Lives of the First World War

Sponsored by the British Imperial War Museums (IWM), in collaboration with a genealogical website, Findmypast, this website aims to engage the public in researching the personal stories of nearly eight million men and women who ‘‘made a contribution to’’ the First World War. As of December 2016, some 7,667,398 names had been uploaded as base information by the creators of the website. Members of the public are invited to populate these individual histories with information that they have researched by means of family or public records. The spirit of the site is captured in its subtitle, ‘‘Connect, Collaborate, Curate.’’ This project is an ambitious exercise in mobilizing popular historical research. The site provides aspiring contributors with guidance on how to find reliable ‘‘facts’’ and evidence, how to check the copyright status of images, and how to understand the acronyms and ranks of the British military services.