I HAVE come to a stop in researching my family tree.

My great-great grandfather, Joseph Gamson, or Gamston, was born in Kidderminster in about 1830.

He moved to Darlington, where he married Mary Williams, from March, Cambridgeshire. They and their children, moved to Rotherham to take over a boarding house in Masbrough Street, where Joseph died in 1896.

He was married as Gamson, but died as Gamston, and most of his children were born as Gamson.

All the Gamstons in Rotherham are descended from this couple.

Family tales say that he was illegitimate and possibly brought up by a family called Giles, but in his burial records his wife has given his parents' names as John and Sarah Gamston.

Whether his mother, Sarah, married John after Joseph's birth, I do not know, or maybe Mary made up these names for the sake of respectability.

Apparently, Joseph was illiterate but corresponded with his future wife by letter with the help of a friend.

In records I have seen, there have been several Gamstons in Kidderminster, and I wonder if any of their descendants are still there.

If anyone has any information could they please write to me?

LINDA GAMSTON

26 Bradstone Road

Rotherham

South Yorkshire S65 3LB