Yourquestions answered

Q My great great grandfather, Enoch Coates, was wounded in the Crimean War at Sebastopol. His death notice in the Lichfield Mercury, on Friday 9 December 1910, describes him as a “Crimean Veteran” and

Whenever we start our family history research we can be quite excited at the speed of our initial discoveries, as they come at us thick and fast. Across time, as we push further back, challenges incre

Q My ancestor, a pilot in Poole, had a son taken up by the press, and I’d like to know whether the son was let off, or whether he sailed away and never came back. I asked Dorset Archives some years ag

Theatres offered something for everyone in the 19th century, presenting recitals and opera, Shakespearean plays, or lively mixed programmes of comedy, song and dance that attracted enthusiastic – and

“You can’t live here. There are no shops,” my friend Jen stated. We were sitting in the van belonging to the pub I lived in, the Golden Cross, Slough, waiting for my parents who had an interview for t

These days, we associate autograph books with celebrities. But they originated in 16th-century Germany, where university students used to collect signatures from their classmates, and functioned as an