Royal Voluntary Service Records Project

The Hidden Histories of A Million Wartime Women project went live on Kickstarter throughout May with the target of £25,000 to digitise the first 28,000 pages of diaries from 1938 to 1941. Public support has been so overwhelming that the charity hasn’t just met its target, but superseded it having raised £27,724 thanks to the 705 backers who kindly donated.

These pledges have given Royal Voluntary Service the opportunity to reveal a vivid insight into life during World War II. For the past six years, our archivist and a team of volunteers at Royal Voluntary Service has been sorting and protecting the diaries but thanks to public donations, a specially trained staff member will now begin digitising them ready for publication on their website in July 2017.

Within two years of the outbreak of the Second World War, 1-in-10 women had set aside their own lives to volunteer and help others as members of the Women's Voluntary Services (WVS).   These ordinary women who volunteered for the charity played a vital role on the Home Front and worked tirelessly to contribute towards the war effort. As well as sewing, cooking and helping the community recover after raids, they learnt new skills such as extinguishing bombs, driving in the black-out and making clothes from dog hair.

One example out of the thousands of diaries describes a major Blitz in Bath between 28 and 29 April 1941. This saw volunteers fit 80 children with masks and issue 205 helmets for babies. The centre also served 3,350 meals and helped coordinate housing for more than 9,000 people made homeless following the raids. One volunteer from the centre had lost her home and all of her belongings during the blitz but turned up to volunteer the following morning. She also sent a brave telegram to her soldier sons reading “bombed out, but still smiling,” so not to worry them.   Several other examples are also available on the project's page.

WDYTYA First World War Army Research Guide

To mark 100 years since the start of the Battle of the Somme, the wonderful people at Who Do You Think You Are Magazine are making their First World War Army research guide available to download completely free of charge as a PDF document.
Written by Phil Tomaselli and originally published in their July 2014 issue, the 10-page printable PDF has been fully updated to include the latest records released on the web during the First World War Centenary so far.

Lives at Sea - Royal Navy Records

Thousands of Royal Navy service records from the First World War has been launched online.  Unveiled on Wednesday 15 June, the First World War: Lives at Sea website provides details of more than 3,500 naval officers and ratings who served during the conflict.  Fully searchable, the material represents just a small portion of the total service records from the First World War period which are gradually being transcribed and uploaded to the database.

A lack of Royal Navy crew lists after the late 19th century means it has previously been difficult for researchers to determine who was on which ship at the same time.  However, the presence of transcribed records within the database means users will quickly be able to see connections between records and view ‘virtual crew lists’ for different battles and campaigns.  The transcription will also enable users to find Royal Navy personnel by details that have previously not been made searchable, including occupation, next of kin and medals.
The website is the result of a joint partnership between The National Archives, the National Maritime Museum and the Crew Lists Index Project. All three partners previously collaborated to create a similar resource last year, providing free access to Merchant Navy records from 1915.
The project team aims to have uploaded the full collection of transcribed Royal Navy service records to the database by November 2018, in time for the end of the First World War Centenary.

British Red Cross WW1 Volunteers

A digitisation and transcription project to make thousands of nursing records available on the web has reached completion. Family historians can now search through over 244,000 British Red Cross personnel index cards, providing details of men and women who served as Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) workers during the First World War. First launched in 2014, the project was undertaken by the British Red Cross in partnership with Kingston University, with help from more than 800 volunteers around the world. You can search the collection for free here.

Over 90,000 people volunteered for the Red Cross in World War 1 both at home and overseas.  Volunteers were not just from Britain - they came from all over the Commonwealth, including a number of Australians.  Below are the cards for Victorian volunteer Jessie Traill, who spent much of the war nursing in France.

Using the 1939 Register: Recording the UK population before the war

The National Archives UK have released a talk on the creation and use of the 1939 Register.  Available either as a webinar or audio podcast, the talk runs for just over an hour and is presented by Records Specialist Audrey Collins.
The Register, taken on 29 September 1939, provides a snapshot of the civilian population of England and Wales just after the outbreak of the Second World War.  As the 1931 census for England and Wales was destroyed by fire duringWW2  and no census was taken in 1941, the 1939 Register helps fill the gap created.  Whilst the 1939 Register is not a census, it is arranged along similar lines and includes similar, if less detailed, information.
The records were used to produce up-to-date population statistics and identification cards and, once rationing was introduced in January 1940, to facilitate the issuing of ration cards. Information in the Register was also used to administer conscription, and to monitor and control the movement of the population caused by military mobilisation and mass evacuation.

