World War One: Family stories uncovered (BBC)
By Nathan Williams, Richard Irvine-Brown & Sherie Ryder
BBC News
The World War One centenary means personal war diaries, letters and photos are emerging from dusty attics and drawers across the UK and beyond to offer a different perspective of the conflict.
The National Archives has begun the mammoth task of digitising 1.5 million WW1 diary pages, mainly taken from official war diaries, describing the lives of British soldiers on the front line.
Following the launch of the project, BBC News asked readers to tell us about some of their own treasured documents from the time. A huge number and range of items were sent in, from vivid diaries of life in the trenches and heart-felt letters to photographs of war graves.
This kind of material allows people to "make a direct connection with those who were alive at the time", says Luke Smith from Imperial War Museums. Its own ambitious digital project, Lives of the First World War, will enable anyone to upload and share information of those who served in uniform during the war and worked on the home front.
Even the smallest of artefacts can contain the greatest of memories. In 2001 Moira McPartlin, from Killearn, Stirlingshire, discovered the 1918 diary of her grandfather James McPartlin - whom she had never met - tucked away in an old wallet in a drawer.
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more: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-25824947
Long article, full of personal reminiscences.
