Monday, April 3, 2023

Searching World War 1 resources

 

Australian War Memorial

https://www.awm.gov.au

https://www.awm.gov.au/advanced-search

 Search various areas – All, Militiary events, Units, Library, People, Articles and Collections

 “People” search will bring up further information about their embarkation and personal information. 

Embarkation Roll.

Embarkation roll includes:

·        Conflict, Roll title – Battalion, Embarkation date, Embarkation port, Embarkation Ship

 This lists personal information that includes:

·         Regimental number, Name, Rank, Age, Trade or calling, Married or single, Address, Next of kin and address of next of kin, Religion, Date of joining, Rate of pay, Remarks (sometimes) 

Roll of Honour

Names of over 103,000 members of the Australian armed forces who have died during or as a result of warlike service, non-warlike service and certain peacetime operations

o   Roll of honour database at: https://www.awm.gov.au/advanced-search/people?roll=Roll%20of%20Honour

 

First World War Nominal Rolls

Search by Name, Service Number or Unit Name. There are filters on the left hand side of the search screen. Example “Frew” or Service Number “3519” or “3033

Nominal roll information includes:

·         Service number (Officers and nursing sisters were not allocated service numbers), Final rank

·         Surname, first name (including some but not all honours)

·         Unit of service at the time of death or at the end of the war

·         Date of enlistment, Non-effective entry (i.e. how that person became no longer effective, for example Returned to Australia); also referred to as "fate". A blank indicates that the person was still effective abroad at the time of compilation of the roll

·         Date of death or start date of non-effect

AIF Project

https://aif.adfa.edu.au/index.html

Contains a lot of information about soldiers that served in WW1 – information is taken from various sources and is a great overview of a soldiers history of involvement in the war.

The AIF Project (Australian Imperial Force) database is maintained and hosted at UNSW Canberra and has a great searchable index, that lists name of soldier, place of residence and regiment and contains a summary of the soldiers involvement in the war, including medals awarded and when they died and at what age they died. The regiment link (in the records) also contains all the soldiers who also served in that particular regiment.

There were a total of 331,781 soldiers in the AIF. These troops served overseas in Egypt, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Great Britain, France, Belgium and Gallipoli.

The term ANZAC was created with the landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, and stands for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.

Example: Search for frew: then look at “Bertie frew” record – “3033” – note: this information includes history of why he received his “military medal”.

 

National Archives: World War 1

http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/explore/defence/service-records/army-wwi.aspx

Search and view original war records related to personnel who fought in WW1 in the National Archives. 

Discovering Anzacs (discontinued) – Search records via National Archives instead

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au


Explore original government records about Australians and New Zealanders in World War I and the Boer War. Uncover the personal stories of service men and women through original archival records.

Original records can include: Enlistment documentations – with valuable information like age, address, occupation, marital status (if there are any children), height, weight, “next of kin”, colour of eyes & hair and complexion.

 

Example search “Frew” and look at example “Bertie Frew” and/or “frew 3519” which is Leslie George Frew


Commonwealth War Graves

www.cwgc.org

This is main website for all CWGC cemeteries and burial location details. Advanced search at:

Search will list information about person including:

Service number, Regiment, Date of death, Burial location, Country of Service and Additional information (That can include next of kin info) 

Advance search

https://www.cwgc.org/find/find-war-dead/

Example: search “FREW” – First Listed is: “Leslie George Frew 3519”

 Also find out Grave Registation information and Headstone information about soldiers killed in the war. (These are original scanned documents)

 

Images of World War I Australian servicemen

Flick photographic collection from the National Archives of soldiers that fought in WW1 titled “Bonds of Sacrifice”. Photos were donated to the National Archives by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. Browse these photo’s of serviceman.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/national-archives-of-australia/collections/72157628184430675/

 

Focus: Military ancestors – National Library of Australia

http://www.nla.gov.au/research-guides/family-history/military-ancestors

A list of online and onsite resources related to military personnel held by the National Library of Australia.

 

Notes for staff: It is possible to get a library card from the National Library of Australia so you can access some of their online genealogy databases.

 To get a Nation Library of Australia library card go to: https://www.nla.gov.au/getalibrarycard/

 

Trove

www.trove.nla.gov.au

In Trove you can search Australian newspapers from 1803 – 1954.

Example search “Bertie Frew” refine by “newspapers & gazettes” and filter (using facets) by state of “Victoria”. Show first record “FATALITIES AND ACCIDENTS. Driver Thrown from Jinker”.

 

State Library of South Australia – Centenary of ANZACs webpage

http://guides.slsa.sa.gov.au/centenaryofanzac

Webpage contains numerous links to ANZAC related resources including:

South Australian Red Cross Information Bureau at: https://sarcib.ww1.collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/

 

What is the South Australian Red Cross Information Bureau?

Records of the South Australian Red Cross Information Bureau held in the collection of the State Library of South Australia (SLSA). From 1916 until 1919, the South Australian Red Cross Information Bureau (SARCIB) performed the service of undertaking research into 8,033 enquiries from family and friends of missing Australian Imperial Force (AIF) personnel fighting in World War 1. The collection of documents was donated to the State Library in 1919.

This includes letters of enquiry from people in Australia about soldiers fighting overseas. Personal view in these letters about the war.

Anzac Portal

www.anzacportal.dva.gov.au

Website contains information about the war as well as a list of education and community web resources.

 Ancestry website – military records

In Ancestry there is a section called “Search Military” search for records in: Australia, World War I Service Records, 1914-1920

Australian Military Records on Ancestry Library Edition

·         Australia, World War II Second Australian Imperial Forces and Citizen Military Forces Service Records, 1939-1947

·         Australia, Royal Australian Air Force Personnel Files, 1921-1948   Military

·         ANZAC Memorial, 1914-1918

·         New South Wales, Australia, Cowra Military Camp, Selected Personnel Photo Index, 1940-1947

·         Queensland, Australia, World War I Soldier Portraits, 1914-1918

·         Australia, World War I Service Records, 1914-1920

·         Australia, World War II Military Service Records, 1939-1945

·         Web: Australia, University of Sydney Biographical Information Including World War I, 1880-1980

·         Australia's Fighting Sons of The Empire. Portraits and Biographies of Australians in the Great War

British WW1 records

Ancestry UK – world war 1 records

http://www.ancestry.co.uk/cs/uk/world-war-1

You can access UK military records via Ancestry Library Edition for FREE. Currently there are 92 databases with UK military records and information on Ancestry.

The Great War

http://www.greatwar.co.uk/

Educational resources and information about WW1. Maps and diagrams, links to memorials and monuments as well as hundreds of World War 1 web links on this website.