Ronnie_Bray
New Member
I am a citizen of England [UK] now married to a US citizen.
My previous wife died in November 1997 in Huddersfield Yorkshire. She had four surviving children, my step-children, and she told me what each of them was to be given as a bequest. They were small personal items and each of them received what she had said they should. She left no written will and no other instructions as to the disposal of any of her effects.
The situation was not questioned until August of 1998 when I indicated that I had met a friend online and that it could be serious. One step-child was indifferent, one was happy, but two were vehemently opposed to my remarriage.
However the marriage to my present wife went ahead and we remained in Huddersfield until my retirement in January 2000. Relations with the two dissenting step-daughters remained extremely cool and awkward. After retiring I felt I would emigrate with my US citizen wife and spend the remainder of my years in the US.
The question came up of my wife's photograph albums that remained in my possession. At the time I was scanning them to PC so that each of her children could have copies of all the photographs. My late wife had been previously married and divorced and many of the pictures were of her earlier marriage. She also let journals covering the greater part of the 20 years prior to her death.
I was entering the text of her journals into MSWord format on PC to keep a record of her life that I intended to illustrate with photographs of the various stages of her life.
Although I had always told the children I would turn the albums over to them when I had completed making CDs of their Mother's Journals my imminent departure for the USA caused them to believe I intended to deprive them of the photographs. This was not true and I repeatedly assured them of my intentions, but to no effect.
Soon after I arrived in the US I sent the whole of the albums to my late wife's daughter in Seattle who had promised to copy them and return them to me in short time.
I did not get them back, but was givenm to understand that she had sent them to her biological father in England and that he would scan them and distribute them. I assume he did so because I did get a CD with a couple of the older albums on it although I didn't see any of the ten or twelve albums I sent. However, that is not the issue. that is background.
For Christmas 2001 I sent each of the children a CD on which the complete texts of Norma's Journals were transcribed year by year, with some pictures, and with some explanatory notes as I felt were necessary to explain some parts. I also added full names for the people she mentioned.
All in all, Norma's Journals were testaments to her religious faith and how she did her best to provide for her family since she was left alone when the youngest was a babe in arms. I did not receive acknowledgement from any of the children but I was satisfied that I had kept faith with them and with Norma in making it possible for each of them to have access to her life, thoughts, and faith.
In December 2009 I received a rare message asking where the early albums were. Knowing only that I had had them, had sent them to Seattle, and that from there they had gone to England and, I assumed, each had received copies of them I had not made any attempt in the intervening years to keep track of them. It was suggested that their loss was my fault. Their father took his own life a few years back and his widow, from whom he was estranged at the time, apparently told the girls that they were not among his effects.
I still have the copies of Norma's journals that my present wife, Gay, and I put into MSWord and from time to time I have written stories about Norma's remarkable faith and had them posted on e-zines.
I have also posted Norma's Journals inline on one of my websites. I am threatened by Norma's son with some kind of durance vile for posting them, although I have not discovered that I have contravened any copyright, etc, and have claimed the copyright for the Journals in the form into which I put them.
Sorry to be long-winded, but the upshot is am I within my legal rights to hold copyright in the formatted and edited form in which I now have them, and what, if any, grounds would they have for any kind of criminal or civil redress either in the UK or the US?
Thank you for your kind consideration and advice.
Ronnie Bray
My previous wife died in November 1997 in Huddersfield Yorkshire. She had four surviving children, my step-children, and she told me what each of them was to be given as a bequest. They were small personal items and each of them received what she had said they should. She left no written will and no other instructions as to the disposal of any of her effects.
The situation was not questioned until August of 1998 when I indicated that I had met a friend online and that it could be serious. One step-child was indifferent, one was happy, but two were vehemently opposed to my remarriage.
However the marriage to my present wife went ahead and we remained in Huddersfield until my retirement in January 2000. Relations with the two dissenting step-daughters remained extremely cool and awkward. After retiring I felt I would emigrate with my US citizen wife and spend the remainder of my years in the US.
The question came up of my wife's photograph albums that remained in my possession. At the time I was scanning them to PC so that each of her children could have copies of all the photographs. My late wife had been previously married and divorced and many of the pictures were of her earlier marriage. She also let journals covering the greater part of the 20 years prior to her death.
I was entering the text of her journals into MSWord format on PC to keep a record of her life that I intended to illustrate with photographs of the various stages of her life.
Although I had always told the children I would turn the albums over to them when I had completed making CDs of their Mother's Journals my imminent departure for the USA caused them to believe I intended to deprive them of the photographs. This was not true and I repeatedly assured them of my intentions, but to no effect.
Soon after I arrived in the US I sent the whole of the albums to my late wife's daughter in Seattle who had promised to copy them and return them to me in short time.
I did not get them back, but was givenm to understand that she had sent them to her biological father in England and that he would scan them and distribute them. I assume he did so because I did get a CD with a couple of the older albums on it although I didn't see any of the ten or twelve albums I sent. However, that is not the issue. that is background.
For Christmas 2001 I sent each of the children a CD on which the complete texts of Norma's Journals were transcribed year by year, with some pictures, and with some explanatory notes as I felt were necessary to explain some parts. I also added full names for the people she mentioned.
All in all, Norma's Journals were testaments to her religious faith and how she did her best to provide for her family since she was left alone when the youngest was a babe in arms. I did not receive acknowledgement from any of the children but I was satisfied that I had kept faith with them and with Norma in making it possible for each of them to have access to her life, thoughts, and faith.
In December 2009 I received a rare message asking where the early albums were. Knowing only that I had had them, had sent them to Seattle, and that from there they had gone to England and, I assumed, each had received copies of them I had not made any attempt in the intervening years to keep track of them. It was suggested that their loss was my fault. Their father took his own life a few years back and his widow, from whom he was estranged at the time, apparently told the girls that they were not among his effects.
I still have the copies of Norma's journals that my present wife, Gay, and I put into MSWord and from time to time I have written stories about Norma's remarkable faith and had them posted on e-zines.
I have also posted Norma's Journals inline on one of my websites. I am threatened by Norma's son with some kind of durance vile for posting them, although I have not discovered that I have contravened any copyright, etc, and have claimed the copyright for the Journals in the form into which I put them.
Sorry to be long-winded, but the upshot is am I within my legal rights to hold copyright in the formatted and edited form in which I now have them, and what, if any, grounds would they have for any kind of criminal or civil redress either in the UK or the US?
Thank you for your kind consideration and advice.
Ronnie Bray
