One of the most common emails we receive is from people who have newly registered for either the War Graves Project or the Memorials Project and haven't received their confirmation of account activation.
The way the forums are set up, we have to manually activate every new member. By doing this we avoid having any malicious members posting spam or offensive links. We usually get a large number of new members who are nothing more than spam, and while their links appear in the user profiles, by manually activating every member it means that their rubbish is not allowed to infect the main part of the forum.#
However, what this means is that the automated process does not complete, and so the email confirming that a new members profile has been activated is not sent out.
We usually check the list of members every couple of days, and activate any genuine new members and delete spammers at that time.
So...if you're a new member, and you're still waiting for your email confirming your account is active, we would suggest trying the following:
1. visit the forum and try to log in. You may find your account is already active.
2. If it isn't wait another day or so. We try to check every day or so, but occasionally we aren't able to.
3. If you're still waiting after a week or more, then please email us at scottishwarmemorials@hotmail.co.uk - let us know when you joined, and what your username is. We'll look into it and get back to you ASAP.
What we find is that sometimes people reply to the initial welcome email they get. We'd suggest you DON'T do that - that has your account details INCLUDING YOUR PASSWORD. While we have no intention of giving out your password for any reason, we usually have no access to these and have no need to know it. If you MUST reply using the initial email, please check the text and REMOVE your password.
One other thing - registering to use the forum is not the same as joining the Research Group. If you want to join the Research Group (and have access to any research material, and to find out first about any new projects we might have) then you can join us by visiting this page and clicking the email link and filling in your details. We'd love to have you on board!
Showing posts with label Scottish War Graves Project. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scottish War Graves Project. Show all posts
Sunday, 14 October 2012
Friday, 26 August 2011
When is a Group not a Group?
...When it is a society.
Recent issues with the availability of the war memorials and war graves forums on a 24 x 7 basis, plus the realisation that we are not as well known as we thought, have convinced a few of us that we finally have to take the bull by the horns and form a committee to run things. We've always taken a bit of pride in our independence and the fact everything is done by volunteers and on free hosting sites. However we have reached a stage where we need to take a more mature view on how we operate.
For one thing the data we have on the forums need to be stored on a secure database. The only way we can see that happening is by getting some sort of funding, and a large amount of it at that. To get funding we need to be a charity, and to be a charity we need a society with a properly elected and constitutionally bound committee. We also need to raise our profile too. Being a proper society should help with that.
Since we have come to that decision we feel there is no point hanging around so a meeting a.s.a.p. to kick things off would be a good thing.
We have decided to meet at 2pm at the Camperdown Bar in Queen Street Station in Glasgow, on Saturday 3rd September. We felt that was a good central location in Glasgow and should be easy to get to from a lot of places.
We'd like to invite anyone interested along to the meeting, hopefully the first meeting of a new society interested in all aspects of Scottish military history.
If you'd like to come along please let us know by contacting us on the SMRG website feedback page. Let us know your e-mail address and mobile phone number. That way we can make sure that everyone knows if there is a sudden last minute change of plan.
For those not able to attend we would still like you to be involved so please feel free to contact us with thoughts on the future of any society formed; plus any items you'd like discussed so I can add them to an agenda I am preparing for the day.
The meeting place of a bar has been chosen so that once the formalities of the day have been finished with we can have an infomal get together. It's a Wetherspoons pub so they are quite happy to serve tea and coffee during the day too for those driving. I'm hoping the actual meeting will take about 60-90 mins and then we have the rest of the afternoon to chat.
Recent issues with the availability of the war memorials and war graves forums on a 24 x 7 basis, plus the realisation that we are not as well known as we thought, have convinced a few of us that we finally have to take the bull by the horns and form a committee to run things. We've always taken a bit of pride in our independence and the fact everything is done by volunteers and on free hosting sites. However we have reached a stage where we need to take a more mature view on how we operate.
For one thing the data we have on the forums need to be stored on a secure database. The only way we can see that happening is by getting some sort of funding, and a large amount of it at that. To get funding we need to be a charity, and to be a charity we need a society with a properly elected and constitutionally bound committee. We also need to raise our profile too. Being a proper society should help with that.
Since we have come to that decision we feel there is no point hanging around so a meeting a.s.a.p. to kick things off would be a good thing.
