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Expert interviews
Expert interviews
As part of the project we met experts in Birmigham's World War One history like Dr. Nicola Gauld, Dr. Sian Roberts and Martin Kileen. For these kind of interviews students were first prepared and trained in conducting interviews, asking open questions and learn reflecting - mirroring and paraphrasing an interviewee to allow them to 'hear' themselves, and then to ask questions to demonstrate listening, developing trust and a more natural conversation.
We also used our expert knowledge to act out a particular role, and asked children to prepare and interview us. For example children interviewed a Brickworker, a Munitions worker and other people who were living locally during the Great War following a site visit to explore World War One Heritage locally.
Genealogy
Genealogy
Asking students to research their own family's World War One connections is an easy way to engage students and ideal homework. Researching a specific individual such as a family member or distant relative requires a slightly different research approach to that of researching those commemorated in memorials or cemeteries. It is important to emphasise that without the full name of the individual and additional information such as age, place of birth (or residence before war) and rank it is extremely difficult to find information and records obtaining to certain individuals, particularly with the already limited documents and sources available from the First World War. However, ancestry websites are most useful in these cases when attempting to find out information about the life of a particular individual (such as whether they were married or had any children). Some of these websites require membership and payment to access all the documents although a fairly comprehensive biography can be composed of the information available which is free.
National archives are also another source of information when researching a particular individual. Below are websites which lead to archives on British army records or soldiers fighting specifically on the Western Front. Again, these archives are extensive and include a wide range of different records and documents therefore having as much information on the individual being researched is helpful as well as having an idea of the type of information and documents you wish to uncover.
Don't forget other family members may also know information, either directly with stories, or help to suggest where and what best to research.
WWI Resources
Some general sources to get you started with your WWI research.
- National Archives: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/first-world-war/
- Imperial War Museum: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections-research/tracing-your-family-history
- The Long Long Trail – How to Research a Soldier http://www.1914-1918.net/soldiers/research.html
- Commonwealth War Graves Commission: http://www.cwgc.org/ and http://www.cwgc.org/discover1418
- http://www.roll-of-honour.com/
- Western Front Association: http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/
- Ancestry: http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/CardCatalog.aspx#ccat=hc=25&dbSort=1&sbo=1&filter=0*39&
- Forces War Records: https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/collections/
- Family Relatives: http://www.familyrelatives.com/post_search.php?area_id=3
- British Army:
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