Italian Europeana 1914-1918 roadshows unearth heartbreaking stories

Do you follow the Europeana 1914-1918.eu blog? Here's the latest news about the series of Family History Roadshows held in Italy.

The Europeana 1914-1918 Family History Roadshows continued their tour of Italy in May, with events on 15 May at the Rome National Central Library, and on 18 May at Valli del Pasubio in the striking location of Monte Maso Fort. The Rome event was organised in collaboration with the Central Institute for the Single Directory of Italian Libraries of MIbAC (Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities) and with the support of the National Museum of the Italian Renaissance.

Monte Maso Fort, Italy- venue for a Europeana 1914-1918 Family History Roadshow

Many members of the public contributed their personal stories and brought their families’ letters, diaries, notebooks, photographs and medals from the battle front. Among them were the story of a man who was saved by a gold medal that stopped a bullet, and the tale of a mother who, having woken in the middle of the night with a feeling of terror, found out that her son was killed by a grenade at the time she woke up. Among the memorabilia there was also a touching letter written from the front in which a man gave the custody of his three-year-old child to his brother, and other letters sent from a soldier to his wife, in which he signaled his position on the back of the stamp.

In Rome, we collected over 70 stories and more than 600 files to illustrate them, whilst in Valli del Pasubio, 40 personal stories and 150 items gave us over 1,800 images to do with the First World War.

Photography items collected at the Rome Europeana 1914-1918 Family History Roadshow

We also had the opportunity to hold an educational seminar about the use of First World War digital archives. The seminar, aimed at schools, got the web generation involved in preserving historical memories through the use of new technologies, and engaged them in contributing to Europeana 1914-1918, the Europe-wide archive of a unique and important period of world history.