In the lead up to Anzac Day, there is another excellent resource in the Auckland Research Centre to share with you – the Hills Newspaper Index to photographs published in the Auckland Weekly News between August 1914 and March 1919.
The Auckland Weekly News was filled not only with news and advertisements, but with an excellent assortment of photographs, and a service it offered during the war years was to publish a passport sized photograph of your wounded or killed family member. These photographs have all been indexed in to one easy-to-use volume, although its worth noting it does not included those photographs published in the Weekly News supplement.
Granted, the captions don’t give a lot of detail, and more information can be found on sites such as Auckland Museum’s cenotaph database but what this index offers you is a quick way to locate the actual issue – a nice addition to your family history records.
The index is alphabetical according to surname and lists the date of the newspaper, rank of the person, name, details about regiment or NZ residence, and details such as ‘died of wounds’, ‘Died of sickness, ‘killed in action’, and so on. There are also group photographs in the mix.
If you wonder if your ancestor is included, then check the index next time you’re in the Central Auckland Research Centre. It can be found in our Family History NZ Military collection at 2 NZL MIL.
Joanne
