"Whilst cleaning my parents home I have found some medals & war service records of my parents old next door neighbour, from WW11, he died in 1993 and his wife died a few years after that, I don't know how they have come to be here, I want to reunite these items with his remaining family".
The medals were awarded to NX25083 Henry (Harry) Oswald Jenkins and with this name combination it was rather easy to find all the basic information I needed about him. From Harry's death notice I found that he had two sons, one named Ross, however, a search for R Jenkins in NSW threw up over 1000 hits. Thinking that this was going to be a difficult search I begrudgingly scrolled down the electoral roll entries and to my surprise the 1980 roll listed a Ross Oswald Jenkins. This was to much of a coincidence to let pass. It was also a bit lucky as the 1980 rolls are the last that are available on Ancestry.
It didn't take long to locate where Ross lived but finding away to contact him proved more difficult. It turned out that through Face Book Messenger and a Men's Shed that Ross is a member of, Julie and I were able to get in touch. Ross collected his father's medals today.
What I thought was going to be a difficult search turned out to be quite simple and only took about two hours before I had all the information required to narrow down where Ross lived and make some educated guesses about how to contact him.
The returned medal tally is now 2222.
Hi Glyn
ReplyDeleteI am Ross's wife Kerrie and I can't begin to thank you & Julie enough for the time you have both taken to return my father-in-laws medals to my husband.Not only did the box contain the medals but some treasured family items including his mothers who died with cancer when he was 13. Words cannot convey our thank and gratitude what would we do without you. Our humble thanks Ross & Kerrie Jenkins
Hi Kerrie, you are very welcome.
ReplyDeleteGlyn