Expert Tips
Open University academic John Kirkaldy offers the benefit of his experience to help you get to grips with reseraching the solution to your own history mysteries:
Read the fine print
Narrow down your search in libraries by taking our shortcuts for investigating print.
Starting at the end
The deceased speak to us in ways you might find surprising - follow some deathly clues.
Call in the army
Old soldiers may never die, but their fading away can present a problem if you're tracing military records.
Content last updated: 27/06/2007
About our expert
John Kirkaldy was born in Kashmir and grew up in Burma, Germany and various parts of Britain. He taught History at the University of New South Wales, Australia and in Jamaica where he also taught adult literacy. His special interests are 19th and 20th Century History. John is a tutor and examiner for the Open University and presently tutors on the Arts Foundation, WWI and WWII courses.John has written extensively, for publications from The Lady to the New Statesman, while also contributing to the Times Education Supplement and the Times Higher Education Supplement and the Independent newspaper.