British Army war diaries 1914-1922

The National Archives in the UK have been digitising the British Army war diaries from 1914-1922.  These records are the unit war diaries of the British Army in the First World War, not personal diaries (try the Imperial War Museum for those). They are part of a large series of records which contains many more diaries scheduled for digitisation, and the NA are now conserving, sorting, digitising and itemising thousands more diaries from the WO 95 series as part of their First World War 100 programme.

The digitised diaries cover activity in France and Belgium.  The amount of detail each Unit Diary contains varies quite a bit.  Some diaries only record daily losses and map references whilst others are more descriptive, with daily reports on operations, intelligence summaries and other material.  Some refer to maps and plans which were regarded as confidential and removed from the diaries before they were preserved.  A few diaries contain details about awards of the Military Medal and the Meritorious Service Medal, but mostly they do not contain a great deal of information about specific individuals.  Many of the war diaries were scribbled hastily in pencil and use obscure abbreviations, whilst some are the second carbon copy of the original, so they may be difficult to read.

The diaries include those of 247 First World War hospital camps, hospital ships, convalescent hospitals and veterinary hospitals.  These war diaries reveal different methods of treating injured and disabled soldiers, and give insight into life in hospital during the First World War and the daily routines, operations and special events.  These even include Christmas services: on board Hospital Ship Vasna in December 1918, ‘a generous supply of gifts were obtained from the Red Cross Depot in Basra and were distributed by the Matron to all patients, passengers and staff.’  They also illustrate the challenges involved in setting up hospitals in battlegrounds and at sea, and the logistics of nursing thousands of soldiers and animals back to health. The war diary for HMHS Erinpura reveals that in just 15 voyages in 1918, the ship had carried ‘6126 sick and 4067 troops’.

You can search by Regiment, Battalion, Brigade or Division (number), but keep in mind that if you search only by regiment, your search results will include all the battalions in that regiment. PDF files of the diaries can then be downloaded.  With each download, you will typically see a unit diary that may cover a period of several years and may be divided into several PDF files. You can then scroll through the PDF files to locate the battalion and dates that you are interested in.  Note that while searching is free, there may be a charge to download documents.

Remembrance Day

Each year the Department of Veterans’ Affairs produces a Remembrance Day poster with a commemorative focus.  This 2009 poster features an image of the Flanders poppies and is overlaid with the text of the poem by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, In Flanders Fields, and was downloaded from their website.  I have always loved this poem and can remember my father reciting it in the past.

Hitler's Black Book

To mark the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, Forces War Records have translated and put online for the first time what is known as Hitler’s Black Book (officially called Sonderfahndungsliste Gross Britannien). It lists 2,820 English people that the Nazi regime viewed as enemies of the state, people in the UK who were targeted for execution if Germany was successful in winning the Battle of Britain.

The list was drawn up by SS General Walter Schellenbergs office.
Schellenberg was to become the ‘Police’ chief responsible for GB after an invasion, the main Gestapo offices were to be based in Birmingham.
The list shows the department of the RSHA (Reichssicherheitshauptamt- Reich security service) which would investigate each individual, giving insight into what ‘crimes’ the individual was suspected of being involved in.

Hitler studying invasion plans

Most of the people on the list were politicians, writers, prominent émigrés, known intelligence agents, scientists, entertainers and artists.  Not surprisingly, the hit list is full of people whom the Nazis knew spied on Germany, such as Conrad Fulke Thomond O’Brien-french, the real-life British Secret Intelligence officer who served as the role model for 007 James Bond. Also included are well-known politicians such as Winston Churchill. What is surprising are some of the other names on the list, such as Lord Baden-Powell (the founder of scouts), the author HG Wells and the entertainer Noel Coward.

The Bomb Site

The Bomb Sight project is mapping the London WW2 bomb census between 7/10/1940 and 06/06/1941. Previously available only by viewing in the Reading Room at The National Archives, Bomb Sight is making the maps available to citizen researchers, academics and students. They will be able to explore where the bombs fell and to discover memories and photographs from the period.

