Jump to content
Free downloads from TNA ×
The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

The Western Front Association


WeWillRememberThem

Recommended Posts

Hi, 

 

Just wondering whether anyone is a member of the Western Front Association and would mind looking something up for me?

 

It's a WW1 Pension Ledger and Index Card for xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

I'm unable to view the original record and don't fancy paying membership as there's only one record I'm interested in seeing.

 

Thanks :)

Edited by keithmroberts
To prevent inappropriate actions.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not a member but you can sign up to Fold3 which holds this record for a free 7 day trial and you should be able to view it. Just make sure you cancel your subscription within 7 days so you won't be be charged.

Edited by Chef_Hendrix
Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, Chef_Hendrix said:

I'm not a member but you can sign up to Fold3 which holds this record for a free 7 day trial and you should be able to view it. Just make sure you cancel your subscription within 7 days so you won't be be charged.

Thanks for the reply. Have you used Fold3 yourself? I've read some reviews and apparently it's very difficult to cancel the free trial before it expires meaning you end up subscribing to full membership.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That is best advice. We don't operate I'm afraid to take an inappropriate advantage of organisations, whether a charity like the WFA, or  commercial ones.

 

Keith Roberts

GWF team.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

40 minutes ago, keithmroberts said:

We don't operate I'm afraid to take an inappropriate advantage of organisations, whether a charity like the WFA, or  commercial ones.

 

I have subscribed to Ancestry for many years now, but sadly Ancestry themselves do not hesitate to take an 'inappropriate advantage' of their British customers by charging them extra to see these British pension card records. Complicit in this are the WFA who have happily taken the US $ thus enabling Ancestry to increase their profits.

But just for the record I did join Fold3 temporarily, to view one record only, last year and fair play to them they cancelled my free trial without a problem, but I do NOT consider that I took an 'inappropriate advantage' of them.

Given that Canada and Australia make such records available free of charge, I would even go so far as to question the right of the WFA to call themselves a charity?

 

BillyH.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, BillyH said:

 

I have subscribed to Ancestry for many years now, but sadly Ancestry themselves do not hesitate to take an 'inappropriate advantage' of their British customers by charging them extra to see these British pension card records. Complicit in this are the WFA who have happily taken the US $ thus enabling Ancestry to increase their profits.

But just for the record I did join Fold3 temporarily, to view one record only, last year and fair play to them they cancelled my free trial without a problem, but I do NOT consider that I took an 'inappropriate advantage' of them.

Given that Canada and Australia make such records available free of charge, I would even go so far as to question the right of the WFA to call themselves a charity?

 

BillyH.

Hi Billy,

Thanks for your reply. I totally agree with you. Can you please let me know what you had to do to cancel your Fold3 trial. Was this something you were able to do yourself within the settings of your account or did you have to email them to have it cancelled? Also, do they retain your bank account details once it is cancelled?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, BillyH said:

 

Given that Canada and Australia make such records available free of charge, I would even go so far as to question the right of the WFA to call themselves a charity? 

 

Surely your gripe should be with the British Government, and not with WFA.  If WFA had not acted to take these records, from what I have read, they would have been destroyed.

To me, inconvenient access through fold3 is better than no records at all, and the records can be accessed free  for WFA members.

 

I agree that the British Government's policy is far inferior to that of some other countries, and this also extends to lack of policy (and no doubt funding)  for digitisation of books by the British Library.  For example, most official publications, published by HMSO,  and out of copyright, have not been digitised, other than by other non government bodies, mainly in USA.  If you live in the UK   (I don't)  you should be complaining to your local Member of Parliament.

 

Cheers

Maureen

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, WeWillRememberThem said:

Can you please let me know what you had to do to cancel your Fold3 trial. Was this something you were able to do yourself within the settings of your account or did you have to email them to have it cancelled? Also, do they retain your bank account details once it is cancelled?

 

It was nearly a year ago now so I don't remember all the details, but once I had downloaded the one record I wanted I immediately cancelled my free trial so as not to leave it to the last minute. It was simple enough to do this.

I think they only required credit card details (not bank) and I have had no problem with them since I cancelled - other than about one e-mail a month trying to get me to sign up again. For what it's worth, I doubt that the pension card you want will have any useful information on it!

 

9 hours ago, Maureene said:

. . . . . . . .  If you live in the UK   (I don't)  you should be complaining to your local Member of Parliament.

 

But if you did live in the UK you would soon realise that the vast majority of M.P.'s really don't want to know what the electorate think or want :)

 

BillyH.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can I be clear. Members joining a service that advertises a free trial, and then cancelling it are in no way behaving improperly and it was not my intention to suggest that. I am very busy at the moment and have little free time.

