Which Year?
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Am I tagging the year 1914 (because its only page 36 of a total of 336 pages) or 1916 (because on the left side someone wrote 5/11/16)? AWD000372a
Posted
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by
cyngast
moderator
I think I would go with 1916, for two reasons. First, the notation in the left margin is probably when the O.C. signed off on the diary, and 5 Nov. makes sense for a diary with October dates. Second, the locations, particularly Corbie, fit the location of the 4th Division in Oct. 1916 as the Battle of the Somme was still on at that time. Corbie was one of the larger towns in the back area for that battle. At the end of October, 1914, the 4th Division, along with the rest of the British Army, was likely in transit from the Aisne to Flanders/Ypres/Armentieres, if not actually in one of those locations.
Divisional Train diaries are sometimes arranged in an order that seems odd because each section plus the headquarters unit each have their own diary. As the signature on this page indicates a Lt. Col., this may be the headquarters section. It's possible the entire diary for the headquarters section comes first, with the diaries for the individual companies to follow. You've also probably noticed that the companies are usually referred to as sections 1, 2, 3, and 4, rather than by their company numbers as seen in the OWD label.
ETA: You can't really go by the page number to judge where a particular page falls in the time span of the diary as labeled. Unfortunately, we've seen diaries that are badly jumbled in order. I've also been fooled myself by authors who were either wordy or extremely terse, even when the diary pages are all in order. If you can't work out any part of the dates for a given page, it's best to just eliminate the questionable part. For instance, in this case, if the date at the right-hand bottom was not there, you could tag it as just 29 Oct. by deleting the year in the Date tag.
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by
ral104
moderator, scientist
I agree with Cynthia - 1916 seems like the right year.
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On this page I can still change the dates. But I can't change the the three previous pages I tagged. Is That a problem?
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by
cyngast
moderator
No, it's not a problem at all. The OWD system is set up so that each page is tagged by five people before it is considered finished. Then, when the data is compiled, any inconsistent tags are tossed. So if the four other people who will tag those pages tag it as 1916, that's the date that will be saved.
This system allows for situations like yours, where it's difficult to find a date, and for the kind of things I sometimes do, like forgetting to make sure the date moved up for the next entry. While we'd like to see perfect tags every time, this takes the pressure off, knowing there is a backup in place if your attention wanders for a moment.
It can be tough to work out a date when you first pick up a diary and it's in the middle of a month. Some authors don't put the year on every page, and some don't even include the month!
Posted
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by
ral104
moderator, scientist
One thing to also be aware of is that you don't have to enter a full date if you're not sure of it. Just delete the unknown bits from the text box at the top of the tag. But, as Cynthia says, it's not a major issue if you make the odd mistake or two.
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by
deehar
in response to ral104's comment.
Hmmmm... I never noticed you could enter partial dates. Still learning....
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by
cyngast
moderator
Yes, that ability comes in handy. You just have to remember that if you delete, say the year, for one date, that deleted part will appear for the next one. If you're going down a page with several dates, you have to re-delete for every one.
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Image AWD000377l : could this page be the first page of this diary?
Posted
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by
ral104
moderator, scientist
It's certainly the first page of something, but it's difficult to tell whether it's the divisional train as a whole, a sub-unit, or possibly a personal diary.
In any case, once the data is processed, it will go into date order, so the physical arrangement of the diary doesn't matter too much.
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