Hundreds of unclaimed portraits of World War I diggers taken in London before they left to fight on the Western Front have been gifted to the National Archives.

Many of the images are of men who never came home - and they resonate strongly at a time when Australia continues to lose soldiers in modern theatres of war.

The Archives has invited family members who identify any of the men in these photographs to share stories and other mementoes to add to the collection.

A historical researcher at the Department of Veterans' Affairs trawled through a collection of about 16,000 photographs held by the Imperial War Museum in London to find Australian faces.

Courtney Page-Allen used a Churchill Fellowship to spend time at the museum looking for the photos, and Veterans' Affairs has funded the digitisation of the images, which have been given to the Archives.

"I got it in my mind that I should look through the collection and pull out the Australians and see who was there and what kind of material I could dig up on the men who were depicted," Ms Page-Allen said.

About 500 photographs of Australian soldiers were unearthed.

Final mementoes

The images were collected directly from photography studios in London, where diggers would often stop off on their way to the Western Front to have their pictures taken.

The idea was to send the dashing pictures home to families in Australia.

But many of the men never made it back from the battlefield and never collected the photos.

It is likely their families never even knew they were taken.

Ms Page-Allen says the National Archives already holds the war records of the men.

"But what was missing was the photographs of the men, so to be able to give them an individual face rather than just a number or name, it's wonderful," she said.

Personal connection

Margaret Fleming has known what it feels like to connect with lost ancestors through photos.

Four of her uncles fought in World War I and one was killed.

She says a photo can bring a soldier's story to life.

"It's a magic moment because it's at that moment that you make a connection with someone in your family's past," Ms Fleming said.

Though World War I was fought nearly a century ago, connections are still being unearthed by research institutions and descendants of soldiers alike.

Every Australian will have access to the photos, which will be matched to official war records on an Archives website.

The Mapping Our Anzacs website has already been popular with family historians.