In a message dated 20/11/2009 21:20:38 GMT Standard Time, annathamble@aol.com writes: I have been looking at my husband's COOPER family, who lived at South Shields from c 1874. I have traced most of the family through to 1911. However, two girls, Sarah b Hythe, Kent, 1872, and Emma, b 1875, in South Shields, disappear. I was told that they went as missionaries to China. I have no idea who might have sent them, where or why they went, what happened to them, and how I might find out more. Tall order, I fear, but I won't find out unless I ask! Ann Ann: This may be a little too early for you, and being from a Methodist stand-point, perhaps not all that relevant, but I thought I would mention it, since missionaries to China would never have been very thick on the ground. but here goes. Do you remember the radio disc-jockey/presenter, Steve Race? In his book "The two worlds of Joseph Race", published in 1988, he details the life of his ancestor Joseph Russell Race (1848-1880), who was a methodist missionary in China. If you can find that anywhere it might hold a few clues for you. I seem to remember that Steve Race may have written a summary article about Joseph Russell Race's career and about his own Weardale/Teesdale Race ancestry for the NDFHS Journal at about the same time. If you were not a NDFHS member around then, or have not kept your old Journals, then you could access them via the CD of the first 25 years-worth of Journals, on sale at Bolbec Hall or by post. Failing that, what about contacting the British and Foreign Bible Society? Geoff Nicholson