Online Cenotaph

Online Cenotaph
Type of site
Online database
Available inEnglish, Māori
HeadquartersAuckland, New Zealand
OwnersAuckland War Memorial Museum
URLwww.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph
CommercialNo
LaunchedDecember 1996 (December 1996)
Current statusActive

Online Cenotaph is an online biographical database of New Zealand service personnel who served during conflicts. Operated by the Auckland War Memorial Museum, the database was originally launched in 1996. In 2015 for the centenary of the Gallipoli campaign, the database was relaunched to incorporate crowdsourced public contributions. As of December 2025, the database includes over 265,000 records of service people.

Features and user community

Online Cenotaph is an online war memorial for New Zealand service personnel, which is searchable by name, place, troopship.[1] Indenting to create both a military record and a social history record, Online Cenotaph records feature primary sources including military embarkation rolls, New Zealand Defence Force personnel files and secondary research,[2] including public contributions.[3] Supplementary information is added to entries from sources including Births Deaths and Marriages, the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre, arcchival newspapers, and district council cemetery records. Additionally, members of the public are able to submit correction requests through the website.[4] Other features of Online Cenotaph include digital remembrance poppies, which can be lain on a service person's record,[3] and Cenotaph Stories, articles that highlight lesser known stories of figures within the database.[5]

Since 2016, Online Cenotaph has been housed at Pou Maumahara, the Memorial Discovery Centre at Auckland War Memorial Museum. Stories relating to Online Cenotaph entries are displayed in the centre.[6][7] More than 160 museum volunteers have contributed to Online Cenotaph over the years, either online or on-site at Pou Maumahara.[8]

The most common users of Online Cenotaph are family history researchers.[2] The user community is composed of family members or descendants who contribute personal narratives and images,[9][2] researchers,[10][2] educators and students,[11][2] as well as genealogists and amateur historians.[1][2]

History

Establishment

The Cenotaph database was first established in 1996.[12] The project was established due to the passing of the Auckland War Memorial Museum Act 1996, which renewed the museum's commitment to its role as a war memorial.[13] Established to allow researchers, veterans and family members to explore the records and stories of service personnel from World War I and World War II,[14] the database was created by the information services section of the museum research library for the armory, originally as a basic textual Roll of Honour.[2][15] Data entry began for the project in June 1996,[13] with the database being launched in December 1996, during the opening of Auckland War Memorial Museum's Armoury Resource Centre.[6] At launch, the database included 16,750 entries.[6]

In 1998, Cenotaph won the 3M Award for Innovation by New Zealand Library Association.[16] By 1999, the database had been expanded to include entries for personnel who served during other armed conflicts, including the South African War, Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation, Malayan Emergency, Korean War, Vietnam War, Falklands War and peacekeeping missions.[13] In the 1990s, Kitbag, a second, parallel database was established, which focused on collecting records of service people who were still alive and had restricted access, only available to library and armoury staff.[13]

The database became accessible online from October 2005,[6] and in 2013, the Auckland Council began linking to Cenotaph in its War Memorials and Honour Boards Database to enrich content.[17] In May 2014, the first Cenotaph-specific roles were created at museum,[6] including the Online Cenotaph collection manager role, held by Victoria Passau.[18]

Prior to 2015, the database was known as either Cenotaph or Cenotaph Database.[15][19][20][13]

2015 relaunch

In April 2015 to mark the centenary of the Gallipoli campaign, Online Cenotaph was relaunched as dynamic digital memorial, having previously been a closed institutional record.[21][22][23] The first crowdsourcing project instigated by Auckland War Memorial Museum, the website became open to community submissions after extended requests from communities and families over years to add additional information and resources to records.[14][5] In 2014, the crowdsourcing platform was originally intended to be a separate service named Cenotaph Community.[24] In its first year, the relaunched Online Cenotaph attracted between 150,000 and 200,000 monthly views.[22]

At the same time, a mobile kiosk was developed for Online Cenotaph named He Pou Aroha, where people could bring documents and ephemera to be uploaded to Online Cenotaph.[25] The kiosk travelled across the country.[26][27]

