[West Ender]

How many goes do we get?

I'd like to go back to mid-Victorian days, with entrée into Windsor Castle, to see if John Brown really was knocking off the queen and whether she was amused or not. I'd also like to go back a few decades earlier to Catterall/Calder Vale to see my great great grandfather who, from records we've traced, seems to have had about 12 children and spelled his surname at least 4 different ways when he registered their births. I would ask him if my maiden name really was Sleddon or should it have been Sladden, Slaiding or Sledding as he didn't seem able to make his mind up.

Finally, I'd jump forward nearly 100 years to see my dad's parents. His mother died in 1916 and his father in 1917, when dad was only 9 (middle one of 5 young brothers), and I've only seen a couple of photos of them. In one photo my grandfather is wearing a Grenadier Guards tunic and pillbox hat but my dad never knew if his father had been in the army and I'd love to ask him about it.