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General => Armed Forces => World War One => Topic started by: Flakdodger on Saturday 26 February 11 23:44 GMT (UK)
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Three chests containing about 3000 glass negs of Allied WW1 soldiers have been discovered in an attic in Vignacourt, north of Paris.
Eighty two of them can be viewed here:
http://au.tv.yahoo.com/sunday-night/galleries/article/-/article/8905654/image/82/lost-international-soldiers/
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Thanks Flakdodger...... :)
Two other links......
http://www.awm.gov.au/blog/
http://empirecall.blogspot.com/2011/02/trove-of-ww1-photos-found-in-vignacourt.html
Let's hope the Australian Government can scrape up enough money to purchase the remainder.
And wouldn't it be great to be able to help out with a search for some of the relatives, like we did with some of the Fromelles soldiers?
Dee :)
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Yes, what a find! Terrific story on Sunday Night programme. I'll be having a look at the website.
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What do we do if we think we have found a photograph which might, just might, belong to one of our families?
I had a great uncle whom I know was at Pozieres in July 1916. I have no photograph of him but his records give a description and he plainly looked very like his father, of whom I have several! I don't know if I am imagining the likeness between one of these soldiers and my great grandfather - all too easy to see what you want to see in these cases. But if there is the vaguest chance - how do I go about finding out more?
Should I just click on the 'Recognise one of these' box and see what happens!!
Jen
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Go for it genjen!
See what happens - and anyway, who could prove you wrong.
Dave
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I've done it! Not that I expect any sort of reply or result but it can't do any harm can it?
Here are two photographs for comparison purposes....I wonder what others might think. Could my sea captain ggrandfather be the father of this soldier?
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I would go along with the comparison, I wonder what others will think.
Like you, I had a great uncle in the area, but he was taken from the front with a gunshot wound-jaw at Fromelles in July 1916. I have looked carefully at all the Aussies, but I think my chap was from a period prior to these photos.
Dave
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For what my opinion is worth, there seems to be a strong family resemblance, Jen.
What a pity you don't actually have a photograph of him to make a closer comparison.
Dee :)
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lets hope one of our RICH COMPATRIOTS buys the rest of the photos for australia.
or the owner donates them to australia
sylvia
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Let's hope the owner will follow the wonderful example of Madame Henriette Crognier, who so generously donated those in her possession.
It would be dreadful to think of this wonderful history of our brave Diggers not coming back to where they really belong.
Dee :)
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Hi,
I was amazed at how well the photos came out - what a wonderful find and I hope someone will come forward to buy the rest. It is such a pity as they were just sitting there and were of no worth to anyone else but Australian families.
I am going through to see if I can see my uncles and some family cousins.
Bev
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I don't think I have seen the fleecy looking jackets on any photographs before. Was that standard Australian issue, does anyone know? There are several photographs of men wearing them.
Jen
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Jen, I can't find anything to mention those vests being standard issue. I did find articles saying that once they reached the front line, soldiers would wear all kinds of vests under their uniforms to try to keep warm.
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Under their uniforms, I can understand but these are plainly some sort of accepted outer-wear. Makes me question the time of year the photographs were taken. Or was the summer of 1916 unusually cold in that part of France? I need to go back to my books....
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... wonderful discovery! ... hope you get a reply Jen ... agree, on first impressions anyway, that there is a likeness.
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Could those fleecy vests have come from the Russians ?
Anyways, there's NSW based photographic studios who passed their glass plates to the Mitchell Library in Sydney, and that those collections include AIF men photographed at the Liverpool camp (a training camp, southwest of Sydney NSW), BEFORE they were marched out, ie photographed BEFORE they left for the Western Front.
The Mitchell may also be in need of funding, as many of those plates have not yet been indexed .... but I feel sure that there's every likelyhood of finding good clear photos of the AIF faces to compare with those 3000 glass plates. Also, I understand that there's many glass plates stores at the AWM .... the main problem seems to be that there's NO NAMES recorded on individual plates.
Cheers, JM
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Think I've found the answer for Jen.......
From http://www.ict.griffith.edu.au/~davidt/z_ww1_slang/index_bak.htm
Battlefield Colloquialisms of the Great War (WW1) by Paul Hinckley
STINKER British army goatskin or sheepskin jerkin, first issued in winter 1914. From the smell, especially when wet.
