With Remembrance Day approaching, Burlington Public Library has free resources to help residents trace a relative's military service and learn about life in Burlington during wartime, the library says.
Some of the most local material is in the Burlington Digital Archive, which needs no login. According to the library's descriptions, it includes A Book of Remembrance, with a biography of each of the 21 Burlington Central High School students killed in the Second World War, and a collection of newspaper articles on Burlington residents who died in active service during that war.
The archive also holds Return to Normandy: A Flyer's Remembrance, about former Burlington mayor Lloyd Berryman, a Flight Lieutenant during the D-Day invasion of Normandy. The library says it covers his wartime experience and his attendance at the 60th anniversary of D-Day in 2004.
Not everything can be done from home. Ancestry Library Edition, which includes draft, service and pension records, can only be used inside a library branch. Its military records may include a person's physical description, where they lived, enlistment and discharge details and pension information.
Central Library has the Burlington Gazette and Hamilton Spectator on microfilm, covering wartime news from the late 1800s onward. The Burlington Post archive on Newspapers.com, with full issues from 1968 to 2023 that the library says were newly digitized, can be reached with a library card number and PIN.
For anyone unsure where to begin, the library's Local History & Digital Archive Coordinator can suggest first steps.
