Darwin historian Jared Archibald has spent years researching other people's war stories.
But it wasn't until he used those skills on his own family, that he uncovered the truth about his great-grandfather, an Australian trooper who died at Gallipoli during World War One.
"We were told that he was one of the last killed, with one of the last bullets fired," Mr Archibald said.
"I had this almost romanticised idea that he was just doing his duty and got killed … but, when you read these reports, you go, 'Woah, this is full on'."
The truth, Mr Archibald discovered, was nothing like the glamorised Anzac mythologies that had been passed down by his relatives over time.
In reality, his great-grandfather, Augustus William Sinclair, was killed in gruesome hand-to-hand combat barely two days after setting foot on Gallipoli's beaches.
"He was killed with 43 other Australian men. There were 86 Turks, all in the same trench, and it was all hand-to-hand fighting.
"This was all fighting with clubs, fighting with handheld bombs, fighting where you're running between trenches and you're killing people with clubs and with your fists."
Unlike most of the younger men there, Mr Sinclair was 32 years old.
He had a wife and children — and he was in a lot of debt.
It is these details that have perplexed Mr Archibald, since he started digging into Mr Sinclair's battle records.
"Why did he — as a 32-year-old with kids and a wife — why did he sign up?" he said.
"When you see how much money he owed, and that he was declared bankrupt, maybe joining the forces and getting a good-paying job … was a way of getting out of his debt."
Reflecting on the brutal scenes at Gallipoli on Anzac Day, Mr Archibald encouraged others to conduct their own family research — as long as they were prepared to learn some uncomfortable truths.
"You never know what someone kept that has now ended up in a book or an archive or a collection somewhere."
Mr Archibald said the first place to look was the National Archives of Australia.
"If you have some medals, that service number will be on those medals," he said.
"Look that up and you'll find his or her records."
