Very interesting thread,and some very good stories.
Hope you find my story of interest.
I had been searching for about 30 years,long before the days of the internet,
(What an invention)
Used to go to the local record office,rain or shine.
Trawling through the old record books, and yes they used to have dust on them,just blew it off,and carried on searching .
Was searching for just one person.
Never found a thing,
now here's the surprise,
turns out this man had changed his name,so the man I was looking for
didn't exist.
Found out eventually his real name,turned into a real sleuth,even found a pub near to an address,and rang and spoke to a lovely helpful barmaid,if she had ever heard of this person.
Cut a long story short,had to laugh at her reply, I only remember customers by what they drink.
But hang on will go across to the local newsagent,and find out if they deliver papers to a man of that name.
True to her word she did,came back to me,with the right name, address and tel number.
Needless to say I found out everything I needed to know.
That was only 2 years ago.
So with a good bit of digging around,I'm sure you will eventually find the answers to your research.
My motto is I WILL FIND YOU ONE DAY.
Bennett