You are very welcome to email me with comments/contributions and questions about Stoke-on-Trent:

email: Steve Birks

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Questions you may be asking:

can I send you pictures?
Yes - photos are always very welcome - I can add them to the web site.
If you are send pictures of pottery then always send a picture of the mark on the bottom of the ware, it is more important for identification than the ware itself. 

I can't carry out valuations or pattern identification (see the 'help' tag at the top of the page)

Pictures of people, buildings and places from Stoke-on-Trent and the surrounding area are very useful.
 

why haven't I had a reply?
a) If your question was about pottery pattern, shape, date, valuation then you may not get a reply as I get 100's of such emails and my area of interest is in the sociology and history of the city and the people.

b) I always try to answer every other emails but I receive 100's of emails every week and occasionally one or two go astray. If you haven't had a reply after a couple of weeks then send me a (nice) reminder.
If you have not had a reply then check that your return email address is correct, here's how:

In Microsoft email select the menu 'Tools' then follow: 'accounts' 'properties' 'general' and then make sure your full email address is in the 'reply address' box. (it will be a similar process with Netscape)

c) If you have sent a very, very big picture then the server may have automatically deleted it - see 'sending photos' for details. 

d) I have found that some TV email systems do not accept return mail (especially WebTV) - I get a message to say that the mail could not be delivered due to the 'anti-spam' system - I don't know how overcome this.

e) Your computer may have a virus (& you don't know about it!) - my virus checker deletes emails with viruses and so you may not get a response - if you haven't got virus software then I suggest you get something like Norton anti-virus. (Only about £30 from PC World - and well worth the money) 

can I get help with family history?
My time is limited so I can't do in-depth research (there are some resources on this site - see 'family history')
If I can then I will take photos of houses / streets for you - just ask.
I do have the 1881 census for Staffordshire and will try to look up names for you.

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