RootsChat.Com
General => Technical Help => Topic started by: cbcarolyn on Friday 01 February 19 15:12 GMT (UK)
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I think there have been a few threads on this, but can't find a recentish one.
I have been spending many hours at the library looking through this database, and although I have found a few interesting articles I feel as though I should be able to find more than I have managed.
so far I have searched by
- surnames (and full names), within the county that there were residing
- addresses - this was entirely unsuccessful - only road searches were effective, but never for my family
- villages - where they are small
I have realised that any really old newspapers I need to use f instead of s when searching.
So have found relatives:
- that ran a pub and employed people and owned property
- came to a nasty end with a threshing machine
- Found a few properties sold by auction - various
- A will dispute
- found my mother in a running race and my father passing his exams in 1930s
- A few crimes
What else should I try and search for? Anyone hit upon a good idea/formula for searching.
Do you save searches and then run them periodically to see if they turn up anything new?
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Spread your searches wider, by restricting searches to only the counties where they lived you may miss a lot. Even the most minor accounts about people turn up miles from where they lived, I have discovered lots of interesting snippets about my family by doing wide searches.
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I have done wider searches, with full names, but with just surnames there are too many hits, so am unsure how to find the wheat from the chaff :)
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hours ... looking through this database, although I have found a few interesting articles I feel as though I should be able to find more than I have managed.
I have realised that any really old newspapers I need to use f instead of s when searching.
I always think the same with the BNA.. I have in in FindMyPast .. thanks for that tip about f and s.
Jane
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Darn.. I thought I’d clipped that to quote just one section!
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Darn.. I thought I’d clipped that to quote just one section!
It is possible to go back into your post and modify if done within 24 hours ;D
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Yes.. but I can’t seem to work out how to quote.. I highlight one line and selected “quote”. Obviously wrong. How do I do it?
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I always 'quote it' then delete the bits I don't want before posting.
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OK thanks.. thought there might have been a method I'd failed to find.
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I always think the same with the BNA.. I have in in FindMyPast .. thanks for that tip about f and s.
Jane
You can copy and paste the bit you want to quote into a new post highlight the text and press the quote button - the little speech bubble one
Took me a while for the penny to drop, I didn't have many surnames with an s, but did get quite a few hits when I put in Boftock instead of Bostock
I can see that searching will always be a problem - especially when the search extends wider than an article, I am not sure how they reach the 'decision' to stop and start if you see what I mean.
I think i must have exhausted all searches for now, think I must have tried every full name in my immediate line, and every surname in the tree, with a few filters. Along with road names, and villages.
I would love to set up a search string that could trawl through the new papers each month :) Think that is a step too far for them.
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I always think the same with the BNA.. I have in in FindMyPast .. thanks for that tip about f and s.
Jane
You can copy and paste the bit you want to quote into a new post highlight the text and press the quote button - the little speech bubble one
Took me a while for the penny to drop, I didn't have many surnames with an s, but did get quite a few hits when I put in Boftock instead of Bostock
I can see that searching will always be a problem - especially when the search extends wider than an article, I am not sure how they reach the 'decision' to stop and start if you see what I mean.
I think i must have exhausted all searches for now, think I must have tried every full name in my immediate line, and every surname in the tree, with a few filters. Along with road names, and villages.
I would love to set up a search string that could trawl through the new papers each month :) Think that is a step too far for them.
I tried copy paste into new post, but no speech bubble. If you highlight from original and click the quote button .. you get the whole thing even if you've highlighted! Oh dear.. I can't fathom it ..
But back to your search post... it is frustrating.. generally I think FindMyPast are pretty good.. but sometimes I search for something and get no result/limited result, which I am pretty sure is wrong. And in fact I know is wrong because I have found local family history society records which include dozens of the names I was searching. I need a lesson on search techniques!! It's weird as well how a wild card search sometimes works and sometimes doesn't..
Jane
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I am also assuming that some of my tree is not covered by local enough papers, so big stories have made it to various editions, but say a birth has not.
I found it quite off that one marriage was all over the press - various editions, but never saw another announcement for any family member!
(Speech bubble is in the line above the smilies 6th from the right hand end, when you are making your post)
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I tried copy paste into new post, but no speech bubble. If you highlight from original and click the quote button .. you get the whole thing even if you've highlighted! Oh dear.. I can't fathom it ..
Highlight and cut the bit you want to quote. Paste it into the reply, highlight it again and click the insert quote button, 6th box in from the right
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I found it quite off that one marriage was all over the press - various editions, but never saw another announcement for any family member! /quote]
Found it!! Thank you.. much easier..
