McGill Remembers

One of the most memorable presentations at the Quebec Family History Society Roots 2007 meeting last weekend was by Professor Christopher Milligan of McGill University's Faculty of Education and Wes Cross of the Dean of Students Office on the McGill Remembers project.

McGill University's WWII participants, of which 5, 568 were students, included 295 women, as well as numerous staff members. In total, 298 individuals were killed in action, 52 became prisoners of war, and 629 were awarded medals.

The university is fortunate that its Archives contains individual records of over 5,000 students and staff, originally uncovered and organized by military historian Robert Collier Fetherstonhaugh at the McGill War Records Office starting in 1942.

The files are worth exploring by any genealogist with a McGill ancestor of the era. They contain photos, news clippings, correspondence, and dispatches of both McGill military personnel and civilians, as well as colored card indexes of names, and lists of awards, honours, prisoners of war, and those either missing or killed in action.

Milligan and Cross have an initial web site here, and ambitious plans to remember the contributions of all who served, and not just in WWII. They are soliciting funding, additional information from families, and hope to stimulate similar initiatives at other Canadian universities.