REMEMBERING THE PAST IN THE PRESENT: THE LOST GENERATION FOUND
External Partner: English Heritage, Newcastle
A study of WW1 war memorials and related genealogy in the city of Newcastle.
2008 marks the 90th Anniversary of the end of WWI, and there is an excellent and timely project to be done relating to memorials and the people commemorated from this particular conflict.
Several different students could work on this project by taking churches and memorials in different districts of the city as the objects of research. This work could then be collated at a later date into a broader overview.
Initially the work would involve the collation of all known information about the individuals named on the memorials, e.g. date, circumstances and place of their death, where they are buried, military unit, service record and career. This would take the form of a data base that would include any available copies of official documentation, photographs etc. For some this may prove problematic at the official level as many records of service personnel from the First World War were lost as a result of bombing in London, during WWII in 1940.
From this basis the project would look to trace the life story of the individuals in question by placing them in the context of their family tree, as far back as this can be traced (This would involve students using primary census data). By the same token this genealogical work could be used to trace the descendants of the individuals recorded and so link the past with the present.
Students may well be able to contact members of the named individuals families still living in the City and this might produce additional letters, document and photographs and help to rediscover information about what is rapidly becoming a ‘lost generation’.
All of the data gathered in the course of the dissertation research might be used to stimulate more locally based community projects. It is hoped that the initial work carried out by dissertation students might help, if disseminated to local communities properly, to reconnect communities more strongly with acts of remembrance, promote community pride and enhance an already existing attachment to places in the city.
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