Australian War Records

[trish1]

Ancestry are announcing access to millions of WWI Oz records

These are from the National Archives of Australia and are available free of charge here

http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/search/index.aspx - select record search.

The records include WWII as well as WWI. All WWI are digitised, some of WWII are not. For a reasonable fee you can request digitisation for those that are not available. There are also many other types of records available on the site

[paddyscar]

Thanks for posting Trish. Will have a look through for my uncles.

Frances

[StewL]

I found my own service record, even if it was very brief and only included recruit school, unfortunately the rest is still classified.

[trish1]

I found my own service record, even if it was very brief and only included recruit school, unfortunately the rest is still classified.

Guess you'll have to wait to find out about your service

There are some amazing family stories in those archives - some sad, some funny & some revealing all the mixed up issues that families tend to not discuss. Apparently when soldiers returned from WWI the soldier and his designated other (wife or parent etc) were invited to a "Return Dinner". On one file there was a letter from a soldier's sister noting that his family did not get on with his wife & the latter would tell them nothing about his whereabouts and when he was returning - so if the army could just send them invites to the dinner they could meet up with him.

Trish

[Fiona C]

Thank you for highlighting this Trish. I found the service records from WW1 of 3 brothers, my Great-Grandmother's nephews, who had all gone out to Australia before the war. They are absolutely fascinating. One of the brothers was a tunneller and was killed towards the end of the war. There was a letter in his records from his sister asking if there was news of him as they hadn't heard from him for quite a long time. It was very moving. In one of the other brother's records there was a letter from him written several years later asking if he was due any additional medals as he had peviously been in the Merchant Marine transporting troops prior to joining the Australian Imperial Forces. There was just one mystery - the brother who died stated that he was born in Chicago, USA, when in fact he was born in London after the family moved from Glasgow. Don't know why he would have said that. It was definitely the correct person as it had his parents' address as next of kin.

Fiona

[trish1]

Hi Fiona

There were many reasons people gave wrong accounts on their attestation records - but I haven't come across being born in the US as one of same - and I'm having trouble thinking why. It would have meant he was not a British Subject (in those times no such thing as an Australian National - if you were born in the British Empire - you belonged) - don't know what the benefit of that may have been?

It may have been that he gave an area of London that the attesting Officer didn't recognize & translated as Chicago - with the USA then added - but does seem a little strange.

As for the records - the family letters can sometimes be heartbreaking, sometime amusing - certainly give insights into the people. I have one written by my grandmother asking about her husband's homecoming. If you have any RAAF family members - the WWII records give all their family details - wife and children and if a pilot married in the UK the marriage certificates are also included.

Trish

[Fiona C]

Hi Trish

It's really odd about the place of birth. He was actually born in Wandsworth, so I wouldn't have thought that could have been confused with Chicago! Also, he says he is British by naturalisation! Both of his brothers whose records are also there state that they were born in Glasgow or London respectively. I wonder if it was something to do with his plans for after the war - sadly never to happen as he was killed. His two brothers later emigrated to the USA. It's a strange little mystery!

Fiona