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  1. #11
    Knowledgeable and helpful keith9351's Avatar
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    WS7 Sailed 24th March 1941, arrived Suez 6th May 1941.
    WS conveys were fast troop carrying conveys nicknamed Winston Specials.

    Keith

  2. #12
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    There is a record at The National Archives in the name of Lieutenant D S Hickman, service number 160621, which mentions his escape from a train en route from Sulmona, Italy, to Germany, and his rejoining British forces in Italy.

    This info is in the description of the record, which has not been digitised. There may be more details in the record itself but to know you would have to either visit Kew and view the record or request a quotation for a copy to be sent to you.

    Peter

  3. #13
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    Thanks so much for this.
    Why would a record not be digitalised? How do you know that it is not digitalised?

    I will contact Kew and see if I can get a copy of the record.
    Thanks for your help.
    Tara

    Quote Originally Posted by elsinore View Post
    There is a record at The National Archives in the name of Lieutenant D S Hickman, service number 160621, which mentions his escape from a train en route from Sulmona, Italy, to Germany, and his rejoining British forces in Italy.

    This info is in the description of the record, which has not been digitised. There may be more details in the record itself but to know you would have to either visit Kew and view the record or request a quotation for a copy to be sent to you.

    Peter

  4. #14

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    Digitising data is an expensive business. Most Archives focus first on the most-used stuff, and work their way through. They may also cooperate with commercial companies to scan rarer records.
    Have a look at the entry that Elsinore found for you - there is often an added note saying whether it's digitised or not.

  5. #15
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    Thank you

  6. #16
    A fountain of knowledge
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    The reason why some of these WWII records aren't digitised is probably that the NA don't typically like allowing digitisation of anything where data subjects may be under 100 years old at the current date.
    They will do this for an entire set of records where they aren't sure of the data of birth but suspect it may be less than 100 years also!

    This is probably just over-sensitive data protection, but I know that both FWR and our parent company Ancestry have been turned away from very similar collections in the past because of this.
    Unfortunately, that means it requires a physical visit to Kew or getting a researcher to do so for you for such records.

  7. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tara Potter View Post
    Why would a record not be digitalised? How do you know that it is not digitalised?
    Perhaps I should have said not yet been digitised. Only about 5% of the NA’s Archives have been digitised. Many have been indexed, hence the page that you can view here:

    https://discovery.
    nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14083964

    On the right-hand side are instructions for viewing and or requesting a copy.

    Peter

  8. #18
    Super Moderator - Completely bonkers and will never change.
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    Quote Originally Posted by elsinore View Post
    Perhaps I should have said not yet been digitised. Only about 5% of the NA’s Archives have been digitised. Many have been indexed, hence the page that you can view here:

    https://discovery.
    nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14083964

    On the right-hand side are instructions for viewing and or requesting a copy.

    Peter
    Meanwhile, count it as a very big bonus that some items are indexed. Without them being indexed you wouldn't even know they existed. Well, you'd be able to find a dataset, but then you'd have to go through loads of boxes in the hope of finding a piece of paper that might contain information about a relative. Being indexed means that 99.9999999% of the work is done for you.

    If the cost of copying, etc, makes you gulp a little, consider how much it would cost you to go to Kew yourself, and how much time it would take. Sometimes fifty quid seems cheap if you have to include an overninght stay when visiting an archive.

    Pam
    Vulcan XH558 - “Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.”

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