We have decided to meet at 2pm at the Camperdown Bar in Queen Street Station in Glasgow, on Saturday 3rd September. We felt that was a good central location in Glasgow and should be easy to get to from a lot of places.
We'd like to invite anyone interested along to the meeting, hopefully the first meeting of a new society interested in all aspects of Scottish military history.
If you'd like to come along please let us know by contacting us on the SMRG website feedback page. Let us know your e-mail address and mobile phone number. That way we can make sure that everyone knows if there is a sudden last minute change of plan.
For those not able to attend we would still like you to be involved so please feel free to contact us with thoughts on the future of any society formed; plus any items you'd like discussed so I can add them to an agenda I am preparing for the day.
The meeting place of a bar has been chosen so that once the formalities of the day have been finished with we can have an infomal get together. It's a Wetherspoons pub so they are quite happy to serve tea and coffee during the day too for those driving. I'm hoping the actual meeting will take about 60-90 mins and then we have the rest of the afternoon to chat.
Monday, 25 July 2011
Technical problems
We've been having some problems with the War Memorials Project and the War Graves Project today. For a while both forums were offline.
It seems the War Graves Project is back up and running, but we still have problems with the War Memorials Project. While it looks like it's back to normal, we can't seem to make any posts to it.
Hopefully this is only a temporary setback and we should be back to business as usual in due course.
This is one of the drawbacks of having our site hosted externally - any problems like that are outwith our control. One of our hopes for the future is that we can host the site ourselves and not be dependant on others - but this is something for the future.
In the meantime, keep checking our feed on Twitter or our Facebook page for updates. We'll also post an update here once we have more news.
It seems the War Graves Project is back up and running, but we still have problems with the War Memorials Project. While it looks like it's back to normal, we can't seem to make any posts to it.
Hopefully this is only a temporary setback and we should be back to business as usual in due course.
This is one of the drawbacks of having our site hosted externally - any problems like that are outwith our control. One of our hopes for the future is that we can host the site ourselves and not be dependant on others - but this is something for the future.
In the meantime, keep checking our feed on Twitter or our Facebook page for updates. We'll also post an update here once we have more news.
Saturday, 21 May 2011
Old Scottish War Graves
When we think of war graves we think of white stones in massed ranks in beautifully tended war cemeteries around the world. The dignity shown to the dead of the First World War is far removed from the lot of the dead from previous wars. Up until the late nineteenth century dead bodies on a battlefield were quickly stripped of any valuables and then put in a mass grave to be covered over as soon as possible to stop the smell and the spread of disease.
The last pitched battle on British soil was Culloden in April 1746. It was a massacre for the Jacobites and it was up to the victors to dispose of the bodies. Clansmen were taken to pits dug beside the road through the battlefield for burial.
Over two hundred and fifty years the widening of the road and the planting of trees did not eradicated the mounds where the Jacobites were buried and the National Trust for Scotland has worked hard over recent years to return the field back to the state it was in 265 years ago.
In the late nineteenth century the local landowner placed simple headstones over the mass graves but it is unlikely the Redcoats detailed to dispose of the dead would have taken the time to separate the piles of tartan clad dead. As far as they were concerned the only good rebel was a dead one, and they would have been only too happy to tip the corpse into the nearest pit whatever regiment or clan he had served in.
That is really quite irrelevant though because the fact is the Jacobite dead ARE commemorated, which can't be said for the dead of most of the battlefields of Britain. The mounds in the middle of the battlefield are war graves, a place of pilgrimage as solemn and personal for some as the Menin Gate in Belgium or The Somme in France are for others.
In a twist of fate which the victorious British soldiers would not have imagined all those years ago; the men they considered traitors and brigands are commemorated, and the men who won the day lie in unmarked graves.
The last pitched battle on British soil was Culloden in April 1746. It was a massacre for the Jacobites and it was up to the victors to dispose of the bodies. Clansmen were taken to pits dug beside the road through the battlefield for burial.Over two hundred and fifty years the widening of the road and the planting of trees did not eradicated the mounds where the Jacobites were buried and the National Trust for Scotland has worked hard over recent years to return the field back to the state it was in 265 years ago.
In the late nineteenth century the local landowner placed simple headstones over the mass graves but it is unlikely the Redcoats detailed to dispose of the dead would have taken the time to separate the piles of tartan clad dead. As far as they were concerned the only good rebel was a dead one, and they would have been only too happy to tip the corpse into the nearest pit whatever regiment or clan he had served in.
