About 1953 my grandmother died and I inherited the teapot. Inside I found an old sepia photograph of two old people who I was told were Benjamin and Mary Slater.

Nothing more was thought about it for the next 30 years or so until I was close to my retirement from the Royal Air Force. Then, one day, having taken the pot out to look at, I began to wonder what relation Benjamin and Mary Slater were to our branch of the Ashley family. This led me to begin my research.

I have established that Benjamin and Mary Slater were my paternal grandmother's grandparents on her mother's side and came from the Potteries (and that covers a wide area!). That is as far as I have reached at present with that side of the family.

The Ashley side is proving even more elusive. I have still not identified the origin of birth of my great-grandfather who was reputedly born at Loppington, Shropshire in 1831 according to a funeral card. However, searches through various cencus returns offer alternatives of either Cotton(Wem) or Prees in the same county. Hunting for information on Ag Labs (Agricultural Labourers) in the darkest depths of rural Shropshire in the early 19th century is not easy at the best of times. To make matters worse, from the evidence of my g-grandfather's marriage certificate, neither he nor his wife could write their names at that time. In addition, there was no information on the certificate of his father's name, address or occupation. To date, this has proved to be a dead-end.