Once again we are pleased to welcome a guest contributor to our pages - Ann Ryley - who writes about her Grandfather, Thomas Philip Holloway Stentiford. Ann has already found a close cousin of Thomas's through these pages and hopes to discover more - please contact us if you recognise any of the names in this month's first article and we'll put you in touch with Ann.

We went to Kingsteignton to take photos and track down the cottage in which Thomas was brought up and had a most delightful surprise when we met one of the owners in the lane outside. What a privilege to be invited in and allowed to take a photograph. And that wasn't all! The owners had done quite a lot of research relating to their home, which now has Listed Building status, and knew that Stentifords had lived there from the 1871, 1881 and 1891 Census returns which they just happened to have by them! We'd like to take this opportunity to thank them for making such a wonderful contribution to our article.

We hope you enjoy our Christmas pages. More music - this time we've recorded four carols to go with the pages so don't forget to switch on your sound. Producing borders on web pages isn't easy because of the way the page is made-up and we've been so lucky to be able to include these - many thanks to http://www.luminessencestudios.com.

We have to say it doesn't really seem possible that this is Issue 12 - we've been going a whole year already! We'd like to say a big "thank you" to all our Guest Contributors - Roy Hewitt, Hugh Lodge, Peter Woodhall, Chris Morton, Sandra Ditzig and Ann Ryley - each of whom has put their own special and individual mark on these pages. To everyone who reads the magazine each month, thank you for your continued support because, without you, it would all  be a bit pointless. The next Issue is already in the planning stage so we wish all our readers a very happy Christmas and look forward to you joining us again in 2003.

Keep in touch,

Richard and Muriel