From October 2015, Online Cenotaph began collaborating with the University of Minnesota on the Measuring the Anzacs project, investigating long-term health outcomes of New Zealand service personnel, by enlisting volunteers to transcribe medical records from World War I.[28][29]

On 21 October 2016, Online Cenotaph's physical location was moved to Pou Maumahara, the Memorial Discovery Centre at Auckland War Memorial Museum.[6] Online Cenotaph won the Project Award at the ServiceIQ New Zealand Museum Awards in 2019.[30][31]

Recent developments

In 2020 during the lockdowns for the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand, digital volunteers, of whom included museum volunteers and visitor hosts, worked on transcription projects, including archival documents, memorial plaques and headstones, leading to the creation of over 15,000 new cenotaph records.[8] In 2020 for Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, Online Cenotaph launched a Māori language version of the database interface.[32] From 2020 to 2021, Online Cenotaph collaborated with Archives New Zealand, who allowed collection technician Dan Millar access to the archives in Wellington, allowing Millar to digitise over 200 archival sources to add to Online Cenotaph records.[8] Online Cenotaph volunteer Marguerite Durling became an Associate Emerita of Auckland War Memorial Museum at the Auckland Museum Medals in 2021, in recognition of her work to help transcribe documents for the database.[33]

As of December 2025, over 265,000 service people have Online Cenotaph records.[22]

