National Maritime Museum and the Crew List Index Project

[Skipman]

Apologies if this has been posted before, I don't see it.

National Maritime Museum and the Crew List Index Project announced. Royal Navy First World War Lives at Sea will be launched in mid June Click

Building on the success of the Merchant 1915 Crew List Index project, we have once again joined forces with the National Maritime Museum (NMM) and the Crew List Index Project team (CLIP) to create a new free-to-search database resource relating to all the Royal Navy officers and ratings that served in the First World War – Royal Navy First World War Lives at Sea – based principally on service records held by The National Archives.

With the help of a team of e-volunteers from all over the world, the project will create the most significant online data resource for the study of the Royal Navy during the First World War.

This unique resource marks and commemorates the Royal Navy’s contribution to the First World War effort through the lives of those officers and ratings who served.

Our hope is that it will allow and promote a wide and diverse variety of research into the composition and operations of the Royal Navy during the war.

This could be specifically in relation to individual officers and ratings through their personal and service histories, to wider studies; such as where men were recruited from and from which trades, and to enable the creation of crew lists for ships and submarines for given dates.

Such lists do not survive for the First World War and so for the first time researchers will be able to place officers and ratings in naval battles of the war.

Additionally, the information derived from the database can be used as a platform for accessing other Royal Navy records including ships’ logs, ships’ photographs and wider naval First World War operation records at The National Archives, as well as logs and journals, ship plans and photographs available at the National Maritime Museum.

Mike

[alf mcm]

Thanks Mike,

This sounds like a really useful project. It has huge potential as a source of information. NMM and CLIP should be applauded for even attempting such a massive undertaking.

Regards,

Alf McM

[Jim Strawbridge]

I will find it incredibly useful.

[Andy Wade]

Thanks for the 'heads up' Mike,
I'll certainly add any men we have information about, although I note it will be 'free to search' but I expect as with everything else in this country, probably not 'free to view'. Not crazy about that bit.

[stirrer]

Well,  it's the 20th of June today  -  either I'm looking in the wrong place or the NA were optimistic in saying it would be out mid-June.  I can see only the original promulgation on their website.

[Guest]

Indeed. I have been keeping an eye on it and nothing so far.

 

Mike

[rolt968]

I have checked the website via the link I got in my Friends of TNA e-mail.

 

What it says on the TNA website at the moment is:

"This resource, which will be hosted by the National Maritime Museum, is scheduled to launch in mid June 2016 (with 5,000 records) with the aim of completing the project by November 2018. It will be based principally on the Royal Navy service records held by The National Archives."

 

I'm not sure quite what launched means in this context. If I had read it in the isolation of the TNA Friends message, I would have thought that they meant the volunteers starting work, but if it is in a general notice it must mean something being delivered. I wonder if they got enough volunteers.

 

Roger M

[keithmroberts]

It could well mean that testing their software has identified  some problems and they are having tp do some more work before signing up volunteers. New software is rarely in place on schedule.  I'm only guessing, but that was a frequent problem in my later years in the public service.

 

 

Keith

[stirrer]

It's probably naïve of me to expect the NA to keep their prospective customers updated?

[Guest]

They could at least update their page?

 

Mike

[MaureenE]

On 2 March 2011, the British Library announced that the church records from the India Office Records would be  digitized by findmypast and released “early 2012”.

They were actually released 29 January 2014. Perhaps two years late sets some sort of record? And that was a commercial organization where you need to pay to see the records!

Cheers

Maureen

[Guest]

Hmmm. Thanks Maureene. won't hold my breath then.

 

Mike