Genealogy Chat

For those who might not know. New Zealand military records are online for the first time
Ancestry.com.aug are offering free searches for military records for 5 days to coincide with Anzac day

Ancestry.com.au

22nd to 26th April

Thanks Gwyn. I thought it didnt look right

I have been playing in there today.... even made a correction for an incorrect transcription. Don't think my mother's cousin would like to be known as Euiel when her name is Ethel though she is nearly 92 and is probably beyond caring.
She was asked once to tell about her war experiences by the newspaper. She typed up a lot of the official/hush hush documents when she was with the NZ expeditionary forces and she said no she had signed the offical secrets act.

Persie

Hi Persie
I hope you are going to watch the movie on tv tonight called Home Before Christmas.
I saw it at the cinema a few months ago and it was good. Its based on memories from a serving New Zealand family

Yes I shall watch it.... I listened to a couple of reviews on it at the time on National Radio.

Gosh there was no toilet breaks last night with no adverts on TV.

Persie

A nudge while it's still free to search.

Gwyn

Persie.
Home By Christmas was so like my fathers story.
I have my dads soldiers and service pay book found among my deceased mums belongings and sent to me from England

He served in the Middle East 23/4/1941-3/8/1942 . POW in Italy 4/8/1942-14/5/1945.
He told me the Italian guards walked away from the prison camp and he and several others left. The Italian soldiers heart wasnt in fighting as was brought out in the film.
Dad spent time hidden in cellar in a big house in the country by an Italian family until a disgruntled worker of the family dobbed them in.
One day the Germans arrived and questioned the 15 year old servant girl. She denied knowing anything about them.
They had to leave and so did the family. The old grandma refused to leave so I dont know what happened to her.
Dad said they were passed on to the Partisans who got them out of the country

The film really brought that home to me. Mum said my brother was a baby when dad left and going to school when he returned. He hid behind mum when he was introduced to my dad. Mum said she received a telegram to say he was missing. Then another telling her he was a POW
She also said some of the waiting wives did have other men.

So sad. Interesting to hear on the film that it was 41/2 years wasted and he didnt need a parade to remember his fallen friends.

My mother served in New Caledonia - they had Japanese POW camp there... her claim to fame was that she danced with Eisenhower.... My kids like the fact that she was a Base Wallah and Officer's Batman. My parents met at the end of the war at one of the military camps here - my dad hated not going overseas - he was a Sergeant cook and she was waiting on the tables. He never attended an Anzac parade but my mother took me once when I was little. We did have the set of NZEF books - I have just kept the one with my mother in.

Ethel the secret squirrel met her husband (an Aussie) in Fiji where they were stationed and they kept returning to Fiji for holidays the last time during one of the coups. She obtained her mechanics certificate and worked on the trucks as well as her secret papers typing.

Your story is so similar Gaylene Preston's father's one. I thought that Tony Barry played his part so well and the language and sayings he used just sounded like my dad.

Persie