Thanks Heather so much for the website. I only entered "Joseph Hands" and found numerous references in 1842-1843 to the bankruptcy of Joseph Hands and Elizabeth Gill, ribbon manufacturers of Coventry. They are in my database although not necessarily related to my gggrandfather Joseph Hands, watchmaker of Coventry. On the other hand, a notice of the dissolution of partnership of Joseph and William Hands, butchers of Corley, did relate to my gggrandfathers cousins. My Joseph's father William was born in Corley Moor, and I had already found cousin Joseph in the 1841 census as a butcher in Corley. I can see I will be very busy with this new (to me) resource. Diane in California > I was looking for when our ancestors' family firm ceased trading and > someone directed me towards the London Gazette archives. Although the > company was based in the north of the country, the details of its > receivership were there in the London paper and helped complete another > section of the family jigsaw.> > The link is http://www.gazettes-online.co.uk/. Not having visited the > site before, I used the Search Builder (under Historians header) and it > was soooo straight forward to use. I would certainly recommend it (and > it's free :-) )> > Hope it helps someone> Heather Q> _________________________________________________________________ Boo! Scare away worms, viruses and so much more! Try Windows Live OneCare! http://onecare.live.com/standard/en-us/purchase/trial.aspx?s_cid=wl_hotmailnews