Beyond the Cenotaph: a 21st century commemoration

Deseronto Archives: War memorial file

Major General Sir Archibald Cameron Macdonell

Deseronto Archives: DESHIS-09-07.1

Order of Service

Deseronto Archives: YCLB-06-02

Deseronto Archives: DESHIS-06-07

Deseronto Archives: War memorial file

34 men listed

34 men commemorated on 1923 memorial• Starting point for 2013 research

• Main resources used:

• Canadian Great War Project: http://www.canadiangreatwarproject.com/

• Canadian Virtual War Memorial: http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial

• Commonwealth War Graves Commission: http://www.cwgc.org/

• Library and Archives Canada – Soldiers of the First World War: http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/first-world-war/first-world-war-1914-1918-cef/

Scope starts to expand…

• Men who signed up in Deseronto but were not killed

• Around 34 additional names

• Ancestry.ca an important resource for finding out more about these men• Where they were after the war• Who they married• When they died

James Alex Kitchen

• Only three Deseronto Post newspapers survive from the First World War

• One had a photograph of a Deseronto man who had signed up…

• …in Detroit…

Scope expands again…

• To include men who gave Deseronto as their place of birth

• Or Beseronto, Deseronte, Dessonto, Desnonto, Drseronto, Desesonento, Desoronto, Deseranto, Deseront, Deserontom, Destronto, Dezerento, Deserente and Dusmonts, Deserouto, Deseconto, Desertonto, Dserento, Desaronto, Doserento (according to Ancestry’s transcribers)

• Around 160 additional names

…and again

• With the pilots from 42 Wing of the Royal Flying Corps (based in Deseronto) who died in training

• 53 additional men

More sources for locating RFC men• Canada, War Graves Registers (Circumstances of

Casualty)• Searchable by unit (42 Wing, Deseronto)

• Local newspaper reports

• Local death registration records• Hastings County• Lennox & Addington County

The Daily Intelligencer [Belleville] 13 July 1917

Death registration entry

Robert Charles Teasdall of Toronto, aged 19, Cadet in the Royal Flying Corps

“Fracture of skull by fall from height with aeroplane”

Royal Flying Corps service records

• UK National Archives • AIR 76 - Air Ministry: Department of the Master-General

of Personnel: Officers' Service Records

• All digitized and online

• But…

• 53 Royal Flying Corps officers and men

• 35 officers’ service records identified at TNA

• 35 x £3.30 = £115.50

= $211.85

Another source of names

Yet another list of names…

From the Deseronto Post, 20 September 1919

Of the 45 names, only six had already been identified.

Some service records were not traceable, but another 24 names were added from this list

…and a few more…

May 2014 MBQ Newsletter

Another 35 Mohawk men added to the list

In total (so far…)

• 294 individuals with a connection to Deseronto or the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory signed up or enlisted

• 53 RFC men who lost their lives while attached to 42nd Wing

• …ten times as many as are listed on the cenotaph!

Vague 2013 plan

• To create a blog post on the 100th anniversary of the day each Deseronto man signed up or died

• With links out to other online resources, including LAC’s CEF service files as they become available.

• Encourage relatives of the men to contribute any information they might want to share

• Not many photos, so use signatures from attestation papers as illustrations

• To make a map of where the men are buried or commemorated in Europe

Research initially compiled in a Word document…

Associated files saved in Dropbox

Geographic context

A personal aside…

Planning blog posts

Example blog posts

Additional plans in 2014

• Gather the data together in a more useful form than the giant chronological Word document

• Do some basic data analysis on it

• Share the findings online and in local events

From Excel spreadsheet…

To Google Drive spreadsheet

Data wrangling

Deseronto Archives: Floyd Marlin Collection

Deseronto cohort: 294Fatalities: 42

Deseronto cohort: 294Mohawks: 97

Total fatalities: 42Mohawk fatalities: 22

86%90%

77%

Enlistment location Number of men

Toronto, Ontario 43Deseronto, Ontario 39Kingston, Ontario 37Belleville, Ontario 27Camp Barriefield (Kingston), Ontario 20Ottawa, Ontario 9Valcartier, Quebec 9Montreal, Quebec 8Winnipeg, Manitoba 7Vancouver, BC 6Picton, Ontario 5Barton, Ontario 4Hamilton, Ontario 4Midland, Ontario 4Napanee, Ontario 4Oshawa, Ontario 4Brantford, Ontario 3Niagara, Ontario 3

Enlistment locations for Deseronto men

Year Population of Deseronto

1891 3,338

1901 3,534

1911 1,646

Occupations on signing up

First names

Surnames

Enlistment over the duration

Deaths over the duration

Total non-RFC war deaths: 42

Total RFC war deaths: 53

RFC casualties’ birthplacesCanada 32England 8USA 7Scotland 2Unknown 4

Task ahead: blog all Deseronto WW1 enlistments, conscriptions and deaths

Number of blog posts

2014 13

2015 68

2016 127

2017 60

2018 113

2019 1

2020 1

Sharing…

• Aside from the forthcoming blog posts, all data and findings are already shared online via Google Drive

http://tinyurl.com/WW1Deseronto• Anyone can comment

• Aggregation of similar data from other communities?

Lives of the First World War

• http://livesofthefirstworldwar.org/

Summary of 1923 commemoration

• Funded by wealthy former resident• Focused on those who died• Created a physical memorial• Had a narrative rooted in patriotism and religion• Featured the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery band• And a high-ranking army officer

• Brought the community together

Still hope to bring the community together!

1923 2014-2018

Funded by wealthy former resident Mostly a volunteer effort

Focused on those who died Focused on all who were affected

Created a physical memorial Will create an online memorial

Had a narrative rooted in patriotism and religion

Will have a narrative based on personal experiences

Featured the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery band

And a Major GeneralProbably won’t have a soundtrack

Or a high-ranking army officer

In summary

• Freely-accessible online archival resources for Canadians’ First World War experiences are FABULOUS and getting better all the time:• Library & Archives Canada’s digitization of service

records• Imperial War Museum’s ‘Lives of the First World War’

project [?]

• Determine intention and scope of your project• If you don’t want it to get out of hand!

RespectRemindRelate

See the stories unfold at:

Blog: http://deserontoarchives.wordpress.com/

Twitter: @DeserontoArch

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DeserontoArchives.Ontario

amanda@hillbraith.com