London

Three decades in the works, family 'memory binders' stolen from car in London

Three memory books, a compilation of decades worth of research, pictures and stories, were stolen from a car parked in London at the intersection of Queens Avenue and Colborne Streets, and Irene Pike is hoping she can get them back.

A relative of Irene Pike's had the binders in the car to return to her when they were stolen

A sepia toned pictures of teen girls in bathing suits.
A picture that appears in the Pike family memory book. The girls in this picture are now in their 60s. (Supplied by Irene Pike)

Three memory books, a compilation of decades worth of research, pictures and stories were stolen from a car parked in London at the intersection of Queens Avenue and Colborne Street, and Irene Pike is hoping she can still get them back. 

"They're priceless. Really priceless," said Pike from her home outside of Grand Bend, Ont. "They would be of no use to anyone." 

But for Pike and her family, the three binders represent an entire history, some of it going back to the 1600s. 

"I started in the 1980s, when I lived in London. I would go and look things up in London at the library. Then, when computers came in, I started doing it that way, and I've also used ancestry.com," Pike said. 

The 82-year-old's binders included books about members of her family and both sides of her husband's family.

"There was a book on each person. I included a story about each person, their baby picture or their confirmation pictures. It was just something I taught myself to do," Pike said. 

On Nov. 27, a relative who had borrowed the binders to read, left them in a parked car while he went to the gym. When he came back, the three binders, as well as other items inside the car, were gone. 

This is the cover page of one of the memory books that was stolen from a parked car on Nov. 27.
This is the cover page of one of the memory books that was stolen from a parked car on Nov. 27. (Submitted by Irene Pike)

"I was devastated. Nov. 27 is a hard day anyway because it's the day my husband died in 2015, so I was down because of that, and then when I heard about this, it was difficult," Pike said. 

Each book is worth about $150 because Pike used photo-quality paper for each person's story, plus hundreds of dollars on ink. 

But the amount of time she spent researching and typing everything up is incalculable. 

Priceless stories

"All of these stories, they were supposed to be a keepsake," she said. "My father was in the First World War, he was shot at Vimy Ridge. My grandfather helped build London bridge, he was a builder, and I had his business card in one of those binders." 

Many of the stories, photos, and original birth, marriage and death certificates exist in Pike's archives. But the organization she put into it will be difficult to recreate. 

"I was younger when I did this, I worked faster. I spent one whole winter typing, typing, typing," Pike said. "But I will start again. I have to try." 

A London police report was made two days after the theft. Police say they have no suspects.