Cassy, I found an entry for my 3x great grandfather's bankruptcy in the London Times (or it may have been the London Gazette...), which came as a complete shock to me! For the Times, you need to get on www.times.co.uk and in the Search box type "Archive", which will take you to their archive site, from there you can search for your ancestor. For the Gazette, I think you need to search for "Gazette Gateway" which is the site for the London, Belfast and Edinburgh Gazettes. These are the "papers of public record": if someone gets a medal it is announced in here, or if there's a bankruptcy it's announced in there. It's worth a try, because you might be able to trace a date, and then a local newspaper report, which usually gives ages! Hope this helps -- Chris Pampling researching: BARRATT, DANCER, FELLOWS, GOODES, HOLDING, ROBINSON, TUCKLEY, WHEWAY, MAHER all in and around Birmingham/Smethwick, 1850 to present day PAMPLING Cambridgeshire - Sheffield, 1800 to present VARNDELL Wokingham - Birmingham, 1800 to present