Toitu Otago Settlers Museum curator Sean Brosnahan and his son Hugh are on a quest to track down the family of a German soldier and return their ancestor's military ``dog tag'' to them.
If all goes to plan, the dog tag of Private Reinhold Fatsch will be handed over to either his family or the Altona Museum, in Hamburg, on September 15, marking 100 years since the Otago regiment entered the Battle of the Somme.
``It will be our little commemoration of the Somme centenary, on the day when the Otagos were leading the charge,'' Mr Brosnahan said.
Pte Fatsch was reported missing on the Somme in September 1916 - about the same time as the New Zealand contingent made its entrance to the battle - and somehow his dog tag ended up in the hands of a Dunedin family.
The dog tag showed Pte Fatsch's name, date of birth, home address and the Hamburg regiment he served in.
``The dog tag was handed over to me by two older women, as part of their father's collection of World War 1 memorabilia,'' Mr Brosnahan said.
``They asked for it to be repatriated if we could find a museum, or the family, to take it.''
Initially believing the dog tag may have been removed from Pte Fatsch's body on the Somme, Mr Brosnahan was intrigued to hear some new facts from a German historian, who had been alerted to the existence of the dog tag by publicity in the wider New Zealand media.
``He told me that the designation of Fatsch as `missing' had been updated some months later to clarify that he was, in fact, a prisoner of war,'' Mr Brosnahan said.
``He also told me that, even if we are able to find the family, they may not be particularly interested. Apparently there is not a lot of interest in World War 1 among German people.''
If the family could not be located, Altona Museum had indicated a willingness to accept the dog tag, he said.