Dee :)
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Oh yes Dee, yes the smell of fleece when wet ... it was orrrrrrrrrrrrrrfullllllllllllll it could get into the taste buds, not just the nostrils , but would keep you as snug as a bug in a rug and the reverse side I think had waterproof qualities ...
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There is a likeness, but more research would be needed to get near proving it.Hopefully these photos will become an internationally available source, and even more hopefully remain free to access. Step forward a philanthropoist.
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I don't really have any thoughts of proving it, Roger. Will probably just keep it as a possible maybe! ;D
Thanks for that link Dee...what a great site. I shall be adding that to my favourites. :)
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Took a lot of different google searches to find it, Jen.......but I like a challenge! :D
Hopefully the War memorial people and Channel 7 are taking up the cause of finding some way for the remainder of the photos to go where they'll be treausred for the story they tell.......
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I've thoroughly enjoyed looking at this Thullier collection which I was directed to by another genealogy site I follow but thought there would be a thread on here.I've enjoyed looking at the different uniforms and it would be great if one of our experts (such as scrimnet) could perhpas tell us whcih regiments are covered in those pictures.
I hope the whole collection can be protected as its a vital part of the war's history in my opinion.
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For Aussie viewers of the "Sunday Night" program, we've just heard that due to the huge response to their FaceBook page (lots of people are posting and many think they've identified relatives), ... they've had to "hold over" their continuation of the story until Sunday 13th March.
If you have FaceBook, you can search for The Lost Diggers ... I keep losing the link :-[ , but somewhere on their page there's a listing of which units were in the area during the relevant time frame.
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I could not find the Unit listing either, but did find my way to the Channel 7 site where there are two fascinating clips to watch.
It is all quite extraordinary.
Dave
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I've added a few comments to the Facebook pictures... ;D
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16 of the soldiers now definitely identified, and the Australian Government is going to consider buying the rest of the glass plates. Fingers crossed that they decide to do so........
Dee :)
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16 of the soldiers now definitely identified, and the Australian Government is going to consider buying the rest of the glass plates. Fingers crossed that they decide to do so........
Dee :)
Dee,
Is there an online way of keeping up with this story for those of us who live a million miles away! I had a look at the original link but can see nothing new.
Jen
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Drat! I missed the programme earlier tonight. >:(
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Ruskie, here's a link; - see if it will play for you :)
http://au.news.yahoo.com/video/national/watch/24588424
Cheers, Deb
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It played for me, Deb and now I am all teary with emotion.
Jen
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'T'was good, wasn't it? Would have liked to see more, though; - ... I wonder if there's a doco to come?
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I've done it! Not that I expect any sort of reply or result but it can't do any harm can it?
Here are two photographs for comparison purposes....I wonder what others might think. Could my sea captain ggrandfather be the father of this soldier?
If you have more sea captain photos it might be worth loading a few into ftb from myheritage and that one of the snazzy dresser, and see what their face recognition software "thinks". I have used it for members of my family and it often suggests the right person together with siblings or parents of a person who I know the identity of. If the software suggests it too that helps to build your case I think.
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I don't use Myheritage so have no idea how it works. I presume it is safe to download and isn't going to cost me a small fortune!
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I have downloaded without problems.
No you dont have to subscribe to the chargeable parts, but they pester you to upload your tree to the web but you can privatise it. I use it for all my trees and just dont put anything on the web. Just bought FTM and think FTB is better but I am a stick in the mud for what I know.
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Ruskie, here's a link; - see if it will play for you :)
http://au.news.yahoo.com/video/national/watch/24588424
Cheers, Deb
Thank you very much Deb. The link worked perfectly. The news item was far too short though which was a little disappointing, and left me wanting to know more.
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Yes, same here, Ruskie.
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'Here are two photographs for comparison purposes....I wonder what others might think. Could my sea captain ggrandfather be the father of this soldier?'
Another possible source is the local paper. Many reports of soldiers being killed or reported as missing were accompanied by small photos of the men concerned. Don't just look at the issue immediately after the event, go through several issues, especially if it was only a weekly paper.
Regards.