24 April 2012

Cecil Riley - Pacific Star

I received this Pacific Star awarded to NX168349 Cecil Francis Riley in October 2010 as part of the NSW RSL box. The initial search for Cecil proved fruitless so I put the medal aside.
Yesterday I decided to have a more in depth look and the first new piece of information I found was that his service record had been digitised (to access the service record follow the steps in this tutorial). I then moved to the NSW birth, deaths and marriage records but found very little on Cecil. Similarly, there is little information on Ancestry in the form of electoral roll entries.
I did find a family tree which showed he had a daughter but not what her name was. I then had to do a bit of research gymnastics to get to the name of the daughter. The tree owner's user name included the name 'Burns' and a branch of the family had a person with this surname. By following the different branches I surmised that it was Cecil's daughter who was the owner of the tree and that she was married in to the Burns family. Still no name but I could work out her father in law's name. This information led me to another family history research site where the father in law was also listed. I sent a message to this family and with in 30 minutes I had a reply which included the name and contact details of Cecil's daughter. Sure enough my hunch had been right.
Regrettably, I won't be able to have this medal back with the family in time for Anzac Day 2012 but I'll post it in the very near future.
The returned medal tally is now 1129.

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