Stories are shared at the Reading Museum Family History day

On Sunday 10 August, members of the public were invited to Reading Museum to share their family stories and memorabilia from the First World War. Subject experts were on hand to help identify the objects brought in and record the stories that were told. Objects were digitised during the event, and stories and images will be uploaded to the Europeana 1914-1918 website.

Despite heavy rain, a queue of people formed as soon as the doors opened, and the panel of experts were soon very busy looking at the objects and discussing them and the accompanying stories that were brought in. The digitising crew had a mighty task to keep up with the flow of objects. Hundreds of photographs and scans were taken of letters, diaries, photographs, medals, souvenirs and a range of other objects.

A team of staff and volunteers from the museum made sure the event was a success, with a number of interesting stories recorded and objects digitised. Interns from the University of Oxford IT Services filmed various aspects of the event. The film will be used for instruction and information videos to be used by future event organisers and volunteers.

After the event follows a period of intense work when the stories and digitised objects are finalised and added to the Europeana 1914-1918 website where they can be explored together with tens of thousands of other stories from across the globe telling ‘people’s history’ of the war.

Anyone who couldn’t make it to the Family History Day but who wants to share their material can do so online on the Europeana 1914-1918 website. Dates and venues for future roadshows are listed on the Europeana 1914-1918 website.