There’s an extensive range of pilot records now on TheGenealogist ranging from 1909 to 1926, looking at Aero Club members, Aeronaut certificates, airship certificates and the all too frequent fatalities as our forebears strove to master the skies and to get their places in the history books. From Geoffrey de Havilland, to Charles Rolls of Rolls-Royce fame, Samuel Cody to war veterans Edwin Moon and Albert Ball, TheGenealogist can now provide a number of fascinating records of the race for the skies.
The new releases now join the ‘Who’s Who in Aviation’ record sets and the Air Force lists in a comprehensive aviation collection on TheGenealogist.
There's more information available here.
An amazing discovery of 77 lantern slides taken by well known photographer Alex R Hogg, dating from World War One has recently been made in Belfast. The slides were found in the organ loft of Alexandra Presbyterian Church last month. A project has now been put together to identify all the men pictured in the slides. Apparently there are 137 men to be identified.
The Castleton Lanterns project is now looking for assistance from the public to try to identify the names of each of the soldiers listed. There's more information from their official website. If you have an ancestor from Belfast who fought in the Great War it is well worth taking a look to see if you can help!
Latest news from The National Archives at Kew. Over the last few months they have been digitising part of the WO 95 record series which consists of unit war diaries from the First World War. The project has now been completed. The series is apparently one of the most requested in their reading rooms and digitising these diaries will enable them to publish online, making them more accessible for the First World War centenary commemorations happening next year.
There's more details available from the National Archives website here.