War Diaries Talk

date range

  • jms1947 by jms1947

    working on 2 DIVISION: 6 Infantry Brigade: 2 Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment. (31 Mar 1917 - 29 Jun 1918)
    In may ran into entries that cover a range of dates - I added a comment.
    Now on June of 2017 and again the page (13) has June 1 , June 2 entry and then a June 3 entry - finally a June 3 to 8 entry -

    How should we document this date range entry ?
    Thanks
    Julie

    Posted

  • HeatherC by HeatherC moderator

    Put 3 June at the start of the entry and 8 June at the end. Don't worry that this means some dates aren't mentioned specifically.

    Posted

  • cyngast by cyngast moderator

    Heather, When you say "at the end" do you mean below or next to the second date or at the end of the entry, which may be many lines below the second date? Don't the date tags need to be attached to the actual date? I've always been confused about this.

    Posted

  • HeatherC by HeatherC moderator

    This is a tricky one and I think it depends how the "second date" is entered when it's a range. If the dates are right next to each other and you put the second tag right by the second date then it may give the false impression that most of the details tagged happened on the last date of the range when you look at the timeline. So in this case I tend to put it right near the end of the text referring to the range or even right at the end. If however that second date entry comes near the end anyway (i.e. they've left a big gap in the "date" column) then I'd put the second date right on it.

    I know exactly what you are asking but I'm not sure I've explained it very well! What do you think would be the best thing to do?

    Posted

  • cyngast by cyngast moderator

    So the date tag doesn't have to be actually touching date itself in the diary?

    It makes sense to me that the end tag for the range should be at the end of the entry, like it's enclosing the entry between the two dates. If I can tag at the end of the entry even if the date is written above that, that's great. I've been working under the impression that the date tag had to touch the date on the diary page.

    I've also been working on the diary referenced above at the top of the thread. He likes date ranges to note that training occurred from, say, the 5th to the 9th, but then he goes on to say that on the 6th they had inspections and on the 7th they played football and on the 8th there were church services. Great detail. Yet when they are in the line, he often says merely "Normal trench warfare."

    Posted

  • HeatherC by HeatherC moderator

    It's a difficult question. I know what I'd do and so do you but the tags are taken from "best of 5" so I'm sure in practice we get a range of things - hopefully if they are relatively similar the system can cope! In your example above I would put the second date tag at the end of the range but after it I'd put what they were doing that day so it would be something like this:

    5th
    Training
    6th
    Training
    Inspections
    7th
    Training
    Football
    8th
    Training
    Church parade
    9th
    Training

    After doing a page like this I find it helpful to look at the timeline and see if what I have tagged reflects what they actually did!

    In your example above if you put the range in first it would look odd - something like this:

    5th
    Training
    9th
    Training
    6th
    Training
    Inspections
    7th
    Training
    Football
    8th
    Training
    Church parade

    Also the Field Guide says "If there was little to record or a major incident had taken place over a few days the dates might have been written as a range. In this case place the first tag at the start of the entry and enter the first date then place the second tag at the end of the entry and record the last date in the range."

    Posted

  • ral104 by ral104 moderator, scientist

    Heather's right - we need the lines attached to the date tags to cross the page at the point where that date begins. So the next date tag would then cross the page at the point where the previous date ends and the new one begins. Essentially, we're drawing a box around individual days. It's the same principle with a date range.

    Hope I haven't just confused the issue! 😄

    Posted

  • cyngast by cyngast moderator

    I think I understand how to deal with these now. The diary I've been tagging, as mentioned above, has now changed adjutants and the new fellow doesn't include nearly as much detail or any date ranges, as of yet. But I'm sure I'll encounter more somewhere.

    Thanks for your help.

    Posted

  • steepleKen by steepleKen

    I apologise if I may have missed the answer to my question elsewhere, but after classifying many many diaries I'm amazed that if I type in "Ypres" as a place name the system doesn't seem to recognise this?

    Posted

  • HeatherC by HeatherC moderator

    It should recognise it as Ieper which is what it's called today.

    Posted

  • PeterStef by PeterStef

    I have just started working on a new regiment: 3 Division 12 Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment (1 Sep 1915 - 28 Feb 1918). Unfortunately, the first diary page allocated to me has only the day written in the date column; there is no month and year anywhere on the page. Should I just continue to tag the rest of the diary page in the hope that someone else who has been following previous entries in the diary can fill in this blank

    Posted

  • eatyourgreens by eatyourgreens moderator, admin

    Hi Peter,

    If that is this page, AWD0001ec6, then it's November 1915. Please do just fill in the day number, in the text box above the calendar, if the full date isn't clear and you don't know it from previous pages. I think the IWM would rather you post partial, but correct, information than an incorrect date.

    Jim

    Posted

  • ral104 by ral104 moderator, scientist

    Jim's absolutely right. Just tag as much of the date as you can. If that's only the day, then don't worry. Just delete month and year from the text box on the tag.

    Thanks!

    Posted

  • Mikevanv by Mikevanv

    I've got a tired CO who is making up dates now, as I'm pretty sure that November only has 30 days, but he puts down 31st. How should I tag it?

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  • HeatherC by HeatherC moderator in response to Mikevanv's comment.

    Mike - it may be you who is tired 😉 The page you are looking at is for 31 Dec 1915 and all the diary pages are in order from 1 Nov 1915 where it started. I'm afraid you didn't change the month to December when the diary did and as you will see the page after this one is Jan 1916...

    Problem may have arisen as there was no separate December cover page.

    Heather

    Posted

  • ral104 by ral104 moderator, scientist

    Easily done! 😃

    Posted

  • PeterStef by PeterStef

    Sorry for the delay in responding to your answers regarding my date query. Thanks for the advice, it is very helpful.

    Peter

    Posted