That is really quite irrelevant though because the fact is the Jacobite dead ARE commemorated, which can't be said for the dead of most of the battlefields of Britain. The mounds in the middle of the battlefield are war graves, a place of pilgrimage as solemn and personal for some as the Menin Gate in Belgium or The Somme in France are for others.In a twist of fate which the victorious British soldiers would not have imagined all those years ago; the men they considered traitors and brigands are commemorated, and the men who won the day lie in unmarked graves.
They are not forgotten at the new visitor centre though, where a handful of names of those known to have died on both sides are listed in one of the rooms. They are also commemorated on one of the walls of the centre where prominent stones represent deaths from both armies.
I have only used a few photographs of the Culloden graves here. To see them all please visit the Scottish War Graves Project or the Scottish Military Research Group's Facebook Photo Album.
I have only used a few photographs of the Culloden graves here. To see them all please visit the Scottish War Graves Project or the Scottish Military Research Group's Facebook Photo Album.
Wednesday, 4 May 2011
Update on Scottish War Graves and Scottish War Memorials
It isn't often that we highlight the work done by the volunteers of the Scottish War Graves Project but I've done a quick tally of the number of Scottish military headstones they have recorded and there are now well over 18,000 photographed. In fact it is a lot closer to 19,000.
Many of the stones are the Commonwealth War Graves in Scotland but just as many, if not more, are private gravestones which record loved ones lost overseas during the colonial wars of the nineteenth century and the two World Wars. It is only since the Falklands War that British war dead have been repatriated, and for the wars before then the graves were marked or unmarked in a foreign field. That meant a lot of families inscribed the details on a headstone in a local cemetery.
It's worth pointing it that unlike some other sites which record war graves the SWGP doesn't charge a fee for a photograph. They are all collected by volunteers and made available online for free.
The sister project recording Scottish War Memorials is doing well too. Here are some figures of the numbers of memorials recorded to date:
* 1400 Civic war memorials (very nearly all of Scotland's civic memorials recorded)
* 850 Church war memorials
* 700 War Memorials to individuals
* 240 Regimental and unit war memorials
* 140 School war memorials
* 525 Other Scottish war memorials
That gives a total of 3855 Scottish war memorials recorded online and available to view for free.
Many of the stones are the Commonwealth War Graves in Scotland but just as many, if not more, are private gravestones which record loved ones lost overseas during the colonial wars of the nineteenth century and the two World Wars. It is only since the Falklands War that British war dead have been repatriated, and for the wars before then the graves were marked or unmarked in a foreign field. That meant a lot of families inscribed the details on a headstone in a local cemetery.
It's worth pointing it that unlike some other sites which record war graves the SWGP doesn't charge a fee for a photograph. They are all collected by volunteers and made available online for free.
The sister project recording Scottish War Memorials is doing well too. Here are some figures of the numbers of memorials recorded to date:
* 1400 Civic war memorials (very nearly all of Scotland's civic memorials recorded)
* 850 Church war memorials
* 700 War Memorials to individuals
* 240 Regimental and unit war memorials
* 140 School war memorials
* 525 Other Scottish war memorials
That gives a total of 3855 Scottish war memorials recorded online and available to view for free.
Friday, 31 December 2010
2010 Review of the Year
As we approach the end of 2010, we decided to look back on some of the projects the Research Group has worked on, and to look forward to what 2011 may bring.
Our primary project, the Scottish War Memorials Project has continued to add new memorials and additional information throughout the year. As time goes by, the number of “new” memorials to be added has diminished, but there is always information to be added, and new memorials do continue to be found. The number of civic memorials added to the project is something we can feel justifiably proud of, and our focus in the future will be to add memorials from other sources such as churches, places of work and school/colleges.
Memorials continue to make news headlines, and a recent story in the Courier newspaper was cause for cautious celebration, as the memorial to the men of Mains, located in Caird Park in Dundee will hopefully undergo restoration and relocation in 2011. The members of the Research Group can feel some small amount of pride in this, as it was our initial discovery of the condition of the memorial, and our highlighting it to both the media and local interested parties were the opening stages of what has proven to be a long and complicated process. Hopefully the end of the tunnel is in sight for this much neglected memorial.
Our War Graves Project also continued this year, with new grave photographs added on a regular basis. I will admit that I personally have let my involvement in this project slip as I have worked on other things, but 201 will see me attempting to take a more active interest in this project.
