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Footnote Site Lets You Search and Modify WWII Records

by Terrence O'Brien on December 12, 2008 at 11:05 AM

Footnote Lets You Search, Modify WWII Records
Footnote, a site that specializes in digitizing historical documents, has partnered with the National Archives to provide access to boatloads of World War II-related documents. Footnote has scanned documents, including enlistment records, patrol reports, photos, and missing crew reports, and is providing text based searching of the archives.

The National Archives records are often incomplete, and Footnote is using this new partnership as a way to lure in new members. The site allows you to edit or add information to the pages of WWII veterans and comment on other historical documents.

The search works fairly well, but there is no way to browse scanned documents found during a search. Links are provided to the location of your search term in the documents, but there is no clear way to access other pages.

Being able to track down information about grandparents, uncles, and old family friends is great, and being able to flesh out their life story for the world to see is oddly satisfying. Disappointingly, though, Footnote is only providing free access to these documents on a temporary basis. [From: ArsTechnica]

Tags: archives, family, footnote, national archives, NationalArchives, world war ii, WorldWarIi, WWII

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