Deciphering Army Records

I am now nearly at the end of a long project writing about a New Zealand Army soldier's war years. When I began I knew very little about World War 1. After several weeks of research and writing, I feel I have a much greater understanding. Malcolm Campbell was a Lance Corporal with the New Zealand Rifle Brigade. My task of writing his story was made much easier because of the existence on line and in the library of a book called The Official History of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade by Lieut.-Col. W. S. Austin. I was able to place Malcolm in each field of battle using dates and entries in his military record which I purchased from the New Zealand Archives.
This may sound straight forward, but if you have ever looked through a military record, you'll know that they are filled with abbreviations and jargon, making them very difficult for a non-military person to decipher. Then there's the handwriting! The army kept meticulous records and I can well imagine the writer's cramp that an officer would have got after a few hundred entries, causing his handwriting to be less than ideal.
Having started out thinking the task was hopeless, however, I ended up making sense of 99% of the information. Here's some examples of abbreviations used; rem = remained, adm = admitted, proc = proceeded, Btn = battalion and rej = rejoined.
Let me know if you'd like a hand with yours at NZ Family Heritage.

Sometimes all is not as it seems!

Have you ever accepted a family story as fact for years and years and then discovered all is not what it seemed?
I had an interesting experience recently when I met a distant cousin called Jack. He told me how their family had no idea they had Maori ancestors until one day he uncovered the truth - much to his sister's amusement.

Apparently, when Jack's father asked his girlfriend's step-father for her hand in marriage, the old-school gentleman said, "You may want to reconsider, as Hannah has Maori blood." Jack's father was not perturbed and asked for her hand again. The old man then made him promise to keep the secret as Hannah had no idea of the truth. Her own father had died when she was only a toddler and she had no memories or photographs of him.
While it seemed strange to me that this sort of thing could happen, I had to remember that at the time, the early 1900s, anyone with Maori blood faced prejudice and it was considered, even by many Maori, that the English way was the best way to live. Part of Hannah's heritage was denied her until she discovered her Maori roots in later years.
So that led me to question how much of what we are told is truth and how much has been changed over time  for reasons that we find difficult to understand now? What other family secrets are waiting to be revealed - more I hope as they make the story so much more interesting. How about you - any family secrets?