The project has scanned original 1940s bomb census maps , geo-referenced the maps and digitally captured the geographical locations of all the falling bombs recorded on the original map.

You can use the interactive web-mapping application to explore and search for different bomb locations across London. Click on individual bombs and find out information relating to the neighbouring area by reviewing contextual images and memories from the Blitz.

You can explore statistics for different areas and see how many bombs fell in different wards and boroughs in London as well as read memories of Londoners contributed to the BBC WW2 People's War and images from the Imperial War Museum to allow you to visualise what it was like in London at such a difficult time.

Irish WW1 Exhibit Online

Rare and previously unpublished WW1 material held in the Trinity College Dublin Library is now available to be viewed online thanks to a collaboration between Trinity and Google.
The Great War Revisited Exhibition features 80 exhibits of unique heritage material from Trinity’s rare books and manuscripts collections relating to the Great War, including recruiting posters, letters, diaries, photographs, videos, pamphlets and artworks.
Highlights of the exhibition include:

• Trinity’s celebrated collection of Irish WWI recruiting posters (one of the largest collection in existence)
• Previously unpublished photographs of the Allied campaign in Iraq and Turkey
• Letters and diaries from Irish soldiers serving in France, Iraq and Palestine (previously unpublished)
• A multitude of political pamphlets, songs and ballads and artworks

Helen Shenton, Librarian and College Archivist, said: “The Library of Trinity College Dublin is delighted to be partnering with Google Cultural Institute on the Great War Revisited online exhibition. Showcasing the richness of First World War material held in the Library, the online exhibition forms part of the Library's commitment to opening up its historic collections for global online access.”

Did your Ancestor fight at Waterloo?

Newly added to the records available from Ancestry.com are those of the British troops who fought in the Napoleonic Wars and Anglo-American War, including the historic Battle of Waterloo.  Digitized from documents held by the National Archives in series WO 12, the collection comprises some 460,000 pay and enlistment records, known as Muster Rolls.
According to the Ancestry website, "this series comprises selected muster books and pay lists of the Cavalry, Foot Guards and regular infantry regiments of the line. Also included are special regiments or corps, colonial troops, various foreign legions and troops, garrison battalions, veteran battalions and depots. The majority of muster books and pay lists cover the period from 1812 to 1817, during the Napoleonic Wars and the Anglo-American War, though some rolls go back as far as 1779 and also up to 1821. Several regiments that participated in the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815 are included in this collection."
Muster rolls and pay lists were troop lists taken on a monthly or quarterly basis for pay and accounting purposes and may provide enlistment dates, movements, and discharge dates of soldiers. For most regiments or units in this collection, records have been indexed from one muster roll per year. Rolls and lists not indexed may be browsed by category and piece description.
Records vary but may include the following details:

• name
• start date
• end date
• regiment
• where stationed
• rank
• pay 

So have a look and see of any of your ancestors fought during these wars, and the collection could help you fill in the details of their service, the battles the fought in, how much they were paid and if they were ever held as prisoners of war.  Remember access to Ancestry is free in all our library branches.

The Soldier's Kit

The centennary of World War 1 has created enormous interest in many people for information about their military ancestors.  In order to help interpret digital images of A.I.F. personnel and provide more detail of military life the following breakdown of Australian Anzac ‘Kit’ has been prepared.

The individual AIF infantryman was issued with a universal kit or duffle bag into which he packed the following:

• 2 Pairs of brown leather hob-nail-soled ankle boots, with one psare pair of laces.
• 1 pair of braces
• 2 pairs of woollen cord Commonwealth Pattern breeches.
• Field Service Cap or Slouch Hat, with 2 spare chin straps
• Greatcoat
• Jacket – Service Dress
• 1 pair of Puttees -. Fabric strapping for lower legs.
• Dungaree jacket and trousers

Other pieces of kit included insignia and rank badges, and training garments including white canvas plimsolls and hat. He was assigned three brushes: hair, shaving and tooth. A comb, razor in a case and soap were his allotted toiletries. Underclothes were essential and each man was given two pairs of cotton drawers (underwear), 2 singlets, 2 flannel shirts and 3 pairs of socks. To keep out the chill he was allotted a jersey and khaki cap comforter. Essentially a woolen hat, this was often worn under helmets or during trench raids. All of the essential smaller items were contained in a ‘holdall’ and supplemented by a ‘housewife’, The Housewife was a holdall/pouch containing a thimble, two balls of grey darning wool (for socks), 50 yards of linen thread wound around card, needles, brass dish buttons and plastic buttons for shirts. The personal kit it would be finished off with the essentials of a knife, fork and spoon, that could be used with the D-shaped mess tin. Additionally a service knife was issued, which contained a marline splicing spike, a tin opener and lanyard.

