A search on the other side of the ocean for the family of a Canadian First World War vet has led to a search on the other side of Canada.

A 74-year-old man in England has stepped forward as a likely relative of Pte. Charles Audley Jeffs.

The service medals of Jeffs are currently resting in an old tin can inside the Scarborough home of Shirley Allaway.

She inherited the medals, birth certificate and a photo from an uncle who once lived in the same apartment building as Jeffs on Maitland St., near College and Yonge Sts.

Allaway wants to return the medals to Jeffs' descendants but didn't know anything about him until a search led to his hometown of Shrewsbury, England.

Reaction to a story in the local paper there last week turned up John Teckoe, who says his mother was Jeffs' half-sister.

But Teckoe said Jeffs could also have family in Vancouver. Jeffs' sister, Evelyn, had a daughter who moved to Vancouver, Teckoe said. But the address he has is an old one.

"I'm going to see what we can find out," said Dave Thomson, who has worked to reunite war medals with families about 300 times in the last several years. "With a name like Falkenberg, we can hopefully find out something about them."

Thomson often finds medals posted for sale on eBay and he said he's under the gun to raise money and track down family. "At least this time we have the luxury of time," he said. "And the advantage we have is that (Allaway) isn't looking for money."

The process of tracking down Jeffs' family has attracted the attention of several amateur genealogists on this side of the Atlantic and is also the topic of Internet message boards in England.

"I wonder if Jeffs thought all these people would ever be making such a fuss over him?" Thomson said.

BRIAN.GRAY@SUNMEDIA.CA