages refer to him as "Gefr", short for "Gerfreiter" I believe, I guess he was a L/CPL at time of capture and was in the 9th btn. by this stage of the war, having first gone overseas in spring 1915 in 2nd Bn. Appears to have passed through two POW camps, the second being Mannheim. Time to play some of Johann Stamitz's music ..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_Baker Posted 4 August , 2014 Share Posted 4 August , 2014 I have just found one man I was looking for, Matthew, after almost giving up. The search function is incredibly odd. Persistence and logic pays off, I found, so stick with it! Aside from the search functionality and the rather weird page layout, it is an invaluable resource and ICRC are to be congratulated for making it free of charge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted 4 August , 2014 Share Posted 4 August , 2014 In my example, I'm looking for Peter Dewar 1/6th Gordon Highlanders. This one appears to be quite easy to find, but not sure if all are quite so easy? " Search for person in the archive " input Dewar " Start Search " " Validate " Get this page Click, and it's just a case of scrolling down these (43 Large) thumbnails, and he's there about 3/4 of the way down. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archangel9 Posted 4 August , 2014 Share Posted 4 August , 2014 I think the site is struggling to cope at the moment. Lots of spinning wheels! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KGB Posted 4 August , 2014 Share Posted 4 August , 2014 I am totally scundered by the site. All I got on my third cousin was "Goggin, Patrick, 6268, R Irish, POW Le Pilly". Nothing on James Berry nor Thomas Fury. Fuery. Furey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ss002d6252 Posted 4 August , 2014 Share Posted 4 August , 2014 I am totally scundered by the site. All I got on my third cousin was "Goggin, Patrick, 6268, R Irish, POW Le Pilly". Nothing on James Berry nor Thomas Fury. Fuery. Furey. Was there a letter and number on the card ? - if so that is the reference to the ledgers holding the information. If you have the letter and number then enter it here - http://grandeguerre.icrc.org/en/File/Details/3459259/3/2 Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaforths Posted 4 August , 2014 Share Posted 4 August , 2014 I have just found one man I was looking for, Matthew, after almost giving up. The search function is incredibly odd. Persistence and logic pays off, I found, so stick with it! Aside from the search functionality and the rather weird page layout, it is an invaluable resource and ICRC are to be congratulated for making it free of charge. Yes, as I posted earlier, names and variations on spelling don't seem to have been taken into account. It's almost as though they have decided on a single spelling and any variations are dumped within their choice of spelling. Also, I found one of my men had two cards and four different locations on each card. Additionally, each record seems to be part of a book and so the records are made of up a series of books. There are a few lists within each book so you would need to scroll through the book towards the beginning to find out which list your man falls within as the books are subdivided into these lists. You just seem to be dumped to where his particular page is without knowing where you are in the book. At the front of the book is a page or pages showing the lists. So I guess you need to check whether your man is for example within a lazaret list. Looks like this: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted 4 August , 2014 Share Posted 4 August , 2014 names and variations on spelling don't seem to have been taken into account. It's almost as though they have decided on a single spelling and any variations are dumped within their choice of spelling. Please note! The surnames are not in strict alphabetical order. Some have been grouped according to other criteria: - phonetically: names that sound alike are sometimes grouped together – for example: Flewelling and Flewellyn Fload and Flood Florence and Florance Flowers, Flowere and Flower Foal and Foale Fogarty and Fogerty Folley, Foley, Foly and Folly - graphically: letters with an upstroke or downstroke, such as 'n' and 'm', are often put together – for example: Flynn and Flym are together. Click Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeatherC Posted 4 August , 2014 Share Posted 4 August , 2014 Yes, as I posted earlier, names and variations on spelling don't seem to have been taken into account. It's almost as though they have decided on a single spelling and any variations are dumped within their choice of spelling. Yes definitely the case. All the Gardiner / Gardener / Gardner names are just indexed as Gardner for example. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KGB Posted 4 August , 2014 Share Posted 4 August , 2014 Was there a letter and number on the card ? - if so that is the reference to the ledgers holding the information. If you have the letter and number then enter it here - http://grandeguerre.icrc.org/en/File/Details/3459259/3/2 Craig Hi Craig, There were 2 letter/numbers given, I checked each and all I got was a one liner as stated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted 4 August , 2014 Share Posted 4 August , 2014 What regiment did Fury and Berry belong to? Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulboll Posted 4 August , 2014 Share Posted 4 August , 2014 Hi all, Found this card for my grandfather Walter Bollands, what can i find out next? Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stebie9173 Posted 4 August , 2014 Share Posted 4 August , 2014 Hover over the image until the red bar comes up and click that. Then enter the PA numbers there for lists on which he is mentioned. e.g. PA/24417 Shows he was "C" Company, 14th H.L.I. taken POW at Laventie on 9-4-1918. Held at Lille and then transferred to Dulmen prior to 20-5-1918 (the date of the list). Later transferred to two different POW camps, but I'll l;eave them for you to find. Steve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulboll Posted 4 August , 2014 Share Posted 4 August , 2014 Walter Bollands Found these any idea ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulboll Posted 4 August , 2014 Share Posted 4 August , 2014 Walter Bollands and this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaforths Posted 4 August , 2014 Share Posted 4 August , 2014 Please note! The surnames are not in strict alphabetical order. Some have been grouped according to other criteria: - phonetically: names that sound alike are sometimes grouped together – for example: Flewelling and Flewellyn Fload and Flood Florence and Florance Flowers, Flowere and Flower Foal and Foale Fogarty and Fogerty Folley, Foley, Foly and Folly - graphically: letters with an upstroke or downstroke, such as 'n' and 'm', are often put together – for example: Flynn and Flym are together. Click I must use a different kind of phonics to them because some of those names do not sound phonetically alike to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulboll Posted 4 August , 2014 Share Posted 4 August , 2014 and this one, any help would be great, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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