Soldiers wore a British Pattern 1908 webbing arrangement in leather and/or heavy canvas.  Developed for the British Army, this pattern was the most advanced arrangement at the outbreak of the war and utilized by most Commonwealth armies, having the one main advantage that it could be taken off and on in one piece without the probability of losing any pieces. The basic arrangement consisted of the following components:

• 3 inch wide waist belt, with two angled 2 inch buckles at the rear
• 2 inch wide shoulder straps, attached to the aforementioned buckles
• Left and right hand ammunition pouches, consisting of five individual pockets, three underneath and two above. 
• Haversack – this could be worn in a variety of positions and methods from middle of the back to below waist belt
• Water bottle and carrier
• Entrenching tool and helve carrier – a two piece device and the handle of which is carried strapped to the bayonet scabbard, and attached to the bayonet frog
• A large pack was also carried, almost always on the back. Valise straps attached the pack to the wearer.

As the Australian infantryman evolved as a fighting entity, especially into the main Western Front European theatre, the essential kit also contained a gas mask, personalized cold weather accessories and preferred trench fighting weaponry, such as knuckle-dusters, clubs and pistols. Officers might privately purchase trench periscopes, binoculars and personal accessories that could more readily be stored in dug-outs.

The Australian Infantryman was also assigned ‘emergency rations’, only to be used as a last resort and consisted of corned or ‘bully’ beef, hard tack biscuits, tea, salt and matches. In situations like that of the Gallipoli campaign, such rations were regularly called upon. Official kit was supplemented by personally acquired ‘unofficial’ kit, which, if withdrawn during official inspections, was tolerated. Souvenirs, collected from the battlefield or bought from local merchants, regularly found their way into a soldiers pack.

British Red Cross WW1 Volunteers

Over 90,000 people volunteered for the British Red Cross at home and overseas during World War 1.  They performed all kinds of roles from nurses to air raid wardens.  Their work during the war included running auxiliary hospitals and convalescent homes, temporary facilities for wounded servicemen which proved to be vital.  During the war the British Red Cross and the Order of St John worked together as part of the Central Prisoners of War Committee which co-ordinated relief for British prisoners of war. POWs were in dire need of food and clothing during their captivity, with the Red Cross providing food parcels, helping locate missing soldiers who had been captured and ensuring letters between POWs and their families were received. 

The British Red Cross website now allows you to search for your family’s personnel records, and discover what Red Cross volunteers were doing in your local area 100 years ago.

The personnel records for surnames starting with A through I are currently available. Volunteers are updating the site with more names every few weeks, with the aim of making all WW1 records available.

War Graves Photographic Project

Another great project, largely made possible by the efforts of volunteers, makes searching for our military ancestors easier.  The original aim of The War Graves Photographic Project was to photograph every war grave, individual memorial, Ministry of Defence grave, and family memorial of serving military personnel from WWI to the present day. However, due to the popularity of the project their aim has been expanded to cover all nationalities and military conflicts and make these available within a searchable database.
According to their website, the project is a joint venture with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and assisting the Office of Australian War Graves, Canadian Veterans Affairs and the New Zealand Ministry of Heritage and Culture.  The project is ongoing and names in the archive now stand at 1,816,851.  Below is their record and photograph of one of my relatives, Roger Pummeroy

Pummeroy, Roger Francis

Cemetery: Athens Memorial
Country: Greece
Area:
Rank: Private
Official Number: VX3417
Unit: A.I.F. 2/6 Bn. Australian Infantry
Force: Army
Nationality: Australian
Details:
28-Apr-1941 Aged 22 Son of Henry John and Alberta Lillian Pummeroy, of Clayton, Victoria, Australia. Face 11.

