It takes a bit of getting used to, because it is about compiling a life story for each individual, rather than recording their family history. The theory is that you add a record as evidence, show HOW the record is linked to that particular person, and then extract facts from that information and add them to the profile categories.
Anyone can create a life story, you do not have to be a subscribing member. If you have not subscribed and cannot access the records on the site, you can add external references from any website (e.g FMP, Ancestry, cwgc ) and then add facts from these to the profile. You can also upload photos, scans of documents, personal reminiscences etc.
What you can't do, as a non-subscriber, is to form a "community" - a group of people who come from the same place. are members of your family, employees of a company etc.
The intent is to collect accurate information about everyone who played a part in WW1 and create a lasting digital profile about them. What happens at the end of the 4 years I'm not sure - presumably the IWM have some plans for this; whether the material can be accessed by visitors to one of the IWM branches I don't know, or whether or not this will be free.
You can only add to a life that is already listed from "seed material" - medal cards, CEF enlistment papers (more groups are to follow, including nurses and people in civilian life.)
So your person of interest may not appear yet.
From the site discussion group, it would seem many folk have subscribed expecting the site to be a huge database enabling them to find information about their granddad, gt uncle etc already on there. Much to their disappointment, there is no information that cannot already be found elsewhere, and none of the records are pre-matched with specific individuals.
Jay
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