A FAMILY is appealing to people on Teesside to turn detective to piece together a family history.

Allison Balaam's great-grandfather was a steelworker and lived near Ormesby, Middlesbrough.

Mrs Balaam, who lives near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, also has a collection of photographs taken on Teesside in the early 1900s, including one showing her great- grandfather, David Cook, with a gang of labourers, grouped around a steel yard locomotive.

"The information we have is that he was employed as a steelworks foreman, in 1909, as this is the occupation on my grandmother's birth certificate," Mrs Balaam said. "He lived in South Bank Road, Cargo Fleet, Ormesby.

"I would be pleased if any of your readers could either place the photograph, or know when it was taken; also, if anyone knows anything of either the Cook or Thackery families - my great-grandmother's maiden name. They moved to Suffolk when my grandmother was a child.''

The many photographs she has were taken by an M Wright, operating from "The Studio", on Albert Road, opposite Middlesbrough's then new town hall, in the early 1900s.

If anyone can help Mrs Balaam with information, they should write to her at 29 New Cottages, Ixworth Thorpe, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, 1P31 1QH.