Happy Easter Monday! I hope you had a wonderful long weekend, whether you celebrate Easter or just enjoy having a couple of extra days off work. It was a super chilled Easter for me, but it was still filled with lots of chocolate and spent with some of the people I love. Next year I’m totally requesting an Egg Hunt – I don’t care that I’ll be 28, I want to hunt for some goddamn eggs! Anyways, with ANZAC Day coming up next Monday, I wanted to share some Australian military resources and databases that you should be checking out if you have anyone in your family tree who served in any of the military conflicts of the 20th century. We are super fortunate in Australia to have SO many free or super affordable research databases, so it’s really easy to start finding information for your ancestors and piecing together their stories. australian war memorial The most obvious place to start is the Australian War Memorial. I 100% recommend paying them a visit the next time you’re in Canberra because they have a phenomenal collection that really does need to be seen in person. Plus, visiting the Roll of Honour is a truly sobering experience, especially if you can find your ancestor’s names. The AWM is a great resource for general war histories and information regarding the different battles and battalions. In terms of service men and women, the main focus is the nominal and embarkation rolls for the First World War, as well as the Roll of Honour particulars for everyone who tragically lost their lives in any conflict. It’s a great starting point if you are just starting to dip you toes into researching before diving into the other research locations. department of veteran affairs Where the Australian War Memorial had a focus on the First World War, the Department of Veteran Affairs contains the nominal roll information for World War Two, Korea, Vietnam and the First Gulf War. The website also generates a certificate that can be downloaded and printed to help you commemorate your family members. national archives of australia Once you’ve used the above websites to confirm military service and find a service number, you’ll be able to hit the National Archives of Australia to find their service files. While the contents of these files will vary from person to person and conflict to conflict, the general contents will be their enlistment and medical forms, service log, medals awarded, and discharge information. For those who were killed in action, there will be documents relating to their cause of death and correspondence with home. All Boer War and World War One files are freely available, with NAA currently working on the WWII Digitisation Project to make all World War Two files freely available too – there are already 200,000 files available, but you won’t be able to purchase any that haven’t been digitised yet. It’s anticipated that all records will be available later this year. The National Archives website also contains non-war records, so don’t just limit your searches to service men and women – you never know what else you may uncover! commonwealth war graves commission The Commonwealth War Graves Commission works to ensure that those who died in the First and Second World Wars are honoured and their burial sites looked after. They have constructed 2,500 war cemeteries and plots, erecting more than a million headstones across the world. If one of your ancestors was killed in action, the CWGC will be able to help you find their burial location, which includes documents pertaining to their burial and headstone. For most, this will be the only chance they get to see these places of burial, but if you are planning an overseas trip, the website has information for going about visiting in person. trove I know I talk about Trove ALL the time, but it’s honestly one of my all-time favourite resources for family history research. We are seriously so fortunate in Australia to have this amazing resource available for FREE and it can help in all areas of genealogy research. In terms of war service, you’ll be surprised at the types of articles and snippets that you’ll be able to find in newspaper, from general war updates and rolls of honour, to specific updates on family members – you’ll no doubt be able to find little snippets about your ancestor enlisting, being discharged, on just visiting home on leave. the aif project While The AIF Project isn’t going to give you new information if you’ve utilised all the above resources, it does provide a great overview of information for those who served in World War One, presented in a similar fashion to the Department of Veteran Affairs, including being able to download as a printable certificate. oz-boer database project While Boer War information can be found at the AWM and NAA, the Australians in the Boer War, Oz-Boer Database Project makes it easy to find pre-World War One service information, linking you to where you can find the original sources and records. Other websites of interest include:
Again, we are SO fortunate in Australia to have so many databases and records available at our fingertips, and most of them FREE or relatively affordable. It’s so easy to find information pertaining to military service, and it’s not long before you’re able to paint a pretty good picture about your ancestors and their war experiences. For those who live internationally or have ancestors who enlisted in other countries, I’d love to know the databases and resources you’ve used for research! And if you're a fellow Aussie, let me know about some of the other databases you use, whether they are war related or not. Happy Researching and Lest We Forget. Victoria :) |
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