Rob wrote: > One question for ALL of you about the NAA site ... is there any way to > find out how many pages are in these records BEFORE ordering them? If you explore the site and click on appropriate click-throughs, it will tell you. That is how I know that John BYNON has 44 pages in his record! The fact that they are not viewable online can be changed... see below. > It's going to cost me about AU$28 per person for photocopies, but I > noticed on the prices page that it's only about 20 cents per page on > smallish sized records. I'm just wondering if perhaps it might be more > financially viable to just get "basic info" copied and order the full > records for people like Uncle Richie who I grew up with and would love to > read about, or direct ancestors. Anyone know if that's possible please? You have to make your own judgement about this, and decide how important it is for a particular person. I have some full records which don't really tell me much I didn't already know, but for others they have been invaluable. Bit of a punt, in other words. It also depends on whether or not a digital image is available. If the person concerned is long dead then it is likely that it could be made available. You usually have to request that a digital image be made and that could take several weeks or perhaps 3 or 4 months, unless there is some reason for it not to be made available, such as national security or privacy issues. You will see the option for requesting a digital image when you find the person in whom you are interested. Just click on the appropriate button to request the image and then wait for a long time! The NAA will not tell you when the image has been made available... you just have to go back and keep checking. Assuming that your request is approved, then it is cheaper for you to read the file online and then decide whether to print it off or order a photo copy. But, as I said, you will have to wait! I have found the National Archives and the War Memorial site to be invaluable. I now automatically search them for each individual who would have been eligible for war service and I quite often strike gold. The records include, for example, the Boer War and the Sudan, as well as WW1, WW2 and Korea. Don't forget the women of an age for service. Their records will be there too if they served with the forces. The NAA also contains many other items apart from War Service records. Just search by name and see what happens. For example, I have been researching the CARWARDINES of Bendigo. They had a soap and candle making business for many years. I found some applications for patents and trade marks simply by searching under the surname in the NAA. The searches also turned up War Service records that I hadn't found earlier. NAA and the National War Memorial are great sites! Explore them!. Trevor