Just found out that the Northumberland census returns have been uploaded to the www.1911census.co.uk site so finally I can search for the ROBINSONs and BARNES’ etc.. Downloaded a couple of incorrect ones before getting to William ROBINSON (my g.g.grandfather) who was still a coal miner at 58. The census states that 9 of his 12 children survive and I’ve discovered a new one, Gertrude, who is born in 1902. His wife, Ann, has died sometime between Gertrude’s birth and the 1911 census. Ann was born in Scotland and we have very little information about her early years there; but her brother Hugh was born in the Horton Union Workhouse in Bradford. Six years later their parents die in the same 3 months as each other (ie. their deaths are recorded in the June Quarter 1870) in the Auckland Union Workhouse in Bishop Auckland. Their father’s death certificate confirms he dies of ‘Debility from Fever’. Over 9 months later, and the two orphans are still in the workhouse. Tough lives... Amazingly, they both manage to leave: 7 years later Ann marries my g.g.grandfather William, and at 27 Hugh marries Elizabeth Lowden. Hugh and Elizabeth and their three children are living in Durham in the 1911 census.