Georgians who died in service during World War I are being commemorated in a unique way as part of the centennial observance of the "Great War."  In a project sponsored by the Georgia World War I Centennial Commission, retired state librarian Dr. Lamar Veatch is compiling an on-line database that, when complete, will be the most comprehensive listing of Georgia service personnel who died in service during that war 100 years ago.  The names and information for some 1,300 soldiers and sailors are now on the Centennial Commission's website and others are being added as they are confirmed.  www.ww1cc.org/ga

The University of North Georgia is one of only six senior military colleges in the nation and is designated as The Military College of Georgia. As such, UNG has taken a leading role in supporting and hosting the work of the commission.

The foundation of the database comes from the state's officially published 1921 Georgia State Memorial Book.  Under racial practices of the time, that book contained only the names of white personnel.  As part of the centennial observance, this historic exclusion is being corrected by adding the names and information of African-American soldiers.  Information on all known service personnel who died in the war can be found by name, home county and town, and date and manner of death.

The commission's website also includes an online inventory of war memorials and plaques located throughout the state.  Photographs and descriptions of these "Monuments, Memorials, and Historic Sites" from 125 locations across Georgia already are on the website, and others are being added as they become known.  In addition to World War I monuments in virtually every county seat of the state, the site includes information on 16 military training camps, President Woodrow Wilson's boyhood home in Augusta, Memorial Hall at UGA, and the grave of the "Known Soldier" in Rome, among many other sites.  Names found on these monuments but not included in the original Memorial Book are being added to the database.  This work is part of a national centennial program to find and record all such tributes to Americans who fought and died in World War I.