Drip feeding me information, Pirate, is not going to help things along.
That said there is so much happening at this end that there is a possibility I wouldn't have time for it anyway.
Oh by the way the police did call. They have arranged with the local constabulary for my finger prints to be taken - for elimination purposes. Other than that they simply wanted me to confirm what I had seen, where I had been in the house, and the background to the visit. As you say they were not happy that I had left the country but I told them that I had things that needed my attention and I could not risk them holding me in the country when this obviously had nothing to do with me. I found them rather rude all things considered and told them as much. They didn't seem too bothered by that feedback.
Anyway on to more positive things. I have moved into my house. I haven't moved much in as yet, just the essentials, but I am here and it feels incredibly good. Reliable Rob and his merry men keep reminding me that I should decorate the rooms whilst they are empty, and for the most part I will, but I needed to get things set up in my office as a priority. So decorating that will have to wait. I've got my desk and equipment in there but there is still plenty of space to work with and I have ideas. Oh and I have invested in a huge, wall mounted, touch screen which is proving to be worth every penny.
I can't wait to show you but in the meantime you'll have to do with a description because I'm very pleased with what I've achieved in such a short space of time.
I started with a representation of your family tree as we understand it so far. Where I've identified a reliable photo of that person, or information, I'm adding it to the file which I can then open up from the tree. I'm not sure I'm describing this particularly clearly but it looks hellishly impressive in action. I can't wait for you to see it.
But it does mean that as I find information in the papers and things I can add them to the correct file so that we can hopefully build up a picture of who these people were and what they were up to. Well - that's the plan.
I started with your Great-uncle Bojo's notebook. For the most part it seems to be a to-do list that he has written down so that he doesn't forget what he has been told to do; some are dated and some not. Some are fairly mundane tasks such as clearing rubbish from the yard or repairing leaky pipes (it seems he was quite handy with DIY) but others have more sinister undertones. There are a few entries which appear to suggest he was being asked to beat people up or intimidate them in some way. Sometimes there is a dollar amount noted at the side of a name (or for the most part partial name) so I'm guessing he was collecting monies perhaps for debts owed or protection monies, it's hard to tell.
The family photo is proving to be quite interesting though. Given that it was in your Great-uncle Bojo's belongings I think we can safely assume that it is your gramps' parents and that the children are their children. But that is where it gets interesting.
There are six children in the photo. But from all the information that we've gathered so far your great-grandparents only officially appear to have had five children; your gramps, Great-uncle Bojo, Great-uncle Frank, Great-aunt Ethel and Great-aunt Mary. There is a code on the back of the photograph and a photographer's stamp so I'm going to see if it is possible to trace the year that it was taken from that information. I don't hold out much hope but I think if we could do that then it may be possible to work out which child in the photo is which known family member and therefore isolate the sixth child.
As for the papers from the metal box, there are more photos which are proving very difficult to match to the press cuttings and information that we already have. I've put those to one side for now because I'm not sure how we take that forward. In the papers was an old marriage certificate for gramps and gran which gives us some definite information to add to the information we have pieced together.
There was also a deed in there for some property in Philadelphia. A warehouse or perhaps the whole business it was hard to decipher. I wonder if you would mind me passing it to the Mother-ship for her to look at. I would need to say that you found it in some old family papers, which of course is true, but other than that I don't think I need to say how we found it. Actually I'll text you rather than wait for a reply on here. It will be quicker.
But the pièce de résistance were the letters. In the late '50s your gramps was imprisoned and there are a few from your gran to him with some rather odd, or perhaps cryptic, updates. But the interesting ones are from some friend or acquaintance of your gramps who appears to have been keeping an eye on your gran whilst your gramps was absent.
And those, my dear Pirate, are a real eye-opener.
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