** Kiwi Soldier **

[Wendy Macpherson]

Hi everyone

Have a question or three regarding the publishing of a notice of death and the image of soldiers in the 'Auckland Weekly News' (New Zealand).

My great uncle was KIA 11 August 1917, I'm interested to learn what issue his notice would have appeared in.

Was the Army in charge of the announcement or was it left to the family.

Were the notices published in a timely fashion.

On the Auckland Museum Cenotaph website where I have found a brief file on Leonard, it says that his image was published in the Auckland Weekly News 1917.

I've found a large hard cover pictorial volume at the Pahiatua Museum but leonard doesn't appear in it, there is an apology in the book relating to missed soldiers.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Wendy

[Peter Bennett]

Wendy

Do you have a photo of his grave, if not I shall be visiting this cemetery in about a month's time.

Peter

[(nzef)]

Hi Wendy,

Casualty rolls were published in the papers of the time, generally the larger papers first with the regional papers printing them soon after. These were based on official Army releases. You can see examples by searching the papers past site.

On researching a number of casualties I have found that the regional papers sometimes included obituaries that were very detailed. I suspect this information was mostly provided by the family. Again, you can see examples of this within the papers past site.

http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast

I have wondered myself how the AWN were supplied photographs. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable will be able to tell us if there was an official army policy of photographing each soldier before embarkation or if the photographs we see on the Auckland Cenotaph site (from the AWN) were provided from the family?

Hope this is of some help.

Grant

[Wendy Macpherson]

Wendy

Do you have a photo of his grave, if not I shall be visiting this cemetery in about a month's time.

Peter

Thanks Peter that would be great, my uncle was there a few months ago and left about twenty New Zealand ANZAC poppies on the grave. Could you please tidy them up or remove if they are looking untidy, thanks. I would love some general photos of the cemetery and cross of sacrifice from different angles.

I found this photo on the Internet just recently and would like a couple of close ups of the old images (have a thread running in 'Photo request'). My hope is to one day see a photo of Leonard's original cross, one was sent to our family but was lost over time.

Sorry to inundated you with requests.

Regards Wendy

[Wendy Macpherson]

A big thank you to Jackie Walles in New Zealand who did a "Auckland Weekly News" look-up and found that Leonard's notice was published on the 23 August 1917 (which I will now be on the hunt to procure)

She is available to do limited look-ups for Auckland Weekly News and is available via Rootsweb or I can pass her contact details if any one requires her assistance.

Wendy

[Peter Bennett]

Wendy

It will be my privilege and my pleasure. I last visited this cemetery seven years ago to lay a cross for a lady in South Australia. I attach the only overview which I took at the time, but I will make sure I get plenty of overviews this time.

Regards

Peter

[Arthur J]

Hi all,

I am currently researching the war casualties from Armagh, Northern Ireland, and I have a number who were killed when serving in New Zealand regiments.

Thanks to Grant for the link to Papers past, this will be of great help to me as to date I have not had much success on the web at finding NZ records.

Can anyone advise if you can access attestation papers and service records for ANZAC’s (or other useful links).

As ever thanks in anticipation.

Faugh a Ballagh

Arthur J

Edited 27 August , 2010 by Arthur J

[(nzef)]

Hi Arthur,

You might want to consider starting a new thread with your requests as it may get lost in this thread.

If you are looking for ww1 service records then there are a few basic things you can do to track them down.

First - Search the Auckland Cenotaph database - this will give you a wealth of information, including service number.

http://muse.aucklandmuseum.com/databases/cenotaph/locations.aspx

Then, you can visit the Archway site and perform a search on service number (generally the best method)

http://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/

If you are VERY lucky, the WW1 service file in question will have already been scanned (which means someone else has paid for it to be) and it will be available for immediate download. If you are not presented with the option to download the file, then it has yet to be scanned. You then have two options. Wait and hope, or pay the $25NZ and have it scanned.

You can then visit the NZETC site and download an electronic copy of most unit histories. Excellent for searching.

http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/subject-000003.html

There are a number of other resources and things you can do, but this will get you started.

I hope this helps. Feel free to PM if you want more details, or as mentioned above, start a new thread with the informatoin you are seeking.

Cheers

Grant