Charles Birch

This search has been very difficult.
The BWM awarded to 3011 Charles Arthur Birch was sent to me by David R of Gosford. It didn't take long to work out that Charles was killed in action on 3 July 1916 while serving with the 3rd Battalion AIF. That is when the difficulties started.
Charles' farther was Alfred McLennan Birch and his mother was Elizabeth (also known as Eliza) Leah Birch. SOme records also used Leah as her first name. Alfred and Eliza had three children before Alfred died in 1911; Charles who was KIA in 1916, Emily who died during child birth and Violet who married but died childless in 1921.
Eliza went on to live with a man name Colbert who she cleaned for. She sometimes used his surname but they never married.
Eliza's maiden name was Schofield and I found a family tree for her. I sent a message to the tree owner but I never got a reply. I then looked for descendents of one of Alfred's siblings and one I found a descendent I sent them a message. Once again I received no response. In order to be fair to that branch of the family I allowed them ample time to reply.
Recently David enquired about any progress, so last night I started from scratch. I spent six hours going over my extensive notes eliminating each of Alfred's siblings to search through to the current generation. The most promising was Alfred's brother Edward. His son was Arthur Edward and his daughter was Norma who married Robert Henderson. I found this branch of the family on Ancestry and sent off a message to the lady who owns the tree. This morning I had a reply saying that her husband is Norma's son making him Charles' first cousin twice removed.
Thank you David, for your patience.
The returned medal tally is now 1667.