A new project by the South Canterbury Genealogy Society is ensuring the stories of the men and women from South Canterbury who served in World War 2 are preserved and remembered.
On Wednesday last week the the project was soft launched to commemorate Armistice Day.
The genealogy society held two presentations at the Timaru District Library about the work they were doing and also invited the community to come and share their stories to add to the project.
The first presentation featured the story of Margery Greenfield, a Timaru-born member of the NZ Women’s Army Auxiliary Corp, while the second gave a more general view of the project and how it was progressing.
Society member Lois White said they had well over 4000 names in the project database so far.
‘‘It’s growing all the time. We tend to find photos first and then get the story behind the photo because if you’ve got a photo, you can see the person, and it’s a bit more interesting.
‘‘If you’ve got a name especially, then you look them up on the Auckland Cenotaph and get their number and if they’re local, you can usually just Google and find people. ‘‘I’ve just been looking at the Gosling family from Pleasant Point. We’ve got one photo of somebody Gosling, but he had two brothers that were there as well, and we just found them on the Cenotaph, so one often leads to another.’’ Society member Lois Shears said it would be great to receive some more personal stories from the public.
‘‘We can find out the facts but it would be great to have people give us a wee bit more of their own information. I was talking to a lady and her husband’s uncle was killed in the war — I asked if he could write a little story about his uncle and she said she didn’t know.
‘‘So, I said, ‘What about a little bit of information? Did he have a girlfriend? Did he ride a bike? Did he have a motorbike? Did he go to church? Half a dozen facts like that can make a difference to a story. It makes it more personal, they’re the sort of things we like,’’ she said.
The genealogy society had been working on the project for the last two years in an effort to replicate the World War 1 project [South Canterbury Roll of Honour] it had started in 2014 to commemorate 100 years since WW1.
South Canterbury Genealogy Society convener Liz Shea said it was important to have started the WW2 project now and not have waited to the 100-year mark again.
‘‘If we wait for 100 years, which is 2045, a lot of these photos probably might have gone, and the people who remember the names will be gone.
‘‘So we have started now to make sure we get those photos and get those stories while they are still around. A lot of people think ‘oh we don’t need these old photos or things’ and they throw them out, whereas we would love for people to bring them here.
‘‘We’ll copy them, give them back, and then they can do what they like with them after that. But then we’ve got them preserved and retained for future generations.’’
The hope was to hold an official launch for the project around Anzac Day next year.
In the meantime, the society still very much encouraged anyone with photos or stories about South Canterbury individuals involved in WW2 to get in touch or pop by the Timaru District Library to see them on Wednesday morning, 9am-noon, or Sunday afternoon, 1.30pm-3.30pm.