Several members of the Research Group spent a lot of time and effort this year working with the University of Edinburgh on a website concentrating on the efforts of people from Edinburgh and the Lothians during the First World War. The Edinburgh’s War website went live in October this year and has been a great success. 2011 should see more work on the website – watch this space!
Looking at our own projects, the Roll of Honour for the city of Glasgow has lain dormant for a little while, but only last week we were able to launch the first batch of surnames from the transcription. 2011 will see us continue to work on this, with a hopefully second batch being released in the spring.
Another new project, the indexing of the Daily Record for the Great War, has been progressing well. I have been working on the issues from 1915 and John Houston has been indexing those from 1917. Between the two of us we now have almost 12 months of indexing completed, and next year will see that work continue. To see a glimpse of how the complete index will look, we recently showcased the index for January 1915. We're always looking for people to assist with the indexing - if you think you can help, please get in touch!
This year also saw this blog making more of an impact – when I started it in late 2008 I saw it as a method of getting news, research items of interest, and articles “out there” where they might be of interest. I’d like to think that now we’ve finally got the correct balance of news items and our own articles –long may this continue into next year and beyond. We’re also hoping that next year will see more “guest authors” writing for the blog – got something to say? Let us know and we’ll post it here!
The final new development was the launch of our Facebook page – I’ve been using Facebook for a while now, and it seemed a sensible move to create a page for the SMRG – early days yet, but fingers crossed it can grow into a useful hub for information.
So…that was 2010. I’ve made mention of a few things in store for next year, but who knows what’s round the corner? I hope you’ll stay with us to see what crops up!
Our primary project, the Scottish War Memorials Project has continued to add new memorials and additional information throughout the year. As time goes by, the number of “new” memorials to be added has diminished, but there is always information to be added, and new memorials do continue to be found. The number of civic memorials added to the project is something we can feel justifiably proud of, and our focus in the future will be to add memorials from other sources such as churches, places of work and school/colleges.
Memorials continue to make news headlines, and a recent story in the Courier newspaper was cause for cautious celebration, as the memorial to the men of Mains, located in Caird Park in Dundee will hopefully undergo restoration and relocation in 2011. The members of the Research Group can feel some small amount of pride in this, as it was our initial discovery of the condition of the memorial, and our highlighting it to both the media and local interested parties were the opening stages of what has proven to be a long and complicated process. Hopefully the end of the tunnel is in sight for this much neglected memorial.
Our War Graves Project also continued this year, with new grave photographs added on a regular basis. I will admit that I personally have let my involvement in this project slip as I have worked on other things, but 201 will see me attempting to take a more active interest in this project.
Several members of the Research Group spent a lot of time and effort this year working with the University of Edinburgh on a website concentrating on the efforts of people from Edinburgh and the Lothians during the First World War. The Edinburgh’s War website went live in October this year and has been a great success. 2011 should see more work on the website – watch this space!
Looking at our own projects, the Roll of Honour for the city of Glasgow has lain dormant for a little while, but only last week we were able to launch the first batch of surnames from the transcription. 2011 will see us continue to work on this, with a hopefully second batch being released in the spring.
Another new project, the indexing of the Daily Record for the Great War, has been progressing well. I have been working on the issues from 1915 and John Houston has been indexing those from 1917. Between the two of us we now have almost 12 months of indexing completed, and next year will see that work continue. To see a glimpse of how the complete index will look, we recently showcased the index for January 1915. We're always looking for people to assist with the indexing - if you think you can help, please get in touch!
This year also saw this blog making more of an impact – when I started it in late 2008 I saw it as a method of getting news, research items of interest, and articles “out there” where they might be of interest. I’d like to think that now we’ve finally got the correct balance of news items and our own articles –long may this continue into next year and beyond. We’re also hoping that next year will see more “guest authors” writing for the blog – got something to say? Let us know and we’ll post it here!
The final new development was the launch of our Facebook page – I’ve been using Facebook for a while now, and it seemed a sensible move to create a page for the SMRG – early days yet, but fingers crossed it can grow into a useful hub for information.
So…that was 2010. I’ve made mention of a few things in store for next year, but who knows what’s round the corner? I hope you’ll stay with us to see what crops up!
