A WOMAN has published the story of how researching her ancestors has helped overcome depression.

Wendy Cleasby's book, Tales from Teesdale, Grassholm and Greena: My Story and Journey, details how she began looking into the stories of her ancestors from rural County Durham.

Mrs Cleasby, from Middlesbrough, began researching her family background in the early 1980s after her aunt left her some old photographs.

But her research began in earnest when depression forced her to give up her job at a Littlewoods warehouse.

She said: "I really wanted to find out more about myself.

"With the depression, I lost myself because I was on that much medication, I did not know who I was any more.

"With depression, some people become alcoholics, but it was the research that took me over."

Eventually, a friend suggested she put down all the information she had in a book.

As she traced her family -the Watsons, Aldersons and Cleasbys -back to rural Teesdale, Mrs Cleasby said the more she learned about her family, the more she was able to cope with her illness.

She said: "It felt almost as if they were helping me and encouraging me with what I was doing."

As well as finding relatives she never knew, she also substantiated a family rumour that they were distantly related to the West Auckland mass- murderer, Mary Ann Cotton.

Although she still suffers from depression, Mrs Cleasby said she has learned to cope with the illness.

She said: "I have really been able to draw strength from it."

Tales from Teesdale, Grassholm and Greena: My Story and Journey is £10, available from Hayloft Publishers at www.hayloft.org.uk