Dear paul

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

My maiden name was Shenton, and for as long as I can remember I’ve had a fascination for names. I grew up in the Hanley area of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, in a community that was deeply rooted in

Dear Simon, I was particularly interested in Sylvia Lee’s item on Cope’s Pools in Yesterday Remembered (Pools Party, December). I worked at the company’s offices in Edmonton, north London in 1966-67.

As every family historian knows only too well, researching your ancestry becomes significantly more difficult the further back you get. There are fewer records available before the 19th century, and f

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