Pick a Soldier, Plant a Tree - the genealogical memorial

In a nutshell, there are 3 steps:

1. Select a missing soldier to work on (click here)
2. Build his family tree (start with CWGC website)
3. Plant his family tree (click here) in our Soldier Database

Trees are often planted as part of commemoration activities. For this project, the aim is to grow the family tree of the missing soldier and plant it on a website where everyone can see it. In this way, the  soldier's family tree becomes a memorial for him.

Avenue of Honour, Bacchus Marsh
(from http://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/4957)

This genealogical memorial will involve tracing and documenting the soldier’s family tree and then posting a link to it in our Soldier Database. The tree can then be easily accessed by anybody wishing to research the missing soldier, especially by those who may have found his remains and are trying to identify him.

The Every One Remembered (EOR) website commemorates the 1.1 million who died
https://www.everyoneremembered.org

There are several websites that document the soldiers who fought in World War One. For example, the Lives of the First World War (LFFW) website is managed by the Imperial War Museums in partnership with FindMyPast and aims to commemorate all 8 million people who served in World War One. The Every One Remembered (EOR) website is run by the Royal British Legion and aims to commemorate each of the 1.1 million men and 800 women who died in WWI. Both of these websites previously accepted information and stories about individual soldiers submitted by the general public but sadly they are now closed to additional submissions. 

The current Pick a Soldier, Plant a Tree project is (in effect) a subset of the Every One Remembered project which is itself a subset of the Lives of the First World War project.

Lives of the First World War (LFFW) website commemorates all 8 million who served
https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org

How the three projects are related to each other

Let's take a closer look at the 3 steps involved in this part of the project:

1. Select a missing soldier to work on (click here)
2. Build his family tree (start with CWGC website)
3. Plant his family tree (click here) in our Soldier Database

Step 1 - choose a missing soldier

So first of all, you have to pick a missing soldier. You may know of one already. He may be in your family and he is already part of your family tree. In which case you have almost completed this part of the project and all you need to do is go to Step 3 and post a link to his family tree.

If you don't know of a missing soldier, you could consult our list of missing soldiers here and pick a missing soldier from the list. Discover how this list was put together here.

Be sure to notify us of any soldier you select to work on by copying & pasting the row with the soldier's information into our Contact Form.

How to select a soldier from our online database
To see the video in Full Screen, click on the Play button, 
then click on YouTube (and then the square icon - last on right)

Step 2 - build his family tree

This is where genealogy comes in. You should aim to build the soldier's tree back several generations, at least to his grandparents. The tree does not have to be extensive - a basic tree could simply include the soldier, his parents and his grandparents. That's only 7 people.

If we assume the soldier was about 20 years old at the start of the war, he would have been born about 1895. And his parents and grandparents would have been born about 1865 and 1835 respectively. So you can expect to be searching genealogical records (e.g. census, birth records) going back to the 1840s at least.

If you are a seasoned genealogist, you will know about the various websites that offer tree-building software and access to records.

Start with the CWGC website - it often has useful information about the soldier's family

If you are new to genealogy, the Ancestry website has a series of lessons on how to start building your family tree. These are a useful introduction to genealogy and how the software and records on Ancestry can help you build a family tree for your soldier.

A good place to start with your soldier is the website of the Commonwealth and War Graves Commission (CWGC). This has a lot of biographical information about every soldier who died during the First World War.

A 10 minute intro to building your soldier's family tree

To see the video in Full Screen, click on the Play button, 

then click on YouTube (and then the square icon - last on right)

Step 3 - post a link to his tree in our Soldier Database

Once the soldier's tree is complete, all that remains is to post a link to it in our Soldier Database so that anyone can access the data at any time in the future. In addition to his family tree, you might also wish to post a link to the following:

• any stories or biographical details about him
• information about any DNA-tested relatives of the soldier (see One in a Million - the genetic memorial)
• your contact details (e.g. email address) in case anyone wants to get in touch with you about him.

As an example, I have created a digital memorial (both genealogical and genetic) for a relative of mine (see diagrams below). He died in 1916 but is buried in a marked grave (i.e. he has been identified). You can see the actual memorial here (under the Stories section) …
https://www.everyoneremembered.org/profiles/soldier/61422/