AN effort to unearth details of her family history proved successful for one reader living in Yorkshire.

Mrs Irene Coyle, of Doncaster, wanted to trace ancestors from Radcliffe named Leach.

The family were known to have earned their living in coal mining for several generations and lived in the Outwood area.

Her great grandfather's name was Jacob Leach and his father and brother were both called Jeremiah. Jacob died in the mid-1800s.

This was enough for a branch of the family in Stone- clough, descended from another brother of Jacob, Henry Leach, to get in touch. They and Irene began exchanging details, including newspaper articles.

One, which Irene possessed, concerned the ejection of colliers at Outwood from their homes in 1876.

Miners had downed tools in a dispute over what forfeit they should pay for coal sent to the surface in an unsaleable condition. They said that the owners, Messr Thomas Fletcher and Sons, were adopting too harsh a line.

Notices to quit were served on striking miners who lived in Nimble Row, a line of cottages owned by the Fletchers.