This has been a busy week. Cousin Spike has been hard at work sending me dozens of wonderful old photos of the Ross family in Gladstone. This photograph may well be of my grandfather and one of his brothers but I have yet to check. It is wonderful to have these images from the past. I have two great pics of my grandfather, Charles Vangelios Ross, nicknamed Nigger Ross because of his colouring and looking so very Greek.
There are some photos of my Aunt Flora as well, who was said to be the 'spitting image' of Charlie Ross, or Carolus Rossolimos and it is nice to have an image in my mind as I continue the task of 'finding Charlie Ross.'
I also have heaps of military records from when Charles Vangelios enlisted in World War One, which my brother Ken unearthed and sent to me, including his medical record which has his colouring as 'bronzed.' No doubt it is a polite way of saying his skin was dark.
And two books have arrived in the post which I hope, once read, will leave me better informed about the world which my great-grandfather left behind. I have Britain's Greek Islands, Kythera and the Ionian Islands 1809-1804 by Peter Prineas and A History of Greek-Owned Shipping, by Gelina Harlaftis. The latter was very expensive, more than $100 and may of course be superfluous if we are not descended from the Rossolimos clan but it was the easiest way to get access to information about Greek shipping. And even if Charlie Ross was not a Rossolimos he was still a sailor and I am sure the book will be invaluable in terms of gaining knowledge about his mother country and the era in which he sailed.
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