How very interesting - the reverse of the cards which in some instances contains addresses may be of great interest to those whose ancestors were named Smith, Jones, Brown, or in my case WOOD; yes if a soldier died in WW1 he should be listed on the CWGC site but what about those who survived but whose records somehow disappeared within the system; there is already a loss of data of the "burnt records"- are we to loose another resource? Maybe the responsibility of preservation and transcription could be shared - have all the Family History Societies been consulted - I am a novice but somehow a democratic consultative process should be put into practice -I think we would all welcome all comments and suggestions about the possibility of preserving this irreplaceable data. April Ashton On 15 Mar 2005, at 03:22, Edna & Ken wrote: > > A reply about the WWI Medal cards which might interest you all.CWGC > site > > -------- > > Dear XXXX > > Thank you for your email and for your concern. > > I trust this explains the situation regarding the WW1 medal cards: > > In 1985, the Public Record Office, now The National Archives, began > microfilming the alphabetical card index to the First World War Army > medal > rolls. The front of the cards was microfilmed, with the originals > remaining > in Ministry of Defence (MOD) custody. The National Archives now makes > that > index available to the public in microfiche here at Kew and also via > our > website online http://www.documentsonline.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ > > The MOD now has no further administrative use for the cards, and so > they and > we have offered the original cards to a number of institutions, > museums etc. > So far, none of the institutions approached has wished to take the > cards, > largely on account of the huge transfer and storage costs (and set of > course > against the fact that almost all the information they contain is > available > online). The cards are contained in 143 cabinets, each 5' 10" tall / > 14" > wide / 2' deep, each weighing around 175 kg. > > The reverse side of the index cards has not been copied as the vast > majority > of them are blank. A very small percentage has something written on the > reverse, and in some, but not in all cases, this was the address to > which > the medals were sent. Sampling has found soldiers' addresses on less > than > two cards in three hundred and the resources required to identify and > extract that small percentage of cards from within the total > collection (5-6 > million cards) cannot be justified. Notwithstanding the incompleteness > of > the First World War soldiers' records due to World War 2 bombing, in > many > cases that same home address will be found within the man's service or > pension documents preserved at The National Archives, or indeed on the > Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website http://www.cwgc.org > > The MOD will therefore shortly destroy the cards, this being the only > realistic option. > > I am sorry that this is probably not the reply you will have hoped to > receive, but I hope that this explanation will at least help you to > understand the reasons behind the decision. > > Yours sincerely > > Paul Sturm > Public Services Development Unit > ----- > > >

On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 07:48:14 +0000, April Ashton wrote: >How very interesting - the reverse of the cards which in some instances >contains addresses It was also stated that the addresses would also be on other available records. That makes a difference does it not? Cheers, Tom <tomp@st.net.au> Tom Perrett Proud to be member of Melbourne DPS, first port of call re Victorian research - http://home.vicnet.net.au/~dpsoc