Warm birthday & anniversary greetings to Jeff Samuelson from some of the Wortman family

Some younger members of my family tend to FACEBOOK almost all their family greetings, while for others, like my 93 year old father, its old fashioned physical cards and letters all the way.

Me, perhaps because of my age (69), fall somewhere in between - I tend to email my family greetings.

So the fact that Jeff Samuelson, Gabe Wortman’s younger brother, only gets annual Facebook greetings on his birthday and anniversary from just a few Wortmans doesn’t mean the rest don’t celebrate with him and Robin by email or letter.

Now media reports have said that Glynn Wortman, an uncle of Gabriel, quite unwell and then living in Alberta, told them in an interview that he got his “brother” Neil Wortman to help extract him from a legal dispute with Gabriel that was before the NS Supreme Court in Halifax.

(Glynn, his brother Paul (Gabe’s father) says, is now in a Moncton area nursing home.)

First off, the Neil Wortman in Hammonds Plains NS, conveniently close to the NS Supreme Court in Halifax doesn't appear to have any connection to Gabriel or the Moncton area Wortmans at all.

Now Neil C Wortman in Shediac has a spouse and children who have regularly, since at least December 2011, sent Happy New Year/Birthday/Anniversary Facebook  greetings to Gabe’s brother Jeff Samuelson, repeatedly calling him “cousin”.

And when Jeff wishes to celebrate with Neil C Wortman, Facebook records him saying  “Happy Birthday Uncle Neal” (sic).

(And, by the way, just like his birth father Paul and his birth brother Gabe, Jeff really does love his motorbikes !)

NOTE WELL : Jeff’s identity was only known to Gabe’s parents in March 2010.

But. devil’s advocate hat on, Jeff might  just be a second cousin, ie Neil is thus not yet proven to be indeed a “brother” to Glynn, Paul, Allan and Chris Wortman.

Instead, merely an extraordinarily friendly distant relative who learned somehow, and very quickly and accurately, about Gabe’s new brother and found him on Facebook and began being very friendly to him.

Just re-reading that last sentence reminds me how unlikely it all sounds. What do you think ?

And the witness to Neil and Annette’s 1966 Moncton area wedding : a PAUL Wortman, 43 Edgett Avenue, Moncton. The wedding was held at a Catholic church, and while  Paul is Protestant, his wife Evelyn is Catholic : maybe they met there and married 16 months later ; who knows ?

Paul Wortman remains the most elusive member of the whole family. Just for example, we know he married Evelyn in December 1967 because they put in a Moncton newspaper ad marking their 30th in December 1997.

But their marriage is not registered in New Brunswick’s registry of births, deaths and marriages - so did they marry in Massachusetts perhaps ?

Now we know that brother Allan was in the RCMP, according to Paul. Certainly an Allan Ross Wortman of Ottawa might appear to fit the bill : the right age when he joined the RCMP, says he’s from Moncton. But he also says he graduated from Brook High in the Beaverton area of Ontario, cottage country.

His Facebook page is now gone and a more private Facebook page is up for an Alan R Wortman.

Alan R Wortman, however, is friends with Annette Wortman, wife of Neil C Wortman...

I am still uncertain about whether this is Gabe’s uncle Alan.

Jeff Samuelson got one more happy birthday greeting from a Wortman, this time from out in the lower mainland, BC.

Her partner is named Cris Wortman , note the spelling, and man oh man, brother oh sister, does he sure look like all the other males in the Paul Wortman family.

Now we know that brother Chris Wortman is RCMP according to Paul, and sure enough a Cris Wortman is RCMP in the lower mainland BC area.

A 23 year veteran of the RCMP by 2004 he told a local newspaper - which makes the year he graduated about right for the time Paul took teenager Gabe to see his uncle graduate form RCMP Depot Regina. Say 1982 plus or minus a year.

Now we do find a Cris Wortman graduating from Moncton’s Harrison Trimble High (same school as Glynn graduated from) in 1979 - that sure fits the timeline to join the RCMP in 1982.

Again, what do you think.

But back to Neil C Wortman, supposed to be Glynn’s brother and thus either a  full brother or  half brother to Paul, Alan, Cris and Glynn.

We , or at least I, know a lot about Neil C. Wortman’s family background.

He was born in Stratford Ontario, seemingly the only child of Stanley Otis Wortman who was born in Moncton, son of George Otto Wortman of the same city.

George had a ton of kids - six boys and three girls. All last night I tracked their fates via obits and the data in the New Brunswick Registry of births, deaths and marriages.

Even in the NS Registry - because son Robert died in the services during the last days of WWII - in Lunenburg NS.

I found the children of all the males - no Paul, Alan, Glynn or Cris.

One sister died as a baby, the other two married - a Mr Taylor and a Mr Gardner.

No Paul : and yet I persist, as do most others who have thought about it, in believing that Paul’s relationship with his son in Gabe’s very earliest years holds the key to his extraordinary outburst of hatred against the world.

Paul Wortman : the Missing Years is still a story waiting to be told...