Help needed for an Arnhem Database

Hi Paul,
Looks fantastic, but what a mammoth task, when finished it will be a world class tool for students of The Battle of Arnhem, regards LOFTY

 

Its looking superb Paul, keep up the fantastic work. I am sure it will become the ultimate Arnhem reference bible.

Dave

 

Hi Paul,

Yep it does look good well done the one I have is just excel with no photos...

Cheers
Tom

 

Not much help but simply out of interest: I parachuted several times with a veteran of Arnhem when I was a member of the 'Eagle' sport parachute club in Kent. He was, at the time, a Senior Officer in the Kent County Constabulary. He also had a heart condition and when I asked him why he was parachuting he said he wanted to find out if he still had the 'bottle'. As he was near retirement I thought he definitely did have it, in copious amounts!

 

Not much help but simply out of interest: I parachuted several times with a veteran of Arnhem when I was a member of the 'Eagle' sport parachute club in Kent. He was, at the time, a Senior Officer in the Kent County Constabulary. He also had a heart condition and when I asked him why he was parachuting he said he wanted to find out if he still had the 'bottle'. As he was near retirement I thought he definitely did have it, in copious amounts!

Nice story Fireman . I've only ever done one static line jump, many years ago at Headcorn in Kent and it certainly showed me the true meaning of a "bum twitcher" .

Thanks again for the encouragement fellas. As I said before I'm not sure how I will make it accessible on the internet and sadly it will not be a complete record of everyone who served at Arnhem because obviously not all the men will be mentioned in the books, but at least it will stop me going round the bend trying to find a bloke when someone asks "Is 'so and so' in any of your books?"

All the best............

 

Well I've managed to trawl my way through 4 and a bit books so far and the names database is up to 2300+ names! At this rate I may have to pass the job on to my son!! .
It's just so time consuming, checking and re-checking names against ones that are already on the list so that I don't duplicate any. Also it can be a pain when in one book a soldier is listed as "Corporal SoAndSo" and then in another book he's been promoted and he's now a Sergeant!
Oh well, onwards and upwards.............

 

Well I've managed to trawl my way through 4 and a bit books so far and the names database is up to 2300+ names! At this rate I may have to pass the job on to my son!! .
It's just so time consuming, checking and re-checking names against ones that are already on the list so that I don't duplicate any. Also it can be a pain when in one book a soldier is listed as "Corporal SoAndSo" and then in another book he's been promoted and he's now a Sergeant!
Oh well, onwards and upwards.............

Paul
I wish I had thought something like this years ago when I first started! I used an MS database not realising that it had a finite number of lines! so when I got to 32000 I couldn't add anymore chaps, so had to then break it down into individual units etc, as Tom has said, SAS, Ringway, etc etc, so some of my chaps are shown on more than one, especially if say RE and served with more than one unit, or transferred on promotion etc.....

Would be nice to put it all in one place, with photos of chap, and headstone if relevant, with any other info. but I think Paradata has a lot like that,

And most importantly I wish I had put a note on the system to say where I got the info from! Would have saved a lot of wasted time when trying to find it again.... the majority of mine has been painstakingly gathered by hand from the war diaries/award citations, with the rest taken from books and other publciations etc

Best of luck and if I can be of any help just let me know!
Regards

Andy

 

Thanks Andy, your offer is very generous indeed considering the time and energy you must have spent collating your lists!
I started this project for the same reason you mentioned in your post, namely, not remembering where I'd seen a certain chap mentioned and then spending hours trawling through all the books and (more often than not) giving up!!
As you can see from the pics of the databases I've posted there is a facility to attach one or two pics to each entry but not enough to have photos of the person, plus headstone etc etc. That said, the idea of the database isn't to provide a complete biography of each person, it's more of a 'quick reference guide' so that once the name is located I can then go STRAIGHT to the corresponding books and "Hey Presto" .

All the best mate and thanks again for your offer, I may well take you up on it at some point in the future ........

 

Just passed the 3,000 names mark this morning! God this is slow!!

 

Its a Stirling job your doing Paul,keep up the the good work mate

 

Hi Mate,

Next time we meet up will being what Andy let me have... mmMmmm say about 40,000 Airborne names give or take..Should keep you busy so you don't need to get any more books PMSL

Cheers
Tom

 

Hi Paul,

I use an excel spreadsheet for each Campaign / battle / theatre of operations. IE one for Arnhem, one for D-Day etc. At the moment I'm around the 7500 mark of an estimated 10300 for Arnhem so plugging along. Like you, I add names to my lists from books, newsleters, internet etc, but am very careful about adding 'wannabes' as I have come across numerous names of people who said they were at Arnhem when they never even served! As you have probably realised there are thousands of names and just adding the KIA's would take many many hours. I know there are many researchers out there with extensive lists and it's great that this forum is available to tap into their research. I intent to give all my research to the Airborne Museum at Duxford one day, but for now it's just a hobby that keeps me busy. I noticed 'Tom TAS' lists and am envious of his records and hope to one match that number. I'm also happy to swap info on specific Bn's etc if you'd like?

