A huge thanks to the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies (www.ihgs.ac.uk) for news on the WW1 POW front.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has been digitising documents used to reunite prisoners with their next of kin as held in the collections of the International Agency for Prisoners of War (1914-1919) (www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/misc/57jqgr.htm) . As a consequence of the pressures on them to get the project done for the 2014 centenary, public research and research requests have now been suspended until further notice. The records will be made available online in due course. Request made prior to August 2011 will still be honoured - the full announcement is at www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/article/other/archives-first-world-war-2011-07-27.htm
I actually made an application to the ICRC some time ago, and about six months back received a letter after a year's wait saying it would cost something in the order of £80 for them to carry out the search - after a wait of about a year or so. A couple of more years will suit me just fine! lol
If your ancestor was a civilian who was interned in Germany in WW1, or a member of the merchant navy, please consult my The Ruhleben Project, which provides short biographical extracts of about 2000 of the 5500 POWs interned. The site is free, but in desperate need of an update, so please bear with me! It can be viewed at http://ruhleben.tripod.com
(With thanks to the IHGS)
Chris
On behalf of my wife I made application to the ICRC on 13 Jan 2011 regarding her father who was taken prisoner by the Germans in March 1918.She received the relevant information from ICRC on 21 Jan 2011-Free of charge.
ReplyDeleteThat's great to hear - clearly I must have had someone on an off day!
ReplyDeleteChris
But when we asked the appropriate authority for the Lair No. of a deceased family member buried in the Western Necropolis Glasgow in 1939 we had to pay £56 upfront.And although we gave all the necessary details it was six weeks before we got the information.
ReplyDeleteBill