15 April 2011

New Zealand military resources on Ancestry

Ancestry.com has made available a mass of New Zealand military information from published sources. The largest part is for WW1.

Approximately 124,000 served in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, NZEF, during WW1. About 100,000 were sent overseas, nearly 17,000 died of wounds or sickness while on active service, another 35,000 were wounded.

New Zealand Army WWI Nominal Rolls, 1914-1918 contains: enlisted person's name, rank, regimental number, unit or regiment, name, address, and relationship of next-of-kin. It may also contain: last New Zealand residence, marital status, occupation, recruiting district, name of the body or reinforcement draft.

New Zealand Army WWI Reserve Rolls, 1916-1917 is an index of men enlisted into compulsory military service in the NZEF Reserve. There are two rolls, the first compiled in September 1916, the second from August to October 1917. Each record contains the name of the reservist,  occupation, place of residence at time of enlistment. The second roll also includes a classification for each record based on the number of children of the reservist.

New Zealand Army WWI Casualty Lists, 1914-1919
New Zealand Army WWI Roll of Honour, 1914-1919


A list of about 2,000 men, including 160 objectors who were in prison. Defaulters were deprived of their civil rights: they could not vote, hold office, or be employed by any public authority for ten years after (until 1927). Information is: name, number, occupation, place of residence.

Chronicles of the N.Z.E.F., 1916-1919
Published twice a month in London from 1916 to 1919 this magazine provided reports on service life in the NZEF, including stories, entertainment, and information about sporting and social events. Each issue also contains obituaries and casualty lists for soldiers who died while serving in the NZEF, as well as hospital reports of wounded troops. The database is page images which are not computer searchable.

The release includes databases with scope beyond WW1.


This dataset includes New Zealand volunteers and militia who fought during the New Zealand War of 1860 to 1870, ten contingents from New Zealand who were sent to South Africa to fight with British forces during the Second Boer War of 1899-1902, and members of the NZEF.  As is often the case with medal rolls, the information is sparse.


The Defenders of New Zealand
Comprises short biographies of certain colonists who distinguished themselves during the New Zealand War of 1860–1870. It also contains tales of the Maori, a list of volunteers and militia who received the New Zealand Medal, and a list of officers and men of the colonial force who were killed in action during the war. The list of medal recipients has been indexed and is searchable in the New Zealand Army Medal Rolls, 1860-1919 collection.

New Zealand Army WWII Nominal Rolls, 1939-1948
This is a valuable, if incomplete, later period database with information on: embarkation date, surname of enlisted person, rank, army number, unit, marital status, place of enlistment, occupation, last residence, next of kin, address of next of kin, relationship with listed next of kin.

No comments: