A total of 440 men from the old Maniototo County area signed up to serve in the ''Great War''.
Between 1914 and 1917, 429 of them left New Zealand shores but 175 never came back.
Raewyn Inder, of Naseby, has embarked on a task to ensure each of those 440 men is not forgotten.
As a part of the government's WW100 commemorations for the centenary of World War 1, Mrs Inder is creating a profile of each soldier.
Eventually, a plaque with a photograph and basic information on each soldier will be created, and underneath an information box with details such as which corps they served with and where.
She is motivated by her family history and tradition.
Mrs Inder's son, Sapper James Inder, is the fourth generation of men in his family to serve in the armed forces.
His great-grandfather, D. W. (Scrummer) Inder, was a member of the Otago Mounted Rifles, and one of the men from Maniototo to serve in World War 1.
Also still in the army is her husband, Staff Sergeant Iain Inder, whose father was a petty officer in the navy.
''What inspired me was wanting to put together information for my husband as a gift, because it is just so relevant to us, as being a military family.
''It was something that was important for us, but as I was looking into it there were diary entries from his campaigns and I became curious about how many people went away from the Maniototo.''
That curiosity led to her expand her project to document not just ''Scrummer'' but all of the soldiers from the area.
Mrs Inder had volunteered at the Maniototo Early Settlers Room at the museum in Naseby, and one day walked in, looked around and thought it would be ''amazing'' to see images of the area's soldiers, rather than just a list.
''These days a lot of remembrance is just names on a list . The ultimate goal is to put faces to the names of the soldiers.''
The individual profiles took time to put together, some having missing military records, but sourcing photographs of each soldier was likely to be the longest process, Mrs Inder said.
Many of the soldiers' surnames were still common in Maniototo, as their families, often farmers, had remained in the area.
Information for the project came from a wide range of sources, including the Hocken Library in Dunedin, the WW100 website, the Auckland Museum cenotaph database, local historical records and from Keith Scott, author of the book Before Anzac, Beyond Armistice.
Mrs Inder also hoped families would come forward with information and photographs.
During her research, many details about soldiers, their experiences and their families had come to light which otherwise would have ''faded away''.
She hoped to have the profiles completed and on display in Ranfurly in time for the centenary of the declaration of war on August 4 this year.
Once the display had finished, she planned to give the materials to the Maniototo Early Settlers Association, and hoped to compile the information into a book.
The process of collecting information had been an emotional experience for her.
''Being from a military family ... it does hit you. To think about what happens, and although some conditions are different, the bottom line is it's still war.''
For the Inder family, their World War 1 story had a better ending than those of many families of soldiers from the Maniototo who served in the war.
''Scrummer'' Inder served for the whole war, from 1914 until 1918, and despite being shot in the hip and spending time in a military hospital, returned home to New Zealand.
• If any families have information on relatives who served in World War 1, Mrs Inder can be contacted by email at rinder@vodafone.co.nz.
- Leith Huffadine
