I understand that the Fleet Air Arm Museum were offered the MI cards some time ago, but had to turn them down because they are purely Army records and the museum's charitable status relates to the RN. As a side note, they hold the service records for WW1 members of the RN Division, who effectively fought as soldiers in WW1. However, I also understand that the Western Front Association is (or at least was) seriously considering obtaining the cards, with a view to finding a long term home for them. A possible short option being considered was to come to a commercial agreement with the FAA Museum for storage. Unfortunately, I don't know any more than this, so can't say what the current status of these possibilites is. Clearly, there are more interested parties than just the genealogical world, but the short notice gives us little or no time to form a united front. Ken GSS wrote: >Instead of trying to think about EGMs etc could we be more practical and >think constructively about this situation. Could we not just work as a >combined set of volunteers (OK we are all SOG members otherwise we would not >be on this list) who agree that we and perhaps other family historians from >other lists, FHS, other organisations etc do something before time >disappears. > >First of all, I am wondering whether we have a couple of volunteers who >could be detailed to look into the problem and make a report so that an >informed decision could then be made. I am assuming that these volunteers >would be able to get access to these records, and could see for themselves >the scale of the problem. > >It seems to me that however much we want to preserve the original cards that >because of their vast size it just may not be practical. Therefore should >we be concentrating on trying to make sure that we have a record of all the >data found on the cards. The front has been dealt with, it is the >information on the back that we need to think about. > >Some of the issues that I feel should be in the report are as follows (I am >assuming that we accept the fact that we cannot keep them and just want to >preserve the info) >1) have all the fronts been filmed and are we happy that as good a job has >been done as we could expect (perhaps not 100% but 99.9%) >2) could we find enough volunteers to extract those cards that need extra >filming >3) could we find enough storage for those extracted cards before we could >get them filmed >4) would the NA be prepared to grant extra time for their storage until we >could get this extraction process in mind >5) what about filming (the BerksFHS now has a book scanner that I am sure >could be used, I think there are now quite a few other FHSs with this sort >of equipment). > >I leave it at that for now and look forward to receiving feedback via the >list. (Please don't shoot me, if you disagree with my viewpoint I don't >mind, I am just trying to help). > >Gillian Stevens >Member of SOG, Events co-ordinator for BerksFHS >Data administrator for www.familyhistoryonline.net >