War Diaries Talk

Newby needs help with first tagging attempt

  • daravenh by daravenh

    7 Div. 23 Field Ambulance

    a) There is no YEAR written.

    b) Line reads "2 Off 26 OR sick & 3 wounded admitted"

    Is any of this info tagged?

    c) The line reads "Capt. Buckley to Citadel ADS in relief of Capt. Mackie"

    What is Citadel ADS?

    Do I just tag both NAMES and RANKS ranks and what about REASON?

    Denise

    Posted

  • erik.schaubroeckscarlet.be by erik.schaubroeckscarlet.be

    I am not a moderator, but maybe the following can help

    a) If you don't know the year you just mention day and month and delete year on top of the date box. Maybe the date just above the diary page can be of any help if you started tagging this diary from the first page?
    c) ADS stands for advanced dressing station. This ADS will have been located in the citadel. Here is a link with some abbreviations http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/soldiers/a-soldiers-life-1914-1918/common-british-army-acronyms-and-abbreviations-of-the-first-world-war/ .You tag the name and the rank of both captains. As reason I would choose Other.
    b) if the sick and wounded don't belong to the Field Ambulance, you don't tag them except if their name should be mentioned then you must tag them.

    I am not a moderator, but maybe this helps

    Posted

  • cyngast by cyngast moderator

    Denise, Welcome! And thank you for asking such clear questions.

    All of Erik's answers are absolutely correct.

    Thank you, Erik, for jumping in and answering Denise's questions.

    Posted

  • cyngast by cyngast moderator

    Denise, I just noticed you are the person who posted that great article about the training trenches a few days ago. Thanks again for that.

    Please ask any other questions you have. We're a bit short on moderators at the moment as there are really only two of us who are active and the other one is on a long holiday. And I'm in the western US so I'm 8 hours behind UK time, but if you're patient you will get an answer!

    Posted

  • daravenh by daravenh

    Erik, thanks for your help. The Longlongtrai site will be useful and there is lots of otherfascinating information to get 'lost" in for hours.

    Posted

  • daravenh by daravenh in response to cyngast's comment.

    Cynthia, I'm glad you enjoyed the article too! I'm on the west coast as well, just north of you in Victoria B.C.

    Another question from the same diary:

    b) Line reads "2 Off 26 OR sick & 3 wounded admitted"

    How do you know if the sick and wounded belong or not to the Field Ambulance?

    Is the rest of the blurb not recorded at all (number evacuated, wounded, admitted, sent to DRS)?

    c) The line reads "Capt. Buckley to Citadel ADS in relief of Capt. Mackie"

    Is 'relief' tagged anywhere?

    d) The line reads "Capt. Mckie returned to MDS at Mericourt"

    His name is mentioned on two different dates so should he be named twice? And what about his return to MDS?

    Posted

  • cyngast by cyngast moderator

    Oh, cool! Somebody in my time zone! I'm actually in the Las Vegas area, so not on the coast, but before moving here I lived in LA for 30 years. And I was born in southeastern Washington state.

    Anyway...

    b) Well, you can't really be sure, but I recall from field ambulance diaries I have tagged there is often a mention of someone from the unit being sick or evacuated. These units, more than the others, tend to name everyone, even the OR. And no, the number is not recorded. The Casualty Treatment tag under Unit Activity was designed to record how units other than Field Ambulances treated casualties.

    One thing I'll say here about tagging in general. The project is designed for volunteers to tag what is written in the diaries. So in the case of this question, there is no way to know where these men specifically came from, other than presumably the other units in the brigade the ambulance served. And we just don't worry about it. At this point in time, we can only speculate, and that won't serve the project well. We're not here to create an exhaustive record of the First World War, but just to make the information that is recorded in the diaries more accessible. I hope that makes sense.

    Now, c) There isn't any item under the Reason slot in the Person tag to record the one officer relieving the other one, so Other is the best choice.

    d) Capt. Mackie should be tagged twice. Sometimes this gets a little redundant, but we want to capture as much detail about the people who are named in the diaries as possible. Recording names is really at the core of the project so that people looking for information about their ancestors will be able to use the database to research them. And, again, there isn't really a tag to record his return. He's not returning from attachment, because the ADS is actually part of the field ambulance.

    Just as a tip, when you have questions about a specific page, there is a way to start a thread that includes an image of the page in question, even if you are still working on it. Start by typing something in the Comment box, accessible by clicking on the little cartoon-like bubble above the right-hand side of the diary page. Doing this will post an image of the page at the top of the Talk page. Click on the image and a page opens that includes the image and options for starting a thread. Choose the Q and A option. This saves you from having to copy the line or lines you have questions about. You can delete your "comment" if you choose to once you are done with the page.

    Erik has posted a new thread today called Stand To if you want to see what I mean by including the image of the diary page.

    Posted