RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: coombs on Wednesday 12 October 22 13:35 BST (UK)
-
They really are worth their weight in gold, and can even give biographies of relatives, and open up new leads, and if an ancestor lived to a ripe old age, it can give their birthday and list certain relatives, and the obituary can make it in newspapers across the country.
My ancestor Elizabeth Packard died in February 1842 in Glemham Suffolk, aged 102, and her obituary is given in papers as far away as Liverpool. Her birthday is also stated in one obituary as 12 April.
And my ancestors brother, a Wesleyan, died in 1912 in Leigh On Sea, Essex, and his long obituary says born 1836 and had relatives in Ilford, and travelled to Cornwall with his maternal uncle a lot as a child on the oyster boat. And it mentions his ancestor Nathan Jackson Quilter who died in 1817.
So newspaper records can give extra biographical info on your ancestors if they was a prominent local figure.
-
I agree totally. It's wonderful to be able to fill in the details, it's like bringing the person (back) to being 3 dimensional.
I've found celebrations of big wedding anniversaries which can provide a lot of details of their lives and families, then not forgetting the odd court appearance or inquest.
Some of it is incredibly sad.
But even so I'm glad I found out.
It definitely adds a richness to the research.
-
Many thanks for that.
Viktoria.
-
FindMyPast Fridays are very good with their newspaper releases every week.
-
And don't forget that if you are searching for Welsh ancestors, there's a free service provided by the National Library of Wales: https://newspapers.library.wales/home
I personally prefer their search tool to FindMyPast's
-
Here are a few places to search:
https://news.google.com/newspapers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_online_newspaper_archives
https://fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/newspapers/
-
Thanks posting Coombs and to Erato for the links, very useful to know.
Carol
-
For those who had relatives come to Australia:
https://trove.nla.gov.au/
In New Zealand:
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers
Marvellous free resources.
-
Also, especially for small town US newspapers, it is always worth checking the local public library and the state universities.
-
Couldn't agree more. I love searching through old newspapers, amazing the details of our ancestors' lives that can be discovered. In my family there are a few birth, marriage and death notices which have provided more detail than just the certificates, a few court appearances, sad cases of domestic violence, and I love that my ggg grandmother won a prize for having the neatest cottage in her village.
As well as those already mentioned, British Library Newspapers is a great resource - free access from home through my Australian National library card, I'm sure many other libraries offer similar access. :D
-
Couldn't agree more. I love searching through old newspapers, amazing the details of our ancestors' lives that can be discovered. In my family there are a few birth, marriage and death notices which have provided more detail than just the certificates, a few court appearances, sad cases of domestic violence, and I love that my ggg grandmother won a prize for having the neatest cottage in her village.
As well as those already mentioned, British Library Newspapers is a great resource - free access from home through my Australian National library card, I'm sure many other libraries offer similar access. :D
Is this the British Newspaper Archive, or something else?
-
No, different to British Newspaper Archive. The British Library Newspapers are part of the Gale Primary Sources database. I can't really upload a link as it is probably different depending on your own library - as I mentioned, I access through the Australian National Library eresources, (also NSW State Library).
-
Ok thanks, i have a local library membership so will try through them. Have found a lot of great stuff recently through FindMyPast but there are gaps so interested to look elsewhere. Thanks
-
I subscribed to The British Newspaper Archive during lockdown when I was further researching my Victorian house.
I had previously gathered quite a lot of information from the title deeds, census, valuation rolls and BMDs.
The newspaper archives gave me more info into the everyday happenings in the house and street - robberies, servants wanted, lost dog, items for sale and a letter to the editor of the Scotsman newspaper re the war.
Also a wedding of the niece of the owner which I picked up in the intimations and hadn’t previously found as the woman in question had never lived here.
All fascinating stuff and a great window into the past
-
Very useful links there, thanks for posting.
-
My ancestor Elizabeth Packard died in February 1842 in Glemham Suffolk, aged 102, and her obituary is given in papers as far away as Liverpool.
She rated a mention in Australia as well.
In the 103d year, Mrs. Packard, North Glenham, Suffolk, leaving 8 children, 48 grandchildren, 148 great-grandchildren, and 14 great great-grand children. — Total, 218.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2557270
Debra :)
-
My ancestor Elizabeth Packard died in February 1842 in Glemham Suffolk, aged 102, and her obituary is given in papers as far away as Liverpool.
