If your ancestors fought in the Australian and New Zealand armies in World War 1, follow Judith Batchelor’sadvice to…
Search ANZAC records online
Many Australians and New Zealanders answered the call from the mother country and served as ANZAC soldiers during World War 1. They supported the British and French attempts to capture the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey and later fought on the Western Front. Service records in both countries have been digitised, providing plenty of information on ANZAC ancestors.
Look for Australian records
First, visit the National Archives of Australia, where World War 1 service records can be viewed digitally: www. snipca.com/48459. Click the RecordSearch tab, then choose NameSearch. Type the Family name (surname) and Given name(s), then select ‘All records’ from the ‘Category of Records’ menu – or narrow the search to ‘World War 1’ if it’s a common name.
If there are still too many results, click ‘Refine search’ and add more information. In the results, look for the ‘Access status’ in blue. Any record listed as ‘Open’ is available digitally.
My ancestor Frank Thorndike served with the Australian Imperial Force in World War 1. Choosing ‘All records’ brought up 13 results, though some referred to his son, also named Frank, who served in World War 2.
His service records have been digitised, as indicated by the document icon ( 1in our screenshot above). Clicking this icon brings up the digitised records 2that you can flick through. The camera icon 3
indicates there are photos related to that person. His service number also helped me to identify other records.
Also search the Australian Imperial Force database (www.snipca.com/48475), which is drawn from several official sources, including personnel files on the National Archives website, and Embarkation and Nominal Rolls on the Australian War Memorial website.
Look for New Zealand records
For New Zealand war records visit the country’s official archives (www. snipca.com/48457), where 140,000 records have been digitised. Search by name and/or service number, and on the results page click ‘Archives New Zealand’ to include only records from the 1910s.
I searched for my ancestor Leonard Francis Ford, w
