Brookswood residents Harvey and Lorraine Fauser weren’t sure what to make of the century-old large panoramic photo they’ve had tucked away for years.
“We found it when we cleaned out her parents’ house,” he explained.
It’s been with the Fausers for years, but when it came time for them to do some clearing out, they didn’t want to toss the poster-sized image and donated it to the Langley Advance Times.
The image can also be found in the Canadian War Museum which has details on the commemorative photo.
The Montreal Star Publishing Co. Limited is responsible for the image and used a special panoramic camera to take the two images of Canadian military back around 1915.
The photo showed the Canadian Expeditionary Force of CFB Valcartier. There are other variations that have the head and shoulders photos of military brass in addition to the two panoramic images.
Nowadays the public can access digitized records from a variety of sources when trying to find out information about pieces of history that come down through the family. There are local museums that may have online resources but it’s always worth a trip to visit them for all the history they have preserved. Local library branches may also be helpful and have access to inter-library loans.
The Canadian War Museum is one of the resources available to the public to find out about this nation’s military past.
The Library and Archives Canada also has information about topics such as military heritage, New France, the British Colonial Era, the Loyalists, military honours, both World Ward, war bridges, military awards, war diaries, cemetery records, the Lest We Forget Project and even definitions of military abbreviations.
The Calgary-based Military Museums is the second largest military museum in Canada and has an extensive online presence.
The Vancouver Public Library has military records and related genealogy information available through its website.
The Canadian Great War Project is a website put together by volunteers interested in preserving history.
The Maple Leaf Legacy Project is a volunteer effort to obtain a photograph of every Canadian War Grave from the South African War (1899-1902), World War 1 (1914-18), World War II (1939-45), Korean War (1950-52) and all United Nations Peacekeeping Missions to the present day conflict in Afghanistan.