Dig up your relatives

Struggling to be friendly

I had to smile when I looked again at the National Archives home page (From the Gateway to websites, select “Family history”; the National Archives are a Key Link). I knew they’d got very cuddly, offering to help you find information rather than just salt it away. But they stick with the sub-heading, "UK government records and information management". Very approachable (not).

But ignore the vestiges of Civil Service-speak, this really is a good place to come if you are trying to find information about your ancestors, or just doing a bit of history. The home page is rather bewildering – there’s so much here. So let’s ignore all the serious stuff for a second and get a fix of scandal. Among the "Latest document releases" is Lady Chatterley's Lover – not the naughty gamekeeper in person, you understand, but documents relating to the prosecution of Penguin Books for publishing the shabby shocker.

The good thing is that they have collected, and now published, a wide selection of documents relating to the case, including press articles and letters that officials would rather you never saw. Anything involving the then Attorney General, Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller, is always good for a laugh.

If you want to see the documents, things get a bit complicated. You have to pretend that you are going to buy them. Other records cost money, so free ones like the Chatterley collection have to be added to a basket as though you were shopping at Amazon. But at the last minute your offer to pay zero pounds is accepted, and the documents are available to download straightaway or within 56 days (the instructions are emailed to you).

Perusing the privates

You will probably have got the message by now that this is not always a website for a quick flip – there is serious stuff here, so if you want to find the golden nugget for your research, you have to pay attention. But they do try to help you organise your thoughts. For instance, click on "British Army". The search screen asks you some basic questions: was the person you are tracking down an officer? When? If he or she was an "other rank", when did they leave the army?

If you don’t know what ranks counted as being officers, a pop-up list will help you. And so it goes on: the searches may be complicated, but there are research guides and explanations to ease the pain.

They suggest that you might find it worthwhile visiting the National Archives – this is code for the fact that not everything is digitised and on the website, although more is being added all the time. Inducements to visit include exhibitions and displays of the Archives’ special treasures.

As for me and Mellors, we're going to repair to the shrubbery for a serious look at this Lady Chatterley stuff. My word, did he really do that? Still, it’s art, so that’s all right…