Lawrence Finch

Compared to many other countries Australia is very lucky to have extensive records available for public access. All WWI AIF service records are free online and many WWII records have been digitised. Similarly, there are newspaper archives available through Trove. I used all of these in the search for the family of Lawrence Arthur Finch.
Laurie first enlisted as a solider (NX136570) before transferring to the RAAF (433431) and completing pilot training. Laurie's brother Jack also served in the RAAF. The free online resources gave me enough information to narrow the Finch family down so that my search on the not so free Ancestry.com.au was relatively simple. This search gave me the names of Laurie's parents, his wife and his son. Back to the free Ryerson Index confirmed the dates of death of Laurie, his wife and their son Michael. I was back at square one.
Through Trove's newspaper archives I did find Laurie's father's death notice which gave me Laurie's sister's married name. This name is quite unique so it was back to Ancestry and a search of the electoral rolls gave me her son's name. This is Laurie's nephew. My next free resource was the White Pages and I quickly found the nephew's phone number.
This medal was one of those that came to me in the NSW box.
The returned medal tally is 1609.