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British war graves website


pgis

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Hi.

With apologies to them if the answer is affirmative,is the British War Graves website a trustworthy site to request a photo of a headstone in Y Ravine cemetery? It's just i'ts unusual to get anything for free these days. 

Paul.

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Mick McCann.  who runs the website is a gentleman  and sound as a pound

 

Highly recommended

 

Regards Ray

 

 

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Entirely trustworthy. And absolutely generous in their help.

 

I know that "comparisions are odious". But......let me make a comparision.

 

A year or so back, I was trying to collect grave photos of the men who were amongst the "original pals" of 17th Manchester. I intended to take some photos myself. British War Graves Project supplied many more  - quickly and free. They don't make a charge, nor solicit a donation (I did offer one and that was accepted), nor have constraints about how you use the images. Another similar project charges for images and makes further charges to licence use in books, websites. Needless to say, I only used that project when other options were exhausted.

 

 

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Hi,

Just to let all who posted to this thread know, I received my requested photograph last night. What a great service Mick provides.

Paul.

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On 26/07/2016 at 13:01, John_Hartley said:

I know that "comparisions are odious". But......let me make a comparision.

 

 

If the comparison being made is with the War Graves Photographic Project then (as a sometime contributor to that database but not a regular volunteer) I would point out that this project too is non-profit making and run by volunteers.  The fact that one makes a charge to cover its costs and the other doesn't is presumably down to one having 'thousands of photographs' and the other having 'over 1.8 million' with the consequent difference in IT and admin time/costs.

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34 minutes ago, Old Cove said:

If the comparison being made is with the War Graves Photographic Project then (as a sometime contributor to that database but not a regular volunteer) I would point out that this project too is non-profit making and run by volunteers.  The fact that one makes a charge to cover its costs and the other doesn't is presumably down to one having 'thousands of photographs' and the other having 'over 1.8 million' with the consequent difference in IT and admin time/costs.

I think that the main differences between TWGPP & other great Projects are:

- TWGPP holds 1.8 million photos of gravemarkers from both WW1 & WW2 AND later conflicts, and from ALL theatres of war and most nationalities (where they are found).

- It operates world-wide

- TWGPP output is designed to be held 'in perpetuity'. How this can be achieved is a moot point though.

- as with most other similar projects, it is run by volunteers using their own time & resources. Central resources (postage, storage, printing etc) cost money, hence the need for a small charge. Both for digital AND hard-copy images. These latter have to be printed out of course and dispatched in an appropriate envelope.

All projects like this have a large cadre of volunteers. I am one for TWGPP. It hurts us if we read negative comments from Pals in this Place though, to be fair, the acrimony has died down a lot. 

Regards

Martin 

ps ALL volunteers, for whatever purpose or project, deserve praise, Nothing less.

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15 hours ago, Old Cove said:

If the comparison being made is with the War Graves Photographic Project

It was. And, as mentioned, I used it when there were no other options, but it would not be my first choice, for reasons stated.

 

I have no objection, as such, to anyone charging for their services. That is a matter for them. I happily pay Ancestry, buy downloads from the National Archives, buy photos of men from www.ww1photos.com. But, given the choice between acquiring a grave photo for no charge and no usage constraint, against acquiring a photo of the same grave where charges are made, with constraints, I think most folk would find the decision easy.

 

Martin - I am sorry you may feel hurt by my negative comments but I have no regret about making them. As a volunteer, in another field, I know we all give of our time freely and willingly. However, the OP asked for comments and there is are very obvious differences between the two projects. I have no idea what you mean about the "acrimony" - although I guess you imply  there has been some disagreement between the two. I have no knowledge of that, I am simply a customer.

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Hello John

I think there are differences between the two Projects. BWG concentrates, as it's name suggests, on British gravemarkers. TWGPP operates on a non-national specific basis. In other words, war graves are photographed appropriately wherever they are found. WW1, WW2, Boer War, Inter-war & post-war years etc, British & Commonwealth, German, Italian, etc etc. Not specifically British though. For reasons that presently escape me, French were excluded, though German, Portugese etc markers in CWGC locations were taken and recorded. Hence the 1.8+,million content database. As the website says: 'photograph every war grave, individual memorial, Ministry of Defence grave, and family memorial of serving military personnel from WWI to the present day.'

Whether though the non-British and/ or non-Commonwealth images are still indexed and available as the others are is a moot point. I don't know. Certainly from my own experience in Turkey and elsewhere I & many others photographed a lot of non-British gravemarkers. Long time ago though. Those were the days!

One of the problems of any project is one of longevity. TWGPP is intended for posterity, however that is measured. I won't be around when 'posterity' arrives though! Pity!

Regards

Martin

PS A problem of OLD AGE. I have partially repeated myself from an earlier posting in this Thread. Please ignore any repetition!!.

 

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