Letters

Dear Simon, The history of Pitman shorthand told by Angeline Wilcox in the July edition of Best of British (Write on Time) evoked so many memories. I was amazed to learn that Isaac Pitman actually cre

I have just read Diane Lindsay’s piece (FT June) about decluttering. That did ring a large bell. I have been doing family history for something like 65 years. I have managed to file a lot of the infor

When I first started to trace the Tonges, my mum’s dad’s side of the family, I thought they might be a tad predictable. We didn’t know very much about them, but surely if there were any interesting ta

Q Is it possible to have a death in a workhouse with no subsequent death certificate in 1885? I have the record from Ancestry of the death. Mary Ann Arnold born 1854, death May 1885 (maybe Mar 1885),

Of all of the houses I’ve lived in, it is my childhood home that I think about the most. A three-storey, double-fronted Victorian end terrace called Iona Cottage (despite looking nothing like one), it

I must extend my huge thanks to Jon Winder for his excellent article Swings and Roundabouts (July). I am currently scribbling notes which I hope to turn into a memoir of my childhood, and one chapter