Searching living relatives, Forest Newspapers etc (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Thursday, June 06, 2013, 17:03 (4183 days ago) @ tewyn

Hi,
re trying to contact possible family members, whereabouts are you now ?
I ask as traditionally a possible plan is to go thro the phone directories, altho of course the BT Directories are VERY thin these days as many people use other company's phones. Directories are available to view/copy at public librairies. Only a few months ago I had a call out of the blue from a lady in Sussex going thro all us Jones in our local (West London) directory, so quite a task !. Unfortunately I couldnt help her, although we had an interesting chat as it seemed her father's family had moved to this area to work at the huge EMI factories during the War, just as I moved here to work at those same factories albeit years later, AND she had family in Lydney, talk about small world !!. Not surprisingly given our name she'd phoned several people, most had been very pleasant, I hope she eventually found success. She'd also lookedup the BMDs etc to try to get clues, plus local newspaper archives, she was looking to find people from 50 years back.

I also suggested she put an advert/letter in the local papers, I think this is your best plan too albeit time appears rather tight. For the Forest area there are at least two local newspapers, both weeklies, The Forester (pay for) and the Review/Advertiser(a freebie but still very good paper & widely read). I just phoned my sister at The Forester front desk; she confirms they just recently started being a Wednesday issue (was always Fridays), and adverts need to be in a week before. However she advises your enquiry is best sent as a letter/email to the Editor, so no cost and MAY even get published at short noticer if space permits, at the Editor's discretion. It seems the Review has now become under the same local ownership as The Forester, albeit different contact details, see

http://www.theforester.co.uk/contact.cfm

http://www.theforestreview.co.uk/contact.cfm

I do hope this helps and good luck in your search.