Hi there, I've had so much useful advice here, I have decided to share another dead end in my local family tree. I have very little information to go on. Edward Lewis. DOB 1880-1890 i guess. Lewis is a common name, i know none of his siblings, and he was an orphan, and was taken in by a Bowman family (Robert and Mary Ann Bowman), who had a son called Matthew who died in the Great war (RIP) Gatehead/Durham is where he lived. All i know is he was killed in Lambton D Pit at some point after 1910. There are about four edward lewis in the censuses i have checked in gateshead, around that time none living with a Bowman. If i could get any details on regarding the possible dates of death in the pit, i could work backwards. But Lewis is such a frequent name...... I am still pretty new to this family history game... This is three pipe problem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_pipe_problem any budding Holmes out there to give me pointers please? Cheers Jack ___________________________________________________________ New Yahoo! Mail is the ultimate force in competitive emailing. Find out more at the Yahoo! Mail Championships. Plus: play games and win prizes. http://uk.rd.yahoo.com/evt=44106/*http://mail.yahoo.net/uk