Hull17KSLI Posted 15 November , 2016 Share Posted 15 November , 2016 Hi, does anyone know if the war diary for the 1st Artists Rifles is on Ancestry? I've been searching for what seems to be an age but I can't seem to find any pages of their war diary. I've searched under the name of the 1st Artists Rifles and other names such as 28th (County Of London). Could anyone help? Thanks Hull Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jrmh Posted 15 November , 2016 Share Posted 15 November , 2016 Don't know about Ancestry, but The National Archives do and I have copies. Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hull17KSLI Posted 15 November , 2016 Author Share Posted 15 November , 2016 HI Jim, Could you possibly do a check for the 31st of December 1917/1st January 1918, which is the action at Marcoing? Ancestry is being unreliable for units that worked alongside the 1/4th KSLI, much to my pain! Thanks Hull Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jrmh Posted 15 November , 2016 Share Posted 15 November , 2016 Hope it helped. Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hull17KSLI Posted 15 November , 2016 Author Share Posted 15 November , 2016 (edited) It has very much, thanks. Now to just get my maps out haha!! Edited 15 November , 2016 by Hull17KSLI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johntaylor Posted 15 November , 2016 Share Posted 15 November , 2016 (edited) Hi, just to say the War Diary is on Ancestry, but well hidden. In some cases they lump battalions together under the brigade without indexing them by regiment, which is what's happened here. In this case go to Various (Infantry Bridages [sic], 63rd Royal Naval Div), and enter 63rd in the Division box below. Then go down to Piece 3119: 190 Infantry Brigade and click on that. Beside the little filmstrip symbol, insert 426 (of 520) and hit Go, and it will take you to the Artists' Rifles section of the diary. This covers the period you need, but doesn't include the diaries up to June 1917. The Artists' Rifles were GHQ troops before that, and I assume the War Diaries for the first part of the war are not on Ancestry, though they have been digitised and can be downloaded from the National Archives website: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/f2ad7b7b18304af3bea10c8c0fd96335 You might conclude from all this that Ancestry's indexing is p*** poor, but the online War Diaries are incredibly useful assuming you can find them. John Edited 15 November , 2016 by johntaylor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hull17KSLI Posted 16 November , 2016 Author Share Posted 16 November , 2016 Thank you for telling me that, Ancestry does have issues with the grouping of war diaries but I suppose it's only expected with the amount of documents they have to handle. Thanks Hull Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johntaylor Posted 17 November , 2016 Share Posted 17 November , 2016 (edited) Hi, I think it's a real shame that after doing such a great job of making these documents available online, they then spoil things by indexing them in such a sloppy way that it can be very hard to actually find the records you need. I accept it's all about cost, and all of us want to see the subscription fees being kept down. But they could make it much easier for users to submit corrections, so the whole thing would gradually improve for a minimum financial outlay (other than having someone to actually implement the changes). I suppose I shouldn't complain. A few years ago you had to go to Kew for pretty well everything, and now you can do a lot of research anywhere in the world (I'm writing this in New York, which proves my point). John Edited 17 November , 2016 by johntaylor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hull17KSLI Posted 18 November , 2016 Author Share Posted 18 November , 2016 I think that users being able to submit corrections would be great, like a wikipedia ethos. However many people who don't understand the documents and haven't got a clue on how they should be presented could really mess up the system. I will agree however, that not having to go to Kew is a god send. Hull Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johntaylor Posted 24 November , 2016 Share Posted 24 November , 2016 (edited) I agree it would be a step too far to allow people to make changes themselves, but at least they could have a system where you can notify them and they check it and then make the change. In their medal cards, you can provide alternative information for the name, but not for any other field, so the units often remain wildly inaccurate (it's not unusual to find Tank transcribed as York). Even then I don't think they actually change the name in the index, but at least the correct name appears somewhere. In the case of medal cards, the best work-around is to look up the name in the National Archives index, which is much more accurate, and then use that information to track down the card on Ancestry (where both sides of the card appear, and in colour). But it shouldn't have to be like that. And of course that doesn't help with War Diaries. John Edited 24 November , 2016 by johntaylor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David_Underdown Posted 24 November , 2016 Share Posted 24 November , 2016 A similar approach works with diaries as the hierarchical arrangement of the diaries is preserved by Ancestry. Find the diary in Discovery, scroll down to the bottom of the catalogue description and you'll find a section of the page which effectively shows you which division it was in, then you should be able to use that to help you find the Ancestry equivalent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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