There's no J.I. Andrews on the list of dead from the Second World War, according to Carl Kletke, assistant heritage officer with the Canadian Forces. That means it's likely Andrews survived the war, but that would also mean that his records are sealed.

"That's the challenge of finding people with artifacts," he said. "Even if you have a service number, if they're a veteran that's still alive, then their information and personnel file is still closed, essentially as long as they're alive."

Library and Archives Canada hold service records for both regular and reserve members of the military. Personal information of living persons can only be released with the consent of that individual military member.

If the veteran has been dead for less than 20 years, only limited personal information can be released to immediate family. After 20 years, the library will release personal information of Canadian Forces personnel with a proof of death.

Kletke said that there are a few requests to identify soldiers from their paraphernalia every year, and Canadian Forces staff face the similar frustrations as everyone else when trying to access records.

"Sometimes these things take time, and then suddenly there's a connection made somewhere along the way that helps," he said.

A connection is exactly what Scott is hoping for. He wrote an email to the Mississauga News in May about the paraphernalia, hoping that a story about the items would help return them to the rightful owners.

"To me, it's a family treasure and hopefully his family would treasure it," he said. "And if I don't do something with it, it will just end up getting chucked in the garbage somewhere along the line, because what are you going to do with somebody else's ID bracelet?"

Cuff, whose grandfather, Leslie Seeley, served in the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War, is of the same mind. He believes that the parcel belongs to Andrews or his family and is hopeful that it will be valuable to the them.

"To get back to the rightful owner or rightful family, that's where it belongs, and from there, they can decide what they want to do with it."

Anyone with information that might lead to locating Andrews or any relatives can email Scott at rrmerlin44@gmail.com.