Make the most of visiting archives

The economy of Suffolk traditionally relied on agriculture and fishing, but much of its prosperity in the Middle Ages resulted from the cloth and wool trade. In fact Bury St Edmunds, Clare, Hadleigh,

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

HAVING SPENT SO MUCH TIME IN NEWSROOMS and edit suites making television and radio documentaries, I have come to archives late on in my life. These are the precious places that hold records, whether 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

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

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