Gillian, it’s good to hear from you. Your family has been on my list of people to contact for fifteen years. Now that I know you want to be in touch with me, as well as me wanting to be in touch with you, we can start. It was in 1993 that I met your father’s first cousin Margaret Ficker (née Joughin) in London (I had met her previously at her home in Normanhurst, NSW). She gave me your father’s addresses, and his brother’s in Portugal, and told me that you lived in Burlington.

If you search Joughin on the Internet, your brother Ian comes up with more entries than anyone else. His rumbling glaciers are top of the list. Second favourite is Charles Joughin, the Titanic baker, a fifth cousin of your grandfather John Victor.

I am sorry not to be a long lost cousin, though I can probably put you in touch with some who are, and tell you about your forbears. Your Joughins originate in Andreas, mine in Bride, so near in American terms, so far in Manx.

The names you mention are all familiar, except for Eleanor. Is she a Cannon too?

I hope you will take up Sue’s suggestion and contact me by e-mail. Then we can get going.