He went to Tömörd where Josef’s birth certificate said he had been born but there were no records in the parish register. The priest said that he was either born elsewhere or not a catholic. If the father was Louis, this would fit. The priest said that one of Josef’s daughters was still alive and Otto visited her - Paula Hanny (née Nelky). She said that when Josef was 12, his mother died and the local priest became his guardian and he was sent to a catholic grammar school and became a lawyer. His 6 children all did very well.

For more details of this story, read the book Villa Russo, chapter 3.

Wolf wrote to the prisons in Hungary and found that Louis Nelki had been imprisoned there from 10.3.1832 until February 1834.

Louis had left a wife and 7 children in Altmark in Germany though there may have been some contact as they reported his death in 1856. By coincidence, when Wolf’s brother Otto was studying in Ireland he heard that there was a diplomat at the Hungarian embassy in Ireland called Eugen Nelky.

Wolf found out that Eugen was born in Sopron in 1884 and was the son of the lawyer Josef Nelky. He wrote to the parish of Sopron and received a copy of his birth certificate and the marriage certificate of his parents. This stated that he was the child of Josef Nelky and Mathilde Nerey. Josef’s parents are mentioned as: father unknown: mother Caroline Szylagyi. Yet the son born to her is called Joseph (Josef) Nelky born on 28th August 1846. Wolf was pretty sure this meant that Louis was his father - why else would he be called Nelki and there were no other Nelky’s in Hungary that we know of.

Miss Szylagyi was working as a maid at the parish priests house at the time and was only 18. As it is often a mark if Hungarian aristocracy to have a ‘y’ at the end of a name, it may be that it was thought helpful to have Nelky as a surname. Louis was still married in Germany. These were all only assumptions but led to Otto, Wolf’s brother, getting a visa to Hungary (not easy in communist Hungary) and meeting the family who were delighted to meet him.

Death certificate of Rosa Nelky - in German & Hungarian - daughter of Paula?