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
SMRG talk - Paisley
Adam Brown will be giving a talk to Renfrewshire Family History Society on the Scottish Military Research Group in Paisley Museum, High Street, Paisely on Thursday 15th October at 7.30pm.
Please come along and provide some moral support for him!
Please come along and provide some moral support for him!
Wednesday, 19 August 2009
Lewis Roll of Honour
On the Scottish War Graves Project site yesterday, user "adb41" posted that he now had a Roll of Honour for the Isle of Lewis online.
It's well worth checking out - click to visit his site.
It's well worth checking out - click to visit his site.
Tuesday, 2 December 2008
Welcome
Hello. Welcome. This is the blog of the Scottish Military Research Group.
The Research Group grew out of two projects which have been running for quite some time now.
The first of these, The Scottish War Memorials Project, was started in December 2006, and was a means for individuals with a shared interest in war memorials in Scotland to showcase the photos and information they had. It has grown to cover nearly 90% of al lthe civic memorials in Scotland, together with many hundreds of memorials in churches, schools, and other places.
The Scottish War Graves Project came about a little while later, and follows a similar method, this time covering all military graves in Scotland. We are unique in that we not only cover the burials of the two World wars, but all military graves both before the wars and after.
So what is The Scottish Military Research Group? Well, in a way it isn't really anything at all. It's the name for all the individuals working on these projects, and whatever projects they may do on their own. you might say we're a collective, in that we have no real organisation but we can all rely on the others to assist with research and knowledge. It's a group all working towards similar common goals. There are no membership fees, no committees, no books to balance. We simply help each other out and provide information when another of us might need it. It seems to work fairly well so far.
So why do we have a blog? Well, for various reasons. First among them is to get our name "out there". A little publicity can be useful. We're always looking for new blood, more people who have knowledge of areas we might be deficient in. We're also always looking for new projects to work on, and also volunteers for the projects we have. Our database of war memorials and graves might be getting bigger by the day, but the work goes on, and we always welcome more information on any of the memorials we already have.
Secondly, we thought this might be a good idea to highlight some of the interesting stories and bits of information we come across in our research. It's not uncommon to find a little story that proves to be of interest to others, and we thought it would be good to share these at large.
So...in future postings we hope to bring you some of the things we found in the past. One of our plans is to show just how much information there can be found behind a simple name on a memorial plaque.
We'll also try and highlight stories in the media with a slant towards Scottish military history.
In the meantime, take a look at our existing projects (you'll find links to them above). Feel free to sign up, say hello, and don't be afraid to join in. You'll be assured of a warm welcome.
The Research Group grew out of two projects which have been running for quite some time now.
The first of these, The Scottish War Memorials Project, was started in December 2006, and was a means for individuals with a shared interest in war memorials in Scotland to showcase the photos and information they had. It has grown to cover nearly 90% of al lthe civic memorials in Scotland, together with many hundreds of memorials in churches, schools, and other places.
The Scottish War Graves Project came about a little while later, and follows a similar method, this time covering all military graves in Scotland. We are unique in that we not only cover the burials of the two World wars, but all military graves both before the wars and after.
So what is The Scottish Military Research Group? Well, in a way it isn't really anything at all. It's the name for all the individuals working on these projects, and whatever projects they may do on their own. you might say we're a collective, in that we have no real organisation but we can all rely on the others to assist with research and knowledge. It's a group all working towards similar common goals. There are no membership fees, no committees, no books to balance. We simply help each other out and provide information when another of us might need it. It seems to work fairly well so far.
So why do we have a blog? Well, for various reasons. First among them is to get our name "out there". A little publicity can be useful. We're always looking for new blood, more people who have knowledge of areas we might be deficient in. We're also always looking for new projects to work on, and also volunteers for the projects we have. Our database of war memorials and graves might be getting bigger by the day, but the work goes on, and we always welcome more information on any of the memorials we already have.
Secondly, we thought this might be a good idea to highlight some of the interesting stories and bits of information we come across in our research. It's not uncommon to find a little story that proves to be of interest to others, and we thought it would be good to share these at large.
So...in future postings we hope to bring you some of the things we found in the past. One of our plans is to show just how much information there can be found behind a simple name on a memorial plaque.
We'll also try and highlight stories in the media with a slant towards Scottish military history.
In the meantime, take a look at our existing projects (you'll find links to them above). Feel free to sign up, say hello, and don't be afraid to join in. You'll be assured of a warm welcome.
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