Thread: Searching ANZACs - family from Ballangeich

Further to the above I discovered I can search the National Archives and I think I have dug up something that shouldn't have been dug up - my father was court martialled in 1944.... oops (he is deceased and none of his siblings are alive) - it's news to me....

If you're like me - you too may have an interest in some family and friend history - eg a friends father wrote to the army wrt his discharge-and here it is now digitally recorded......

Originally Posted by Numpty's Missus

Oh oh......now you've got the bug. Digging up the dead can be a lifetime hobby (says she whose has devoted many hours to digging up her dead over the last 16yrs)....I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do

Oh....and I made what is to me, a major find this week.....happy happy happy

Well I've had the 'bug' for a while. Went to Scotland last year and had a ball treading the ancient highlands and gazing on many a headstone looking at family names.

(It may be that my father was court martialled for stealing a yank jeep in new guinea. So my older brother reckons. oops .. I grew up in a house where the WWII was never discussed and where I was never allowed to play with 'war toys', unlike my neighbours kids whose parents didn't go to the war.)


One thing that is interesting is to look at the mappingouranzacs site and just gazing over the map of Australia and seeing from where soldiers were born and came from. Very humbling. And following on I found a couple of my grandfathers cousins who are buried in Belgium and France.

There will be a few families surprised by the scandals hiding in their ancestors military records. A cousin of my maternal grandmother served in the 5th. Light horse. He died about 1970 in his eighties. I always thought of him as a toffee-nosed old prude and bible banger. His AIF record shows him hospitalised three times in Egypt with VD. He knew where he got one dose, "European brothel, Port Said".

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

There will be a few families surprised by the scandals hiding in their ancestors military records. A cousin of my maternal grandmother served in the 5th. Light horse. He died about 1970 in his eighties. I always thought of him as a toffee-nosed old prude and bible banger. His AIF record shows him hospitalised three times in Egypt with VD. He knew where he got one dose, "European brothel, Port Said".

One of my Grandfathers brothers, whom I was named after was in the first 1000 to enlist, he was wounded on Anzac Day, landing at Gallipoli, was sent to Egypt to recoup and sent back to Gallopoli just in time for the attack at Lone Pine where he was killed in hand to hand fighting in the Turkish trenches between the 6th to 9th August 1915, he was buried by the Chaplain where he died, my Grandfather and his Family didn't learn of his death until Feb. 1916.
Another of my Grandfathers brothers spent the entire war in and out of the Brig, even on the ship on the way over, every time he was released he either went AWOL or committed an offence, so one was a true Hero and the other was a coward.
Can anyone tell me if the soldiers that enlisted in the First World War (Australians) had their photo taken by the Army for I.D. purposes, I have sent away and recieved their Personal Dossiers but don't have any photos, I have my Grandfathers photo in uniform but it looks like it was done professionally, outside of the Army, would be obliged if anyone has any info, Regards Frank.

My family has a long digger history
Traced back a g,g,great uncle that went to the Boar war.
couldn't find any in WWI,
had 6 brothers that did WWII (my grandfather)


father did Vietnam.
I'm still in.

Can anyone tell me if the soldiers that enlisted in the First World War (Australians) had their photo taken by the Army for I.D. purposes, I have sent away and recieved their Personal Dossiers but don't have any photos, I have my Grandfathers photo in uniform but it looks like it was done professionally, outside of the Army, would be obliged if anyone has any info, Regards Frank.[/quote]

If you can find the unit number there are pics of all of them on the Aus Memorial National archives.The ones online are low res but you can buy high res prints. But if you don't know what the relly look like, there can be probs. We had a whole lot of family pics of Aussies in uniform from WW1 and were able to cross refer to find a great uncle who won a couple of gongs.

DeeJay, I have seen the group photo 2nd btn. but I have no idea of what he looks like, I would have thought that the Armed Forces would have taken photos of each individual for security reasons at least, I was hoping someone would know if they did, or not, thanks, Regards Frank.