ith ancestors who are closer to our own time, there is greater chance of stories, photographs or memorabilia being passed down. In the first four decades of the 20th century, the majority of adults will have benefited from compulsory education, so are more likely to have written letters, postcards or diaries that might survive. Sometimes, because we feel that we know so much already, we neglect to research these more recent family members with the same vigour as we might more distant kin. Twentieth-century research brings with it the difficulties of larger and more mobile populations, as well as records that might be closed to view for privacy reasons, yet there is plenty of scope for investigating their lives. This was a time of
