The Virtual Reeves WW1 Memorial
Background Information
2014 marks 100 years since the start of the First World War. The Reeves Project (TRP), a global genealogical collaboration into the Reeves name and its variants, invites you to commemorate your fallen Reeves family member on our Virtual WW1 Memorial.Our intention is that this should not simply be yet another list of names. With your help and participation, we aim to give those names a context as the sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, fathers and husbands of other REEVES relatives. The wiki technology underpinning The Reeves Project allows us to easily link the narrative page of an individual to their parents and siblings. If you are not already a community member, we invite you to join The Reeves Project and to create a wiki page for your WW1 casualty and also pages for their parents, siblings and extended Reeves family.
- So how do I get my Reeves relative added? By joining The Reeves Project and then creating a page for each of your relatives. Based on the narrative information you give and the sources you cite, TRP Admins will then add links to your individual from the appropriate memorial page(s).
- Can I get involved if I don't have a WW1 casualty in my family tree? Absolutely, we'd welcome your support.
- Firstly, if you're not already a member, we'd encourage you to Join Us and add information for your Reeves ancestors.
- Secondly, you could check your local war memorials and if a Reeves individual is listed you could volunteer to adopt and research them for us. Please see the "Adoption Information" tab above for information on our adoption process to avoid duplication of effort.
As you may recall The Reeves Project was conceived in April 2010, in response to a suggestion from Bev on the Reeves list. The rest, as they say, is history. At the end of January 2014, TRP had over 5600 pages and 155 users.
But for a whole variety of reasons, TRP was never launched to the UK Reeves community who subscribe to the Reeves-UK list. Our aim is to put that right, probably in March 2014 and at the same time launch the Virtual WW1 Memorial pages within TRP.
The War Memorial on the local village green, in the town square or at the Parish Church is a part of nearly every British village and town. It is this metaphor which will underpin the announcement to the UK Reeves community. (There were a very few "Thankful Villages" to whom all their young men returned from WW1, see Wikipedia - Thankful Villages and http://hubpages.com/hub/World-War-1-History-Britains-Thankful-Villages.)
But for a whole variety of reasons, TRP was never launched to the UK Reeves community who subscribe to the Reeves-UK list. Our aim is to put that right, probably in March 2014 and at the same time launch the Virtual WW1 Memorial pages within TRP.
The War Memorial on the local village green, in the town square or at the Parish Church is a part of nearly every British village and town. It is this metaphor which will underpin the announcement to the UK Reeves community. (There were a very few "Thankful Villages" to whom all their young men returned from WW1, see Wikipedia - Thankful Villages and http://hubpages.com/hub/World-War-1-History-Britains-Thankful-Villages.)
- Is this exclusively for the Brits? Absolutely not. Whilst the initial memorial pages will be revealed when TRP is launched on the Reeves-UK list, it is open to all. Aside from the page designated to list those Reeves individuals who made the ultimate sacrifice during WW1 as recorded by the American Battle Monuments Commission, there are several Reeves individuals listed on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site who show their next of kin as having a US address. These may have included recent immigrants who returned to Britain to serve what they may have still regarded as their home land.
- There is a project to create an inventory of World War 1 Memorials in the USA at http://wwi-inventory.org/About.php. Currently (February 2014) there is little information, but we will monitor its progress over the coming months.
It would be nice to think that by 11 November 2018 we will have a page of information within TRP for each of the Reeves individuals names by CWGC.org and ABMC.gov. That is a realistic goal, but being very pragmatic, it is unlikely that we will manage to find and enrol a close relative of each casualty. So we will only reach that goal if others volunteer to research information about those individuals for us. Our adoption process will note the name of the volunteer community member and the name of the individual they have offered to research, along with the url at CWGC or ABMC.
The list will be publicly accessible and fuller details will be added shortly.In the first instance, please reach out to your Mentor Team via their talk page.
- What memorial pages will be included? TRP will initially have just a handful of pages, but as the project grows we'll consider adding new pages or splitting existing pages.
From the outset, we have a page for names appearing on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) site, a corresponding page for the American Battle Monuments Commission site and pages for memorials within the UK and for memorials beyond the UK. Over the five year period of commemoration, we expect other projects will become more visible and we'll try to respond appropriately. - Why might my casualty appear on more than one list or on the same list more than once? Our memorial pages aim to reflect the reality of the world around us. For example, some individuals may have appeared on a memorial within the church in which they worshipped as well as being commemorated on the local war memorial.
- Can I add my Reeves relatives from WW2/other recent conflicts? As a genealogical collaboration, The Reeves Project discourages adding information for individuals born within the last 100 years and who are still living. This precludes many of the WW2 generation and it is therefore difficult to paint a full picture of a WW2 casualty if one can't name siblings and spouses. So for now, we propose concentrating on remembering the fallen of WW1, particularly since 2014 marks 100 years since the start of the First World War.
- Why won't you include my relative on list X? Some localities found themselves in disharmony because they lacked clear criteria over who would or would not be included on their memorial. We don't want to repeat that mistake 100 years later and so we will strictly follow historical precedent, for right or for wrong. For memorials where there is no publicly accessible list of names memorialised, we will ask you to submit supporting evidence such as a picture or two taken with a mobile phone. As a serious genealogist, we know you'll understand why we want some form of source information.
Back to The Virtual Reeves World War One Memorial