End of the Search Engine? - CWGC Search Changes

Just found a pdf on CWGC about Fabian Ware.

http://www.cwgc.org/admin/files/ware.pdf

That headstone must be unique in that it is a Commonwealth war grave pattern, for someone who did not technically qualify.

 

Completely unannounced, today the CWGC changed the way their Debt of Honour register works. In doing so they have changed the URL syntax of every CWGC entry, which means both of Geoff's Search Engines will no longer work, as they link to pages which no longer exist in the CWGC database. It also means all CWGC links placed on this forum will no longer work, either!

They have also changed the URL of the search page - a very strange thing to do - which is now:

:: CWGC :: - Search Our Records

This is a real shame, as I know I am one of many on here who uses Geoff's excellent sites.

Will you be able to get round this in due course Geoff?

Considered making a gentle complaint pointing out the problems such a simple change creates?

 

Roll up roll up, get your searches done at Geoff's... while you still can...

1300 searches since 15:00 hrs yesterday.
WW2 is up 50% also.
I'm running a 3 for 2 offer this weekend, you get the cheapest search free.

 

Considered making a gentle complaint pointing out the problems such a simple change creates?

Hi Phil - complaints have been made, and some feedback already received from CWGC (see above) which is not encouraging.

 

Some WW1 engine users may have noticed a change to the 'Remembered Today' feature. A different Commonwealth country, in alphabetical order, is featured every day of the week. So today is Kiwi day. Saturday is random. I generate 7 files at the start of the year, using a live link to CWGC so I get up to data information. This process is fully automated and takes about 30 minutes to run to get the 365 random records.
Perhaps I won't need to repeat this come December.

 

Hi Phil - complaints have been made, and some feedback already received from CWGC (see above) which is not encouraging.

Suggest anyone concerned complains. Email and in writing. Don't use their on-line form - it has never worked for me. Including you chaps in the 'colonies'. Your Government pays a portion of CWGC's running costs. Are your Defence/Heritage ministers aware what the curators of this data are planning to do?

 

900 searches so far today since midnight.
Slow down, it's not true, the world won't end on 09/09/2009.
Anyway we got past 9:09 this morning OK

 

We are getting the searches in while we can!!

 

Suggest anyone concerned complains. Email and in writing. Don't use their on-line form - it has never worked for me. Including you chaps in the 'colonies'. Your Government pays a portion of CWGC's running costs. Are your Defence/Heritage ministers aware what the curators of this data are planning to do?

I wrote to them using the online contact form, and guess what, yes you guessed correctly no response.

If anyone has the right contact details then It might be an idea to post them.

Phil

 

I wrote to them using the online contact form, and guess what, yes you guessed correctly no response.

If anyone has the right contact details then It might be an idea to post them.

Phil

Phil,

You expected their software to work?


This information was posted on GWF yesterday:

peter.francis@cwgc.org
Director of Communication
(is away until 21 Sept )


David Stacey
Director Information Services
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
2 Marlow Road
Maidenhead
Berks
SL6 7DX

david.stacey@cwgc.org

Tel: 01628 507147 (Direct)
Fax: 01628 507186

 

Making hay while the sun shines.
I see you've sorted Owen's bug. Nice one.

 

Slowing down a bit. 800 searches on Tuesday, 1668 yesterday and around 800 so far today. Should save on my electricity bill

WW2 is about 300% up on average.

You can now put wildcards into the WW1 surname, but it ignores the begins/ends/contains/exact checkbox setting and works like 'contains' with wildcards.

For example SM.TH will find SMITH, SMYTH, SMITHERS, SMETHURST, NESMITH,. etc.

Bound to confuse some

Approaching 150,000 total searches since D-day

 

Yes, saw that thanks. Some interesting posts over there (and some stupid ones)


Found this on Google:



The World Wide Web can be considered as the set of network accessible information resources. It is founded on three basic ideas:

• A global naming scheme for resources - e.g. URLs
• Protocols for accessing named resources - e.g. HTTP
• Hypertext - the ability to embed links to other resources - e.g. HTM

Where did the idea of charging to view a military research website come from? And are there any examples of any? (Ok, A*******)

cheers,

Geoff

freedom to search, freedom to research, freedom to commemorate.

 

I know we are talking different volumes but have a look at the roll of honour on the Australian War Memorial website.

Put in a "A" in the name section and see what you get. Put in a single numeral etc. Select WW1/WW2/Boer War etc.

Australian War Memorial - Search the Roll of Honour

This can be picked up and placed straight into an XL spreadsheet.

 

freedom to search, freedom to research, freedom to commemorate.

Amen to that Brother !

 

I know we are talking different volumes but have a look at the roll of honour on the Australian War Memorial website.

Put in a "A" in the name section and see what you get. Put in a single numeral etc. Select WW1/WW2/Boer War etc.

Australian War Memorial - Search the Roll of Honour

This can be picked up and placed straight into an XL spreadsheet.

Geoff,

I already know of this. Great stuff. I captured all the index pages, about 2000 in total for WW1 and WW2, then stripped out the data - just names and numbers and put in a database. Then I ran a computer search against CWGC data, all records that did not match were put into a file. This was part of the Aussie IFCP project that Andy (River97) started. Don't know he's a member here? (Yyou there, Andy?) He thought it would take 18 months to do 1 war (around 100,000 records in total) but I narrowed it down to around 2500 from each war in a few minutes. I gave the HTML file to Andy, he put in into a spreadsheet and used my search engines to check them. (that's why they are stuck on Australia, to speed things up for Andy) He was running hundreds of searches each session, very determined. Most were errors in the data so easily sorted. Some after double checking were put forward for commemoration. (reckon some were RAAF, by the way). Semed to be mostly home deaths that slipped through the net. We'll see the results eventually from Australia.

cheers,

geoff

 

Geoff,

I already know of this. Great stuff. I captured all the index pages, about 2000 in total for WW1 and WW2, then stripped out the data - just names and numbers and put in a database. Then I ran a computer search against CWGC data, all records that did not match were put into a file. This was part of the Aussie IFCP project that Andy (River97) started. Don't know he's a member here? (Yyou there, Andy?) He thought it would take 18 months to do 1 war (around 100,000 records in total) but I narrowed it down to around 2500 from each war in a few minutes. I gave the HTML file to Andy, he put in into a spreadsheet and used my search engines to check them. (that's why they are stuck on Australia, to speed things up for Andy) He was running hundreds of searches each session, very determined. Most were errors in the data so easily sorted. Some after double checking were put forward for commemoration. (reckon some were RAAF, by the way). Semed to be mostly home deaths that slipped through the net. We'll see the results eventually from Australia.

cheers,

geoff

I have found quite a few errors on numbers (mostly deaths in Australia) and I am presently chasing one important one for non commemoration through the CWGC.

I have picked up another thirty or so who died while in allied squadrons to add to the 200+ I drew down from your search engine that were not on the Australian Roll of Honour (listed as UK).

NB: I found one chap through this search who died on the same aircraft as the Duke of Kent.

Cheers

Geoff