Re: Good news for those with missing Great War casualties
Steve Hayes
<The_Ch...@att.net> wrote:
>On Mar 13, 2:40 am, "Lesley Robertson" <l.a.robert...@tnw.tudelft.nl>
>wrote:
>> They've found a large archie at the Red Cross in Geneva, and they're
>> promising to put it online:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7940540.stm
>>
>> Lesley Robertson
>
>Just saw an article abut this "discovery" in tomorrow's "Telegraph"
>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/4985619/WWI-soldiers-buried-in-unmarked-graves-could-be-identified-says-historian.html
>
>What I don't understand about this "news" is that I distinctly recall
>reading a newspaper article about this supposedly unknown, unused and
>undiscovered Red Cross archive some years back.
Yes, it's well known that the Red Cross has huge quantities of records, not
only of military casualties, but also of displaced people, refugees, missing
people and more. I've read about it in articles, and in genealogy text books,
I think.
What is new is allowing historical researchers access to these records, which
have been guarded like the records of the Swiss banks.
Perhaps one can hope that even though they probably don't have facilities for
hundres of researchers dropping in to see them, they might allow a body like
the LDS Church to copy some of the earlier ones, and make them available that
way.
Here's one article on them:
Chapman, Colin, 1994. The Central Tracing Agency of the
International Committee of the Red Cross, in Family Tree
magazine, Vol. 10(7) May. Page 21-22.
The Red Cross was formed in 1863 to care for those wounded in
wars, and during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877 it formed the
Trieste Agency to deal with queries about sick and wounded
soldiers. In 1914 the ICRC set up an International Prisoners
of War Agency in Geneva. Similar records have been kept for
subsequent confilicts and the Central Tracing Agency now has
60 million personal records with names of prisoners, refugees
and missing persons. These records are not open to the
public, and the Red Cross does not have staff to deal with
any queries except for those from immediate family members.
--
Steve Hayes
Web: http://hayesgreene.wordpress.com/
http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/famhist1.htm
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