Australians and New Zealanders know ANZAC Day - 25 April - as a national day of remembrance for Australian and New Zealanders who died during armed conflict.
Last year, we ran a blog challenge that was very successful - we invited Australians and New Zealanders to write about their Anzacs, in celebration of their life and in commemoration of their service and their sacrifice. Not all the stories were of people who died. Sacrifice comes in all forms. Not all of the stories were of family members.
Do you have a story to share about an ANZAC? We'd like to hear about not only their sacrifice, but the way it shaped their family history. Maybe you want to blog from the perspective of those that were left behind?
To participate:
- Write a blog post about an Australian or New Zealander serviceman or woman's family, and the impact war had on their family history
- Post a comment with the URL to your blog on the comments section of this page. Or if you don't have a blog then email us your story at kintalk@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz
- Publish your post by 25 April 2012.
After ANZAC Day, all submissions will be listed in a summary posting on Auckland Libraries' Kintalk blog.
Just to get you started, recommended resources for New Zealand and Australian research, see the Auckland Libraries Digital Resources.
Access great online resources:
The virtual exhibition consists of "albums" containing photos/images and documents. Virtual albums entitled "Gallipoli", "Lest We Forget", "New Zealand Maori Battalion", "Peace", "Postcards" and "Returned Services Association". Also has a portal for searching content nationwide from organizations such as libraries, archives, museums and galleries, including Auckland Libraries. Courtesy DigitalNZ.
For references to articles and other resources regarding WWI and WWII.
For diaries, letters, postcards and albums
And Papers Past
Within the library catalogue: Auckland Libraries
Searching using WWI or WWII etc will return you wonderful results of holdings throughout the whole of Auckland Libraries, which you can narrow down by location by using the "select location" dropdown menu on the right of screen. For example, available in all four Research Centres:- Central, South (Manukau) and West (Waitakere) and North (Takapuna) are gems such as:
and you'll also find Australian resources in the Central Auckland Research Centre; for example:
For other sites, try looking at:
- the Auckland War Memorial Museum;
- the Australian War Memorial site and
- the National Archives of Australia or look further by
- using the resources listed on Cora Num’s website.
- National Archives of Australia Facebook page about their Shellshocked Exhibition and some of the personal stories that they have collected might also be of interest.
Helen Vail's blog 100 NZ WW1 Memorials 1914-2014 is a mine of information about WW1 memorials, and individuals that she has researched. Helen's goal is to personally visit and collate information from 100 New Zealand World War One Memorials throughout New Zealand by August 2014 to commemorate the 100 year Anniversary of the start of World War One and to honour those who paid the ultimate price.
Here's last year's summary and blog responses to get you started!
Hopefully this will inspire you and provide you with some assistance in writing your blog!
Blog away!
Seonaid
