Hi Dimar,
After sending off the last message, we (my wife and I) have found further info that 'almost' confirms that Alfred Joseph Heaffey is my wife's paternal grandfather. The drama is that we believe Alfred changed his name, most likely to avoid an unwanted marriage. We know Alfred as 'Herbert Smith', WW1 veteran and father of two (legitimate) and suspected one (illegitimate). Our track (to finding the link between Heaffey and Smith) started with Herbert's war record and a court action that occurred during his war service. We found that 'Herbert' had served in the Middlesex Regiment prior to enlisting in Western Australia. We also found out that he was involved in a court case, because he had married his 2nd wife (my wife's grandmother) without having obtained a divorce from his first marriage in Singapore (while on duty with Middlesex regiment). This also (and more importantly) informed us that his real name was 'Alfred Joseph Heassey'. We hit a blank wall with 'Heassey' for a long while, but managed (very recently) to realize that the name Heassey had most likely been transcribed incorrectly and should have been 'Heaffey'. We were a bit dubious about the 'Heassey' to 'Heaffey' error until we found a number of other facts that join all the information together. 'Herbert' left his young kids when his 2nd wife died of TB (in Western Australia) and moved to South Australia and remarried as 'Smith-Harper', the maiden name of his mother!, his father was 'William John Smith-Harper' and he was from Canada! (Veteran records link my 'Herbert Smith' and 'Herbert Smith-Harper' as the same person). Also the Attestation records for 'Alfred' and 'Herbert' both describe exact significant features - the basics: brown hair and eyes, same height and weight, but more importantly distinctive tattoos that occur on both his arms - ship on right arm and girl on left arm. 'Alfred' served in the Middlesex regiment in Singapore at the time of the alleged marriage and was discharged while in Singapore, were (according to a newspaper article about court case) he travelled to Perth, Australia. Which is where he enlisted in the A.I.F. It has been a long trip to connect the two and we are now 99% sure Herbert is Alfred. We now are trying to find 'Alfred/Herbert' on a ship to W.A., marriage certificate in Singapore (when we can afford it - $120US) and also looking at how to gain access to the court records at the National Archives in Kew, to add more detail to the big picture.
Regarding the rest of 'Heaffey' family, I have the military record for William John, Alfred, Robert and possibly at least one record of their father, John William showing his Attestation and Discharge dates, which seems to match with his marriage and first appearance in UK census. Starting to look further back at the parents, I know Heaffey will be almost a dead end being from Ireland, but hope to see what happens with 'Harper'.
If you want further info, let me know.
Regards, David.