References

  1. ^ a b Fowler, Simon (9 June 2021). Tracing Your First World War Ancestors: A Guide for Family Historians. Pen & Sword Family History. ISBN 9781399000406.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Liew, C.L.; Passau, V. (21 February 2024). "The Auckland War Memorial Museum Online Cenotaph: community participation, collective memorialisation and social cohesion". Global Knowledge, Memory and Communication. doi:10.1108/GKMC-08-2023-0299. ISSN 2514-9342. Wikidata Q124660784.
  3. ^ a b Mein Smith, Philippa (2016). "The 'NZ' in Anzac: different remembrance and meaning". First World War Studies. 7 (2): 193–211. doi:10.1080/19475020.2016.1254097. Full access available to users of The Wikipedia Library.
  4. ^ "The new Online Cenotaph". New Zealand Genealogist. 46 (351): 6–7. February 2015.
  5. ^ a b Johnson, Elizabeth; Liew, Chern Li (May 2020). "Engagement-oriented design: a study of New Zealand public cultural heritage institutions crowdsourcing platforms". Online Information Review. 44 (4): 887–912. doi:10.1108/OIR-10-2019-0329. ISSN 1468-4527. Wikidata Q135898049. Full access available to users of The Wikipedia Library.
  6. ^ a b c d e f "25 Years of Online Cenotaph". Online Cenotaph. Auckland War Memorial Museum. 2022. Retrieved 9 February 2026.
  7. ^ Christian, Dionne (10 November 2016). "Auckland Museum's new gallery revealed". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 9 February 2026.
  8. ^ a b c Passau, Victoria Catherine (30 December 2024). "Connecting past and present: The role of digital volunteers in Online Cenotaph". Papahou: Records of the Auckland Museum. 58: 31–38. doi:10.32912/PAPAHOU.58.143696. ISSN 1174-9202. JSTOR 48816407. OCLC 10550527745. Wikidata Q131745621.
  9. ^ Paranihi, Eru (25 April 2017). "Whānau discover WWI ancestor through Online Cenotaph". Te Ao Māori News. Retrieved 9 February 2026.
  10. ^ Johnston, Sarah (2023). "From Canada to New Zealand, to Egypt and back: The travels of a wartime sound disc". Australasian Sound Archive. 46: 72–87.
  11. ^ Pennell, Catriona (18 February 2021). "Centenary (Education, Pedagogy, Youth Programmes)". 1914–1918 Online. Retrieved 9 February 2026.
  12. ^ Jones, Mike; Piper, Alana (1 November 2023). "Digital History: State of the Field Review Essay". Australian Historical Studies. 55 (1): 178–203. doi:10.1080/1031461X.2023.2267586. hdl:10072/431187.
  13. ^ a b c d e Chong, Janice (October 1999). "Anecdote and Memory: the Cenotaph Database Imaging Project at Auckland War Memorial Museum". Archifacts: 5–9.
  14. ^ a b Qutab, Saima; Myers, Michael; Gardner, Lesley (2023). "Why collaborate? Factors influencing in crowdsourcing ecosystems". Proceedings of the 56th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. pp. 375–384. doi:10.24251/HICSS.2023.046. ISBN 978-0-9981331-6-4.
  15. ^ a b Auckland War Memorial Museum Annual Report 1 July 1996 - 30 June 1997 (Report). Auckland War Memorial Museum. 1997. p. 9.
  16. ^ "MQ Museum Quarterly Issue 76" (PDF). Museum Quarterly. 76. Auckland: Auckland War Memorial Museum. 1 November 1998. ISSN 0111-2252. Wikidata Q115749536.
  17. ^ Auckland Council (2013). Our boys, our families: First World War research resources at Auckland Libraries and Auckland Council Archives (Report). Auckland Council. Retrieved 12 February 2026.
  18. ^ Annual Report 2020-2021 (PDF) (Report). Auckland War Memorial Museum. 2021. p. 27.
  19. ^ "Cenotaph database terms and conditions". Auckland War Memorial Museum. Archived from the original on 4 August 2014. Retrieved 9 February 2026.
  20. ^ "Cenotaph Database". Auckland War Memorial Museum. Archived from the original on 5 August 2014. Retrieved 9 February 2026.
  21. ^ Smits, Katherine (8 June 2021). "Technologies of nationalism: First World War commemoration and New Zealand's Gallipoli exhibition". National Identities. 24 (3): 271–286. doi:10.1080/14608944.2021.1931829. Full access available to users of The Wikipedia Library.
  22. ^ a b c Richardson, Zoe Miriam; Taylor, James (23 December 2025). "10 years of "open by default, closed by exception" at Tāmaki Paenga Hira". Papahou: Records of the Auckland Museum. 59: 53–56. doi:10.32912/PAPAHOU.59.182859. ISSN 1174-9202. Wikidata Q137762938.
  23. ^ "Auckland Museum continues to wow". OurAuckland. Auckland Council. 29 October 2015. Retrieved 9 February 2026.
  24. ^ Auckland War Memorial Museum (21 August 2014). "Auckland Museum lends support to national exhibition". Scoop. Retrieved 9 February 2026.
  25. ^ Auckland War Memorial Museum (5 May 2015). "Auckland War Memorial Museum Creates Lasting Legacy". Scoop. Retrieved 9 February 2026.
  26. ^ Shanks, Katee (3 November 2018). "Kiosk gives Rotorua community access to the online Cenotaph". Rotorua Daily Post. The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 9 February 2026.
  27. ^ Mitchell, Paul (8 June 2016). "Feilding Library hosts online cenotaph to honour soldiers". Stuff. Retrieved 9 February 2026.
  28. ^ Wright, Tony (17 February 2016). "Project aims to count Kiwis who fought at Gallipoli". Newshub. Archived from the original on 18 February 2016. Retrieved 12 February 2026.
  29. ^ Auckland War Memorial Museum (4 January 2016). "Massive WWI History Project Seeks Online Volunteers". Scoop. Retrieved 9 February 2026.
  30. ^ "Tairāwhiti triumphs in museum awards". Waatea News. 23 May 2019. Retrieved 9 February 2026.
  31. ^ measuringtheanzacs.org (23 May 2019). "Three awards at ServiceIQ New Zealand Museum Awards". Scoop. Retrieved 9 February 2026.
  32. ^ Bhatia, Ripu (18 September 2020). "Auckland Museum translates online war records into te reo Māori". Stuff. Retrieved 9 February 2026.
  33. ^ Reeves, David; Durling, Marguerite (6 July 2022). "Marguerite Durling: Associate Emerita of the Auckland War Memorial Museum". Auckland War Memorial Museum. Retrieved 9 August 2024.

Further reading

  • "Museum pleads for war memorabilia". The New Zealand Herald. 24 April 1999. p. A18.
  • "Online Cenotaph provides vital link". Central Leader. 12 March 2020. p. 21.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.