Thursday 23 October 2014

Researching World War 1 soldiers from the Moreland area



Moreland City Libraries has put together an excellent collection of resources on researching the World War 1 years and has an ever-growing collection of digital resources, including images and publications, which are available for you to download and read at home.

For example, by putting 'Soldier' into a search of Moreland's Local History Catalogue, I came up with this image of Leslie ('Swannee') Prior, who, it is claimed, was Brunswick's youngest soldier.


Image courtesy Moreland City Libraries.



When I used the search term 'war' a number of images came up, all related to Brunswick. This one is of a 1915 send off to soldiers at the Brunswick Town Hall. It is probable that some of the men pictured here were from Moreland, which is right on the border between Brunswick and Coburg.


Image courtesy Moreland City Libraries.



The following photograph shows a gathering held in Coburg (at the Public Hall) in 1919 to welcome home returned servicemen. It can be found online by searching TROVE, another invaluable source of images and newspaper articles, amongst other things. (Note that on this occasion, the image has been labelled  incorrectly as a recruiting dinner, dated 1914.)

Image courtesy Coburg Historical Society


Local libraries and historical societies depend on donations of images and memorabilia from family members and others to help build a picture of what a particular community was like. You may not wish to part with your precious family treasures, but do consider donating digital images of the material to your local historical society and/or library.

No matter which side your family member fought on, or which country they lived in at the time, if they settled in the Moreland area at any stage, please consider sharing the material you have so that we can build a more realistic picture of what our communities were like during and after the war years.



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