Remembrance Day 2009

Imperial War Museum North in Manchester is holding a free family history weekend to help visitors trace their own family histories this Remembrance.

Both the First and Second World Wars still exert an extraordinary hold on the public imagination and the Museum should offer a memorable experience for Remembrance.

Help and expertise will be on hand for anyone hoping to discover what their relatives did during the wars and researchers could potentially unearth long lost family stories. Sarah Paterson, Imperial War Museum’s Family History Librarian, and Frances Casey from the UK National Inventory War Memorials, will be at the Museum’s permanent Your History Station from 10am to 4pm on Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 November.

Jim Forrester, Imperial War Museum North Director, said: ‘November is now an important month every year as we look back at the suffering and sacrifice of people whose lives were shaped by all the wars of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The Museum is a testament to the personal stories of individuals and entire families, and I am pleased that, during this Remembrance period, we can offer visitors a special opportunity to learn more about tracing their own family history.’

Britain’s last surviving First World War veterans - Harry Patch, Henry Allingham and Bill Stone - passed away during 2009, making this Remembrance especially poignant. As well as the passing away of the First World Was veterans, this year also marks the 70th anniversary of the start of the Second World War. Both the First and Second World Wars still exert an extraordinary hold on the public imagination and the Museum should offer a memorable experience for Remembrance.

As well as honing their research skills, visitors can pay their respects to all those who lost their lives as a result of war and conflict. The atmospheric sound of bagpipes will echo throughout the Museum at 11am on Sunday 8 November, after a two-minute silence.

The Museum will also come to life for children on Remembrance Sunday through What A Performance - a family friendly tale acted out live in the Museum at 12.15pm, 1.15pm, 2.15pm and 3.15pm. The theatrical performance will the original and engaging tale of Violet, who took a job in a munitions factory as her husband was recruited to the armed services during the First World War.

The field gun that fired the first British shell of the First World War will be among a number of fascinating Imperial War Museum North collections explored through short gallery walks and studio sessions on Sunday 8 and Wednesday 11 November at 2.15pm and Tuesday 10 and Thursday 12 November at 2.30pm.

As well as memorials to the First World War, the special exhibition Captured: The Extraordinary Life of Prisoners of War will run until 3 January 2009 to mark the sacrifices made by POWs during the Second World War.