WW2Talk Has Absolutely No Connection To 'Forces War Records'.

I would tend to agree, however every site has snippets which can lead searchers beyond brick walls.

The issue is with sites such as FWR and FMP, GR , and Ancestry is that they all have differing sources which may or may not be of use as it's not possible for the sites to know what level of knowledge and specific needs are required by each searcher initially.

i.e. how much does a site give away for free before they start to need a fee to be paid?
Someone who's done little or no research wouldn't need much at all, neither would someone only doing very general searching, however the sort of chaps on here (not 'bigging anyone up' mind- just pointing out the obvious) are not likely to be satisfied with basic stuff even if that is then cross matched from multiple sources.

Some sites have an inbuilt advantage as their scope is much more widely focused -it allows them to generously offer all WWI records as a hook for registrations (and payments if the renewal is not switched off in 'X' days) as the 6 million records they offer are only 10% of what they have and are a niche within a niche on a broad spectrum site -this is entirely why I am really keen for FWR to have more free datasets like the Jap pows/medieval stuff at present.

FWR is Military only and British/Commonwealth only so although it's far more focused it can only give x amount of data before it has to charge.

Obviously as it gets more & more data included that can change.

My biggest input into the FWR site in particular was to get the library launched and I have personally sourced a lot of the material in there, I'd welcome some feedback on that in particular as I am constantly trying to see 'gaps' -I have concentrated on Boer/WWI and WWII and think there's a pretty good spread across all 3 services, with some stuff that's dead easy to get (like the periodical magazines) and some a bit harder (like IWGC/CWGC lists, HG manuals etc) and some rocking horse poo (POW magazines etc).

Currently we have some WWI naval stuff going in, and I am having the DAK (Afrika Korps) book translated from the Italian text which is very interesting as it clearly shows a lack of respect the 8th Army had to re-educate them with a little while after the book -no wonder the 2nd planned edition wasn't written!

Hopefully the sources page will be launched very soon and I know we'd like to hear some feedback then too.

Of course as I said earlier some of the original sources are going to be wooly due to the original suppliers not giving us this exact detail, so it'd be good if we together can pinpoint some of this.

 

Similar discussion ongoing on The Great War Forum

Steve Y

 

Depending on what someone is looking for 'WW2 Talk' seems to be a good resource about the Second World War. For example, there are regular genuine requests about 'help with Granddad's wartime service' (or similar) most of which seem to get answered by 'WW2 Talk' site members (for free!).

 

And I can be contacted through the GPR Assn website/ FB page (see below) for FREE help with questions/queries about Regimental members/history etc.

Steve W.

 

Another bump to make sure it is seen by the 'unwary'.

The misunderstanding about a possible link to FWR could be due to the adverts that often appear at the top of the web page. Hopefully anyone who sees these adverts will appreciate the difference.

I noticed a couple of 'WW2 Talk' forum members who have posted to this thread are described as 'Discharged'. Presumably this means they are now former members of 'WW2 Talk' ?

 

Joe

Discharged = Persona non grata = no longer welcome

Ron

 

Thanks Ron.

I must have been on leave when the "drumming out" ceremony took place!

 

I am a little uncertain about the mechanics of this, but is it not the case that this site has put ww2talk as a keyword in various search engines. On my smartphone, when I type ww2talk- it is the first site that comes up with ww2talk second.