diff --git a/src/changes/changes.xml b/src/changes/changes.xml
index 1c4615a..adcc70b 100644
--- a/src/changes/changes.xml
+++ b/src/changes/changes.xml
@@ -23,6 +23,11 @@
   </properties>
   <body>
     <release version="1.1" date="as in SVN" description="Release 1.1">
+      <action type="add" date="2009-08-25">
+        A new constructor of TarArchiveEntry can create entries with
+        names that start with slashes - the default is to strip
+        leading slashes in order to create relative path names.
+      </action>
       <action issue="COMPRESS-83" type="fix" date="2009-08-01">
         Delegate all read and write methods in GZip stream in order to
         speed up operations.
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/compress/archivers/tar/TarArchiveEntry.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/compress/archivers/tar/TarArchiveEntry.java
index 71ddeb6..a7a3139 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/compress/archivers/tar/TarArchiveEntry.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/compress/archivers/tar/TarArchiveEntry.java
@@ -167,9 +167,21 @@
      * @param name the entry name
      */
     public TarArchiveEntry(String name) {
+        this(name, false);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Construct an entry with only a name. This allows the programmer
+     * to construct the entry's header "by hand". File is set to null.
+     *
+     * @param name the entry name
+     * @param preserveLeadingSlashes whether to allow leading slashes
+     * in the name.
+     */
+    public TarArchiveEntry(String name, boolean preserveLeadingSlashes) {
         this();
 
-        name = normalizeFileName(name);
+        name = normalizeFileName(name, preserveLeadingSlashes);
         boolean isDir = name.endsWith("/");
 
         this.devMajor = 0;
@@ -208,7 +220,7 @@
      * @param file The file that the entry represents.
      */
     public TarArchiveEntry(File file) {
-        this(file, normalizeFileName(file.getPath()));
+        this(file, normalizeFileName(file.getPath(), false));
     }
     
     /**
@@ -320,7 +332,7 @@
      * @param name This entry's new name.
      */
     public void setName(String name) {
-        this.name = normalizeFileName(name);
+        this.name = normalizeFileName(name, false);
     }
 
     /**
@@ -642,7 +654,8 @@
      * Strips Windows' drive letter as well as any leading slashes,
      * turns path separators into forward slahes.
      */
-    private static String normalizeFileName(String fileName) {
+    private static String normalizeFileName(String fileName,
+                                            boolean preserveLeadingSlashes) {
         String osname = System.getProperty("os.name").toLowerCase(Locale.US);
 
         if (osname != null) {
@@ -674,7 +687,7 @@
         // No absolute pathnames
         // Windows (and Posix?) paths can start with "\\NetworkDrive\",
         // so we loop on starting /'s.
-        while (fileName.startsWith("/")) {
+        while (!preserveLeadingSlashes && fileName.startsWith("/")) {
             fileName = fileName.substring(1);
         }
         return fileName;