She rated a mention in Australia as well.
In the 103d year, Mrs. Packard, North Glenham, Suffolk, leaving 8 children, 48 grandchildren, 148 great-grandchildren, and 14 great great-grand children. — Total, 218.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2557270
Debra :)
Wow, she got a mention Down Under.
Thanks Erato and others for the links.
I do agree that newspaper records can give details on your ancestors not found in certs or on census records. It can list siblings and cousins or even an ancestor of your ancestor.
-
I have found well over 1000 newspaper articles which mention an ancestor. Many of them are pretty inconsequential - they hosted a bridge party, were summoned for jury duty, hit into a double play in a high school baseball game. But even those can be useful because they provide evidence of where an ancestor was living in the years between censuses.
Aside from the insignificant notes, there are births, marriages, divorces, deaths, obituaries, probate, high school and college graduations, family reunions, law suits, property sales, agricultural information, house fires, natural disasters, accidents, crimes, letters to the editor and miscellaneous oddities.
-
Oh Erato you are right. I found a great uncle from Melbourne, Victoria attended a dance in Perth, Western Australia with a wife, not the one he left in Victoria. :o :o :o
Proved his sons supposition that there was a time that he had left his wife and two children.
-
My 3xgreat grandfather went to the US in 1886 after his wife died, he went to join 2 married daughters out there. He is on the 1900 US census aged 72, in Pennsylvania, but died probably before civil reg began in PA in January 1906. I often keep checking any PA new newspaper releases to see if I can find any mention of his death. He never became a citizen so unsure if he would be on any local electoral rolls etc.
-
I love reading the old newspapers.
The only downside is that I'll get sidetracked by an interesting headline, that has nothing to do with what I'm researching.
-
"sidetracked by an interesting headline"
A zillion years ago, I worked in a university herbarium preparing plant specimens that had been collected from about 1900 to 1920 and then stashed away and stored in their original newspapers. I'd get distracted by the news articles and it was really frustrating to find that the article was 'continued on page 10' but page 10 was in another box somewhere.
-
You had a cool job!
-
You had a cool job!
You certainly did!
Getting distracted by the items in old newspapers is definitely part of the attraction. Apart from intriguing and unusual, I also like reading first hand accounts of events that have become famous historical events. Can't remember who I was researching but was fascinated by an adjacent series of articles about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in the British press. And such wide ranging topics as very early vegetarianism movements, smallpox vaccinations and anti vaxxers, wild hail storms ...
-
I love reading the old newspapers.
The only downside is that I'll get sidetracked by an interesting headline, that has nothing to do with what I'm researching.
Surely Stanwix understanding the social history of the area your ancestors lived in is important to your understanding of their lives and decisions.
That’s what I tell myself anyway when I get sidetracked. :o :o
-
When an ancestor committed suicide in 1894, the story made it across East Anglia, including The Lowestoft Journal and Yarmouth And County record. Yarmouth and county record was probably a sub division of The Lowestoft Journal.
In due course, I am sure more pre 1800 newspaper records will be published online.
-
Newspapers- absolutely my favourite research tool - wouldn’t be without my BNA subscription! I could bore you all silly with hundreds of items I’ve found from the ridiculous to tragic.
Today I found out a distant cousin left money in his will to several of his first cousins, also related to me, 100 pounds each. Now worth about 8000 pounds, nice little windfall for simple labourers.
-
Hence why now when I still go to record offices I check beforehand what newspapers for the county are already online, and/or what dates they cover. If I know some dates are not covered, I know which years to check.
For instance I checked a January 1959 newspaper on microfiche at Southend to look for my great grandfather's obituary to see if he was mentioned. He was, as was the date of his funeral and time of funeral. I felt like I had won the jackpot as I had been trying to find date of burial for him. 3rd January 1959, as he died 30th December 1958. It said his funeral is Saturday 3rd Jan at 11:30am, and it was from the 1st January 1959 edition of the newspaper.
The burial registers online for the parish he died in only go up to 1948 and I emailed the relevant church and got no reply when I asked for a 1953 and a 1959 burial, and I even offered to pay if need be.