Migration’s rich rewards

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

Leigh Lawson has embraced acting and poetry with the same determination that sustained Marie Lloyd, the music-hall queen whose memorabilia he collects, as Carla Passino discovers

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

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

Danny Bird You open your book by recounting a chance visit to an old mosque in Cyprus. What was so significant about that moment? Tharik Hussain Nothing changed for me on the day itself, because I kne

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