Photograph and details by volunteer/s: John Milner / Craig Walker

ANZAC Day

With preparations underway all around me for ANZAC Day ceremonies tomorrow, I've been looking at the information I have accumulated about my military ancestors and reflecting on how truly lucky my family has been during the two World Wars.  With so many family members seeing war service, we have suffered surprisingly few casualties or injuries.  So many others have not been so fortunate.

On my mother's side of the family, one of her brothers and four uncles saw service, along with a number of in-laws, cousins and second cousins.  Three of the four boys in my father's family saw service in World War 2, although my father, to his disappointment, never made it out of Australia.  My mother's middle brother, who was in the Merchant Navy, was the only immediate family member to lose his life, drowning in Argentina after the war had ended.  His ship was picking up a load of supplies to take to Poland to help rebuild when he fell overboard.

While none of my immediate ancestors were killed at Gallipoli, their war service had a profound effect on their entire generation, and I will be thinking of them all as I attend services tomorrow.

A carpet of handmade poppies at Federation Square in Melbourne

The Victorian Soldier Settlement Scheme 1917-1935

The Public Records Office of Victoria have digitised selected documents from Victorian Government files kept on returned World War One soldiers who were approved to lease a block of farming land in Victoria. They were known as soldier settlers.
Victoria sent about 90,000 men and women to serve overseas in the First World War, about 70,000 of whom survived to return home. As the war continued, the issue of repatriating returning soldiers became increasingly urgent.  As well as providing War pensions and other financial assistance, State governments of the time set up ‘settlement’ schemes to support returning soldiers with work. These schemes involved subdividing large rural estates into smaller farming blocks and leasing them back to discharged service-people.  Reports from the time indicated there were around 11,000 farms created, although it seems likely this figure includes successful applicants to the scheme who did not end up going on to the land.  Returned service people and their families moved on to the land from the first mass demobilisations right up until the 1930s, although the majority of blocks were granted in the early 1920s.
The records you may see include:

• Applications for a Qualification Certificate
• Applications to lease particular blocks of land
• Lease documents (called Selection Leases or Conditional Purchase Leases)
• Lease transfer and cancellation documents

You can search for government records about soldier settlement files on this website by soldier name, or click on the embedded map and select individuals based on their geographic location.

The Silver War Badge Records 1914-1920

Was your ancestor discharged from the military because wounds or illness left them unfit to continue service?  They may have been among the 800,000 recipients of the Silver War Badge whose records are now available at Ancestry.com.

In September 1916, King George V authorized the Silver War Badge (SWB) to honor all military personnel who had served at home or overseas since 4 August 1914 and who had been discharged because of wounds or illness. The SWB was a small, circular badge made of sterling silver that bore the king’s initials, a crown, and the inscriptions ‘For King and Empire’ and ‘Services Rendered’. The badge could also be worn by personnel who were discharged because of age. 
 
The SWB was not simply an honor; it also served a practical purpose. At the time, men of military age in England who were not obviously in the service were sometimes accosted or insulted by civilians presenting them with white feathers—a symbol of cowardice—for shirking their patriotic duty. The badge, which was worn with civilian dress, served as an outward symbol that the wearer’s duty to country had been honorably fulfilled. 

Thousands of women appear on the rolls as well, serving overseas in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, which provided cooking, mechanical, clerical, and other support services.  Many others served as nurses.

 One thing to keep in mind as you search for your own WWI ancestor. Millions were wounded in the war—some, like J.R.R. Tolkien, so severely that they never did return to the front—but unless they were discharged, they won’t be on the Silver War Badge rolls. 

For those of you who do not have a subscription to Ancestry, check your local library to see if they have a library subscription.  Ancestry Library Edition is available via our free public internet at all branches of Campaspe Regional Library.

New Military Records Online

Ancestry has added thousands of Australian service records from the First World War. Digitised from dossiers held by The National Archives of Australia, the collection covers personnel from the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF), Royal Australian Naval Bridging Train (RANBT), Australian Flying Corps (AFC) and the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS).

Ancestry has also uploaded a tranche of records regarding UK citizens resident in the United States who served in the British Expeditionary Force between 1917-19. Released in partnership with the US National Archives and Records Administration, the collection comprises scanned index cards, providing the name of the resident, their address, date of birth, marital status, civilian occupation and date they entered service.