Regards

Paul

 

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the above like I said I do have a good few names, also a lot of the war dairies at Kew as well and of course a good few books.. But I'm about 80 short of Paul's lot lol

Cheers
Tom

 

Hi Paul

Would you have any information on HQ Coy 2Para from 1941-45

Sorry wrong thread will moved it. Doh

 

Hi Paul,

I use an excel spreadsheet for each Campaign / battle / theatre of operations. IE one for Arnhem, one for D-Day etc. At the moment I'm around the 7500 mark of an estimated 10300 for Arnhem so plugging along. Like you, I add names to my lists from books, newsleters, internet etc, but am very careful about adding 'wannabes' as I have come across numerous names of people who said they were at Arnhem when they never even served! As you have probably realised there are thousands of names and just adding the KIA's would take many many hours. I know there are many researchers out there with extensive lists and it's great that this forum is available to tap into their research. I intent to give all my research to the Airborne Museum at Duxford one day, but for now it's just a hobby that keeps me busy. I noticed 'Tom TAS' lists and am envious of his records and hope to one match that number. I'm also happy to swap info on specific Bn's etc if you'd like?

Regards

Paul


Hello mate,

Thanks very much for your kind offer and I may well take you up on it at some point! . At the moment, what I'm trying to do is not create a database of the names of everyone who served at Arnhem, rather I'm trying to build a 'list' if you like of everyone who is mentioned in any of the Arnhem related books I have. That way, if someone says to me "is so-and-so mentioned in any of the books?" I will be able to say yes or no and also if the answer is yes, I will know exactly which book to dig out!
I applaud your intention to give your database to Duxford, I have no doubt they would be very happy to receive it once it's finished.

I tried using Excel but I found that it didn't really give me all I wanted so I ended up buying a piece of software called "Database Oasis" which lets you create completely bespoke pages for each entry. It isn't perfect and it does have it's limitations but it just provides that bit more than Excel.

I've attached a couple of pages from the two main databases I've started to give you an idea of what I mean.

All the best mate, keep up the good work and if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask!!

 

Great Stuff Paul and an amazing task. Imagine in future years when someone has to collate all this material into one super database! Tongue slightly in cheek here, but I can't help but suspect the possible likely end route for this info in years to come [and long years of life ahead to the compilers I pray] will be a museum. I also wonder what said museum will charge for enquirers who ask about said material. The beauty of the internet and you chaps of course being info is most often freely given and recieved. I appreciate from my fathers own work on magazine articles/books etc that he spent years driving around the country to see people, get interviews, see archives, pay for photocopying etc. and am always heartened to see the really great people on forums like this.
I like the sound of your database system Paul and will be looking into it for myself and my chaplains lists. At the moment I have a hand written card index system, great for adding additional info as a blank 6 x 3 card has only one large "field" to write stuff on! Limited access though!
If you want my info that I have collated on Airborne chaplains I can probably copy it into a word doc for you sometime? I suspect other people have info that I don't on them though? If anyone is willing to share for my future chaplains book [in a few yrs time!] I'd be most appreciative. At the moment I have 31 names in my index.

Regards
Matt

 

I don't think a Museum is the best place for that, indeed they might charge you for research or in the worst case it disappears in a black hole.
The moment you put it on a website everyone who is a bit handy can
copy the whole database.
Paul Pariso and I have put the Arnhem booklist online and everybody can save a copy of the Database on his/her computer but what Pau;l is doing
now takes years of hard work.

Operation Market Garden Books

I think he should keep it for himself and maybe later(When he is old) he could publish a book and earn some money with it..for his pension.

Ron...

 

Hello Gents,

I do like your data base layout Paul Pariso and I can see how effective that is for your goal of linking soldiers names to books. I've gone for quantity at present, but I've been surprised how many times individual soldiers get mentioned in various books. I have a link to each soldiers name and if I come across him in another list, book etc I just make a note next to his name with a three letter abbreviation. It's working well for me at the moment and I've also found the Arnhem Veterans Club newsleters to be a gold mine of information. For Matt, I've got all the Chaplains who served at Arnhem that I can pass on if you don't already have them? For Ronald, you're probably right and I might just put access to the database on the internet so everyone can access it?

Regards

Paul

 

Hello All,

I like the idea of a "Super Database" but I fear that it wil be long after I've popped my clogs! At the rate I'm going I may not even finish my project!
I agree with Ron that, whilst giving certain items to Museums is a very noble thing to do, they can and I know for a fact, very often do, get "put into storage" never to see the light of day again. Obviously with an information based project such as we're talking about here, it should, in theory, be easy for any museum to make it accessible to a 'worldwide' audience.
The only problem is time! As an example I was recently speaking to the curator of the Airborne Museum at Duxford and he said that they have 'tons' of material waiting to be put onto their website but it simply boils down to the time it takes for a very limited staff to scan, document and then upload all the stuff!

Oh well, back to the books.........