This is the day, that is a national day of remembrance for Australian and New Zealanders who died during armed conflict.
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?
Your story doesn't have to involve a serviceperson who lost their lives - during times of war, all sorts of loss unfortunately are experienced.
And you can write about those who served in other wars.
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 2013.
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:
Coming Home virtual exhibition
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.
Access great online resources:
Coming Home virtual exhibition
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.
Index Auckland and New Zealand Card Index
For references to articles and other resources regarding WWI and WWII.
Manuscripts Online
For diaries, letters, postcards and albums
And Papers Past
Within the library catalogue: Auckland Libraries, search using World War, 1914-1918 or World War, 1939-1945 to find suitable resources.
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:
For references to articles and other resources regarding WWI and WWII.
Manuscripts Online
For diaries, letters, postcards and albums
And Papers Past
Within the library catalogue: Auckland Libraries, search using World War, 1914-1918 or World War, 1939-1945 to find suitable resources.
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 contributions and 2011's summary and blog responses to get you started!
Hopefully this will inspire you and provide you with some assistance in writing your blog!
The centenary of the First World War - 2014-2018
While thinking about your blog, remember that 2014 marks the centenary of the beginning of the First World War.
The Ministry of Culture and Heritage is developing projects to assist with commemorations for next year, WW100 is providing a portal for New Zealanders who want to be involved in the commemorations, and NZ History Online provides a place for our school children to go to for homework and study assistance.
You may already have read about the launch of New Zealand's WW100 on our sister blog Heritage et AL .
Its worth considering how else you might want to contribute to commemorating, and ensuring that your stories are collected.
Each country will have its own WW100 commemorations, so if your ancestor was involved serving for another country, see what you can find out that country is doing.
FindMyPastAU and Inside History magazine have a joint initiative to create an ANZAC Memory Bank and invite people to register to be notified of when the site goes live.
Blog away
Seonaid
