The
main purpose of this blog is to offer a platform on Belgian refugees in
Britain. This can happen in several ways.
We
hope that information cascade here is relevant. However, one of the earlier
mentioned reasons is that several blog posts that had been produced have been
valued as publishable and have made their way into the world as such. We aim to
publish more blog posts soon.
We
would like to publish anecdotal stories and or requests for information by
other, interested parties. So feel free to contact us and we'll publish your story and/or request.
In the past years that the Belgian refugees has been
a topic of research many requests were sent, usually via email, about family
members at various locations and whether we could help out. Sadly enough,
however, tracing ancestors for over 250,000 Belgians at the time (imagine how
many family members that would be now) is impossible and needs a more
coordinated effort for which there is currently no funding.
The
renowned and wonderful In Flanders
Fields Museum issued a request to submit the last witness testimonies and
further archive material about a decade ago. A lot of that was used for the
seminal exhibition Vluchten
Voor de Oorlog / Strangers
in a Strange Land. This is now aimed for by the Europeana project. As
such the In Flanders Fields Museum in Ieper/Ypres dealt with the digitisation
of family history material
at a Collection Day in December
2012.