What I was pointing out is that we don't ask members to abuse their commercial arrangements on behalf of others. I too sometimes draw attention to the free trial offers, and a member taking their own responsibility for using one is entirely proper.

I am just going to post a single line from the rules below. We try to be relaxed about our moderation, but I'm not happy that the first post of a new member is a direct contravention of the GWF rules.

 

"Members may NOT use the GWF as a platform to ask parties who are subscribers to various subscription sites to download material on their behalf or to post it on the GWF".

 

Keith Roberts

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, BillyH said:

 

I have subscribed to Ancestry for many years now, but sadly Ancestry themselves do not hesitate to take an 'inappropriate advantage' of their British customers by charging them extra to see these British pension card records. Complicit in this are the WFA who have happily taken the US $ thus enabling Ancestry to increase their profits.

But just for the record I did join Fold3 temporarily, to view one record only, last year and fair play to them they cancelled my free trial without a problem, but I do NOT consider that I took an 'inappropriate advantage' of them.

Given that Canada and Australia make such records available free of charge, I would even go so far as to question the right of the WFA to call themselves a charity?

 

BillyH.

I spoke to my local MP several years ago about having to pay to look at what I  regards as our records/history, he told me that he would look into it, presumably he is still looking!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, BillyH said:

I would even go so far as to question the right of the WFA to call themselves a charity?

An interesting viewpoint. had the WFA not intervened the only information you would have about the medal index cards would be that purchasable from the National Archives  (unless you visit in person), and the 4 million pension records would have been destroyed had the WFA not intervened and paid fore their storage while exploring ways to make them available to the wider public. 

 

I agree that the policy of the UK government towards our records has been pathetic, but would also point out that the scale of service records far exceeds those of the countries which have provided free access.  That funding is a political decision.

 

The WFA is a registered charity and its accounts are available for all to see. For those who care to look it is evident that preserving these records, and accepting negotiated tenders with Ancestry is not a profit making enterprise, but one intended primarily to preserve the records and to make them available. The lessons of the original contact with Ancestry that saved the MICs have been learned, and those of us who are members of the WFA have free access to those records in addition to the various publications of the WFA.   Most of us I suspect  joined however, not in the way that one subscribes say to a specialist commercial magazine, but to support the aims of the WFA as set out in its constitution.

 

There is no way that with a modest membership the WFA could have hosted all this material itself, but having ensured its preservation, it has found a way to make it available. For those of us who have a significant interest in the Great War I consider that Butte and all, the WFA has served not just its members, but the memory well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fair comment  :thumbsup: 

My main gripe is that Ancestry have greedily put these pension cards (and a few other WW1 records), on Fold3 to make more money.

If you pay for UK and Ireland records then surely they should be included.

 

BillyH.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

   I find it dispiriting in GWF that disproportionate effort is put into exploiting the  "free" periods of access that are regularly provided as come-ons . While holding nothing personally against those whose prime aim is to access these sites while "free", let us just remember 2 things:

 

1)  The trend of the modern world, as I am sure our colleague David Underdown at TNA would advise, is that costs must be recovered.  ie User pays. If new and expensive investment has taken place to digitise  records, then  how is the cost to be recovered-for,say, pension cards or the 1939 Register (and we have the 1921 Census hoving into view-I am sure there will be a few howls hither and thither if that is initially behind a pay-wall-which I full expect it to be)

 

2)  We are in Max Miller territory with these massive add-ons- You lucky people.  Millions of pension records digitised?  There were only 2 other choices- the stuff went in the bin or you continued to pay £25 (or whatever it was) for WFA to do a physical look-up.

   90% of the work posted on this Forum would have been impossible without the online resources and the digitisation projects  that provide so much. Compared to a daily cup of coffee in Starbucks, Ancestry, Fold 3,etc is cheap for what you get.

 

    I am old enough to have started archive researches when you needed Thermos, overcoat, pencils, sandwiches-and still met snotty obstruction in almost every archive (Colindale was my un-favourite- it was like spending a day at the Stalinist Ministry of Paperclip Accounting).

 

    If they cannot recover their costs and make a profit, then why would they bother doing it???  Get real, folks. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting a charity - with an educational remit approved by the Charity Commission - makes huge efforts to save something of historical importance. One forum user wants to gain information from the charity for nothing,  another doubts the organisations  right to be a charity. It's a funny old world

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
On 22/04/2019 at 22:52, BillyH said:

would even go so far as to question the right of the WFA to call themselves a charity?

Really? On what grounds do you make this assertion. Perhaps it would have been better not to have saved the records then? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I did later moderate my comment, after reading Keith Robert's reply.

See post #12

 

BillyH.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...