‘Oh OK,’ I said out loud, and leant over and put it on my lap. This time I googled census records and I clicked into the site that appeared. I read that records had been taken every ten years since 1801, excluding 1941. I put in my dad’s details and there he was, in a few seconds, as was the address he’d been living at when the census had been compiled. I did the same for Mum, putting in her maiden name. She too appeared immediately. Now … shall I? Shan’t I? Shall I, shan’t I? I shall.

I looked for the dates of the censuses taken in the 1900s.

1901. Probably too early.

1911. Maybe also too early?

1921. Records were destroyed in World War Two.

1939. I’d start there. If Grace was born around 1920, she would have been about fourteen or fifteen when that census was taken in 1939. If I have no luck there, I will go back earlier.

I filled in the details I knew. Name, place, 1900s. A list came up immediately. I clicked on the London, England option. I continued clicking through until I found one that said London, 1939. Maybe I could find out where Grace had lived. But Saranya Ji hadn’t specified which part of London. I clicked randomly on one of the Graces, just to see what sort of information was revealed. Interesting, I thought as I saw that the census recorded not only who was in the house at the time it was taken, but also their occupations. It was going to be a long task, but it was either that or watching some round-up programme of the past year on the TV. I stuck with the census records, fetched my printer and printed out parts that seemed relevant. I placed them on the coffee table and the floor and was soon absorbed in puzzle heaven.

After another half-hour of clicking through, I found a census record showing a Grace Harris and her relation to the head of the house – daughter. It showed that her mother was Alice Harris, father Edward Harris; that Grace Harris had been aged nineteen at the time the census had been taken, and there was also an older sister, Lily Harris. I went back and traced the mother through various census pages. I found a page where it stated occupation: dressmaker. Dressmaker, I thought. Saranya Ji had said that Grace was a dressmaker. If this was the right Grace, she had clearly gone into the same profession as her mother. I glanced back at the page. Registration district Fortis Green. I knew that area well. It was between Muswell Hill and East Finchley; there were some lovely old properties around there. Next I searched through sites that had records for death certificates. I found a Grace Harris, born 1920, died in 1943. Could that be her? That would explain why her name wasn’t on the later census, or perhaps she had moved out of the family home.