Mr Logan was gifted the jug, which is believed to date between 1958 and 63, by a woman from Albury, who picked it up at an op shop on Sydney's northern beaches about 30 years ago.

Pat Hamilton-Smith was intrigued by the 36 or so names engraved on it and often wondered about the occasion it marked - was the jug a golf trophy, a memento of a bucks' weekend, or a trinket marking a successful racing syndicate or committee and why did it end up so far from home?

By Googling the name Gunther, belonging to crossed paths with Mr Logan and he has since taken up the challenge.

Other well-established farming family names like Blunt, Brazier, Dalton, Grayling and Gawler Taylor, Sampson, Proust and Gardner feature on the jug but asking around has so far drawn a blank.

So Mr Logan is taking a different route, picking out the most unfamiliar name as a new starting point and recruiting Facebook group The Old Orange Crew, and its history guru Jim Coffey, into the puzzle.

"Tamisars is the key for me. If we can work out why he's on there I think it will fall into place," said Mr Logan.

Among other things, Mr Coffey unearthed Aleksandr Tamisars was a taxi driver from Punchbowl in Sydney.

Apparently he was the only person with that surname in Australia but had family in Latvia, which Mr Logan has since contacted.

They gave him the clue of a living second wife but so far, that email and Skye request have gone unanswered.

"We've ruled out racing, we ruled it out on the strength of numbers - there just seems to be too many (names) to be a racing syndicate and too many for a committee," Mr Logan said, adding golf was also unlikely considering several descendants have told him their father's weren't interested in the game.

"We suspect there may be another another piece - an ice bucket or something which probably has the reason for it on it. There's also a possibility the names were not all engraved at the same time," he said pointing out the slightly different size and font on some.

"1958 to 1963, that's the only time they could have been in Orange together."

Despite a few setbacks, Mr Logan is amazed by the amount of information already amassed about some of the names on the jug and he remains optimistic its history will be revealed.

"I reckon we're close," he said.

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