Hi helen,
Thanks for the reply, nice to hear from you. What era are you focusing on hear as the engineering side of things isn't ringing a bell, but the mining is, my grandfather ( david colcombe who was married to my nan, agnes colcombe ), was in the war first, but then moved into mining. I have,nt done any research really into the family history, but i have to say after coming across this site and forum, i'm thinking of going for it so maybe we could help each other out in tracing our roots.
Hope this helps.
Regards.
Glen.