Status Update on Blog

Having committed to being more systematic in the research and the recording of such I am almost caught up with adding all the soldiers that I have found so far. I have on record 379 of the approximately 2,200 soldiers that served with the 18th Battalion during World War 1. Of those, approximately 85% are entered into the blog.

Once that is complete I will be revisiting the Access database file I created and verifying that all the sources have been properly recorded. This entails making sure all the data fields that I have created have been “answered” to the best of my ability and during that process each soldier’s page is revisited and any additional images or information is entered into the data folder for that soldier and uploaded to this blog.

One part of the project that will have to be continually revisited is the digitized service records. This part of my database is woefully out-of-date. To my knowledge, the actual progress of the LAC’s efforts to digitize the service records is proceeding but getting accurate information as to the extent of their progress has not been found by me. I do know that the surname Dewar has not been digitized as of the date of this post.

This process is a lot more “manual” they I first envisioned but my hats go off to the historians who had to do this manually. Without the use of computers and other technological resources this work would be more than painstaking.

I have to admit that to some degree this work can be very depressing. To have to record, read, and research so many people that were killed in action during the war, or died of wounds makes on reflect on the cost of war.

Going forward I hope to get this part of the diary done and will be revisiting the War Diary portion of this blog as the 100th Anniversary by month is coming. Starting in May I will be re-posting corrected transcriptions of the 18th Battalion’s War Diary.

Thank you for your support,

Eric