A search for a soldier's family begins

Brian Grey, a reporter with the Toronto Sun, started the hunt for Charles Audley Jeffs when he first wrote this first story about Shirley Allaway and how she had been left Charles’ medals by her uncle Thomas Holt.

http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2009/06/09/9732246-sun.html

The original article on the web site but not in the newspaper included a picture of Charles’ birth certificate which was the starting point for research. I started researching the family and posted the details I found on the Ancestry.ca website which allows for the creation of a family tree. Records found include a marriage certificate, and some England census records that gave his sisters as Evelyn and Lillian.

http://trees.ancestry.ca/tree/11625774/family?fpid=-429428285

Many people who read the Brian Grey’s article contacted Dave Thomson, known as the “Medal Detector” for all the military medals he has helped get into family or local museum’s hands, who then asked his researchers to take a look.

http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2009/06/10/9745461-sun.html

Dave Thomson and others contacted the Shrewsbury Regimental Museum who showed interest in adding the medals to their collection if no family could be found.

http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2009/06/11/9759606-sun.html

The death notice for Charles Audley Jeffs, printed in the Toronto Star archives was found and it mentioned his wife, Sophia Shaw, but no children were listed.

http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2009/06/12/9771276-sun.html

Richard Laughton, who runs the web site "Canadian Expeditionary Force Study Group" starts a blog site that allows for posting the military records of Charles Audley Jeffs history with the CEF. This site has been updated with Charles’ military service record which was researched by Patti Mitton, a professional genealogist who kindly took the time to go to Archives Canada and manually find the service record.

http://cefww1soldiercajeffs.blogspot.com/

The local newspaper, the Shrewsbury Chronicle then ran an article about Jeffs and a local man, John Teckoe, contacted the paper that he was part of the family and that Charles’ sister Evelyn had moved to Canada and had children on the west coast.

http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2009/06/24/9906911-sun.html

The last article by Brian Grey tells us about his speaking with Rae Falkenberg, Charles’ niece in Nanimo B.C. about the medals. She is still trying to decide what to do.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2009/06/25/9919296-sun.html