Online Information About Your Australian Soldier Ancestor

It can be a daunting task undertaking family history research. There are a number of dedicated online family history research and recording repositories such as Ancestry and My Heritage, all of which attract a fee for subscribers.

We have been conducting recent research into WWII veterans and have stumbled across the following free online search engines that may be of use to you:

Indigenous family history: Check out the Mura Collections Catalogue hosted by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AITSIS) in Canberra. The Collection contains the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Biographical Index (ABI), which is a personal name index to published material held in the AIATSIS printed collections. Containing over 70,000 records, it is a primary tool for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people researching their family history.

The Department of Veterans Affairs’ (DVA) Nominal Rolls: As part of DVA’s commitment to honouring the service all those who served Australia and its allies in wars, it has published four nominal rolls. These nominal rolls list members of Australia’s defense forces who served during World War Two, Korean War, Vietnam War and First Gulf War. It also outlines the service man or woman’s service number and whether they were prisoners of war. You can access the search engine here: DVA's Nominal Rolls

Commonwealth War Graves Commission: If you believe your ancestor might have died as a result of his/her war service, then this excellent search function will be invaluable: Find Commonwealth War Records | CWGC

National Archives of Australia: Finally, if you want to be able to dig deeper and examine what your ancestor was doing prior to joining up, who their next of kin was, where they served, their health, and performance, then the National Archives of Australia is your best bet. It should be noted that not every record has been reviewed and published, but there are a good number of records freely available online. We found that it greatly helps to plug your ancestor’s service number into the search engine (which can be obtained from the DVA’s Nominal Rolls): Explore the collection | naa.gov.au

• Topics:

• Military
• History
• Science & Technology