Funnily enough, I had the same issue here at SSC. I had to create a second account to access SSC with a new email address. I asked Steve to resolve some issues (which he did - Thanks Steve!!!).

The reason I lost my email address was that I had used a provider that was free and got its money via dial up. The email facilities remained free even after people started using broadband. It got bought out by a large mobile company and after months of being able/forced to go to a page after sign on requesting free access to the account, access was no longer available and all emails (as we as the email address) was lost.

In hindsight it was obvious that I was going to lose access and it might have even said it in the small print but it wasn't made clear I have never used that company since.