Finally, Ancestry has added the records of men who served in the Royal Navy during the First World War. Spanning 1900-1918, the Registers of Seamen’s Services can reveal information such as birthdate, birthplace, vessels and dates of service. Family historians can also click through from the transcriptions to view scans of the original documents, held at The National Archives, which provide additional details such as physical description.

Thousands of women’s military records have been made available on Findmypast for the first time. Launched to coincide with International Women’s Day on 8 March, the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps Service Records collection provides details of women who served in the unit (known by the acronym WAAC) in England, France and Flanders during the First World War. Digitised from records held at The National Archives, the files reveal details such as birthplace, physical description, medical history, education and parents’ nationalities.

Forces War Records has now uploaded more than 100,000 First World War medical records to the web. Originally launched with 30,000 entries in October 2014, the Military Hospitals Admissions and Discharge Registers collection comprises transcriptions of files created by field hospitals between 1915-18, containing details of men treated on the front line and the nature of their ailments.

Researchers looking for family living in Jersey during the WW2 German occupation can now download their registration card, including a photograph. The collection of German Occupation registration cards, recognised by UNESCO for its importance, has been digitised and added to the Jersey Heritage website by Jersey Archive. The collection includes 90,000 images that can be searched for free, although there is a fee of £5 to download a card.

With so much happening during the Centemary of World War 1 I'm finding it quite hard to keep up with all the records and information coming online - especially as I an researching family members in several countries.  I hope you all find something useful in the sites mentioned above.

Prisoners of the First World War

A new website has launched called Prisoners of the First World War from the ICRC Archives. During WWI, some 10 million people were captured and sent to detention camps, including both servicemen and civilians. This website contains such things as cards on prisoners of war and reports of deaths and injuries at detention camps. The records cover several armies, including British (and the Commonwealth), French, Belgian, German, Romanian, Serbian, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, Greek, American, Austro-Hungarian, Bulgarian and Turkish. The website will be interesting for anyone who had an ancestor who was a prisoner of war in WWI, and it will be particularly useful if your ancestor came from a country that generally lacks genealogy records, such as Serbia or Bulgaria. The records can be searched by name.
The objective is to put some 5 million records online, and the website has already reached 90% of its target. A YouTube video below gives a good overview of the website. Access is free.

52 Weeks of Genealogy - Week 29 - Military Records

This week Shauna has chosen military records and tells us that "there are lots of records that could fall under this broad heading but I will focus on the dossiers which contains lots of different information. To start there is all the biographical information contained on the enlistment form as well as a photograph in some instances (depending on the war). Then there is information on where they are sent, if they are wounded or ill, and when they come home. Sometimes there are letters from family at home seeking information on their loved one and perhaps letters from the person after their service has ended. Some of the dossiers I have are quite big while others only have a few pages."

I have the military records for several of my ancestors, including my father and two of his brothers, my mother's eldest brother and several great-uncles.  They cover both world wars and my family was extremely lucky, with all the immediate family returning from the wars alive and relatively unharmed.  We did have a second cousin killed in WW1, but everyone else made it home (it seems not even wars kill off my family).  The only exception was my mother's middle brother who was killed after WW2 ended, and he actually wasn't a soldier - he was in the Merchant Navy and drowned in an accident in Argentina in 1947.  He was buried there in a full Catholic funeral - a bit of an error as my mother's family is very much Anglican - and my grandmother was sent a number of photographs of the service and the burial by the kindly priest who officiated.

Having heard many family stories over the years about the various war experiences of these men, and the home experiences of the women in the family (none of my female ancestors were nurses, etc), it surprises me how many of them, including my father, saw the war as a chance to travel, see a bit of the world, give the 'enemy' a black eye and all be home by Christmas.  My father was always rather disappointed he never actually made it out of Australia during his time in the Air Force.  His brother Ernest (known as Squib) sent the postcard below to their sister Nancy from Egypt.

Through the National Archives of Australia I have downloaded several family WW1 records and ordered those from WW2 -  the NAA has indexed and digitised Boer War and World War 1 dossiers, which you can search and view online for free. World War II dossiers have been indexed but will only be digitised if a family member has requested it.  Other websites include Discovering Anzacs Whichallows you to add your stories and images, and the Australian War Memorial, which has databases like the WW1 Embarkation Rolls and WW1 Red Cross files.
Thanks again Shauna for another great topic.  You can read Shauna's full blog post here.