Joseph was almost certainly one of twins. It is very unusual on English birth certificates to write the time of birth. Almost the only time when this is done, is if there are twins born. On Joseph's birth certificate, there is a time given, 6.45pm on 1st April 1853. He was born at 7 Queens Road, Holloway.

For many years he sailed in windjammers. He caught three flying fish and had them stuffed. His grandson remembers that they were up on his wall for years. Joseph lived into his nineties - he grained the front door at The Homestead for his son Albert when he was in his 80s, sometime after 1934 when his grandson Horie had married and moved in next door. Joseph Pickett also worked for a while in Goldsmith's Hall, but we don't know what he did.

Joseph used to visit his son Albert on Sunday mornings. He always carried a brass penny whistle in his inside pocket and he would pull this out and welcome his grandsons on their way back from their Cubs' Church Parade.

At the end of his life, Joseph lived with a daughter, but for many decades before this, he and his wife Elizabeth lived at 78 Station Crescent, off West Green Road, Tottenham. He died after he'd had a fall in the bathroom and broke his thigh. It took so long for an ambulance to come and collect him, that the daughter he was living with reckoned it more or less finished him off.

Joseph also had a brother who moved to New Zealand, who was quite a bigwig - he had a write-up when he died. It was possibly to do with piracy.

He had a nephew, called Will Pickett, who had four daughters and this Will worked for Joseph's son Albert Edward sometimes.