02 November 2010

Last Post: Death Notices

Looking for death information on Canadian servicemen and servicewomen?

Four years ago I wrote about the Canadian Royal Canadian Legion Magazine's Last Post database. At that time it contained 109,000 names going back to February 1990.

Today it contains 181,723 names with data on the site at http://www.legionmagazine.com/en/lastpost/ going back to January 1987. I found a few earlier entries, as far back 1984, and many where no date of death is given. The Legion promises the database will be extended "as resources permit."

As the magazine first started publishing these short death notices in 1928 there's a continuing challenge ahead for the 3-4 volunteers who tackle the task of correcting OCR'd magazine copy to make it ready for the database.

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