Hello All, For the rest of April, the List theme is "what did my ancestors do and where did they work". This is quite a poignant theme with the "recent" closure of so many companies lately in the Black Country. One of the latest being Speare and Jackson at Wood Green Wednesbury, Some of you may be aware that this was formerly Elwells and prior to that.......well, ironmaking since the 16th Century springs to mind on that site. I suppose it will end up as housing. Tinsleys have been saved for the present, and look what a history that company have had! Other companies that spring readily to mind lately are F.H.Lloyds, The Patent Shaft, Conex Sanbra, Rubery Owen, Jenson, Accles and Pollack, Royal Doulton, The Crown Tubeworks (Whitehouses), Beans, Norton Villiers, Mitchells and Butlers Brewery, Fellowes Moreton and Clayton, Great Western Railways, Midland Tar Distillers, Ag Labs on one of the many farms that were in the BC until very recently, Mining, In Service, Teaching etc.etc., It doesn't matter if your ancestors didn't work in one of the firms mentioned, it's really interesting to note what they did as a job and where they did it, even if it was in an outhouse making nails, gun locks or even Jews harps. We could learn a lot about the diversity of expertise in our area. So all in all it boils down to a job with a short description and where they carried it out. Can I ask you all not to revert to dialect with replies to this, many subscribers overseas (and in this Country) don't understand what we're on about, and remember BC dialect on one side of the Dudley Moon (I won't go into the Four Moons of Oldbury <g>) is far removed to that from the other. Dave Wednesbury England List Admin: Black Country etc.,