Totally agree.. appears to be very gender orientated, and social class too.. what is really annoying is when a birth is announced as "baby/child of.. name of man" no name of wife mentioned or name of baby often >:(
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Perhaps your ancestors' names appeared in newspapers which aren't in the archive or runs of years are missing.
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Highlight and cut the bit you want to quote. Paste it into the reply, highlight it again and click the insert quote button, 6th box in from the right
That's better, thank you!
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The only trouble with doing it that way is that it does not show who originally posted the comment
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That's better, thank you!
What most of us do it click 'insert quote' and the whole of the reply will show up in the new reply box. You can then edit down the reply to the bit you want to quote.
The important things are
a) don't cut the words quote in square brackets at the start and end
b) write your reply after the word quote in square brackets at the bottom, otherwise your reply will appear as part of the quote.
You can always click the 'preview' button to make sure you've got it right :)
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The only trouble with doing it that way is that it does not show who originally posted the comment
hhmmm.. good point!
When I select (highlight) text in an email and reply, it just includes the highlighted text and the original 'sender'.. so I had assumed that the "quote" option button here would do the same.. it doesn't ...
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Spread your searches wider, by restricting searches to only the counties where they lived you may miss a lot. Even the most minor accounts about people turn up miles from where they lived, I have discovered lots of interesting snippets about my family by doing wide searches.
I agree. I found an account in a Westmorland newspaper of an accidental death in Lancashire. I located the whereabouts of a nephew of the deceased through an Irish newspaper - he was studying at an Irish seminary which was why I couldn't find him on 1841 English census. This family had various businesses, some of which failed; notices and adverts were in newspapers all over England although the businesses were in Lancashire.
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I always 'quote it' then delete the bits I don't want before posting.
That's what I do.
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Spread your searches wider, by restricting searches to only the counties where they lived you may miss a lot. Even the most minor accounts about people turn up miles from where they lived, I have discovered lots of interesting snippets about my family by doing wide searches.
I agree. I found an account in a Westmorland newspaper of an accidental death in Lancashire......notices and adverts were in newspapers all over England although the businesses were in Lancashire.
yes.. I tend to agree .. but when the search returns hundreds of articles, how on earth do you trawl through them all? The search terms seem key, but if you make them too specific you get a zero!
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yes.. I tend to agree .. but when the search returns hundreds of articles, how on earth do you trawl through them all? The search terms seem key, but if you make them too specific you get a zero!
Then I would narrow them down by year or county or place or a combination and work through them.
I'm fortunate that many of my ancestors who got mentions in newspapers didn't have common names.
I don't think it's an exact science.
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Spread your searches wider, by restricting searches to only the counties where they lived you may miss a lot. Even the most minor accounts about people turn up miles from where they lived, I have discovered lots of interesting snippets about my family by doing wide searches.
I agree. I found an account in a Westmorland newspaper of an accidental death in Lancashire......notices and adverts were in newspapers all over England although the businesses were in Lancashire.
yes.. I tend to agree .. but when the search returns hundreds of articles, how on earth do you trawl through them all? The search terms seem key, but if you make them too specific you get a zero!
Yes the trouble I am having. I too have some good unique names, I keep looking and hope that one day I will find a bunch of births, deaths and marriages I missed.
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yes.. I tend to agree .. but when the search returns hundreds of articles, how on earth do you trawl through them all? The search terms seem key, but if you make them too specific you get a zero!
Then I would narrow them down by year or county or place or a combination and work through them.
I'm fortunate that many of my ancestors who got mentions in newspapers didn't have common names.
I don't think it's an exact science.
Have you found any other good information that has put 'flesh' onto your tree?
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"I keep looking and hope that one day I will find a bunch of births, deaths and marriages I missed".
I doubt that many people would want to pay to put that info in the Newspaper would they?
It costs a fortune today!
PS I hate the Quote boxes. I think it just makes the post messy and confusing. Just sayin' ! ;D
Giggsy
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"I keep looking and hope that one day I will find a bunch of births, deaths and marriages I missed".
I doubt that many people would want to pay to put that info in the Newspaper would they?
It costs a fortune today!
It may depend on the newspaper and era. The bmd column in 19thC editions of "Preston Chronicle" has turned up a lot of information for me. E.g. 2 women with the same name, aunt and niece, married in the same year - I was able to distinguish them because the weddings were mentioned in newspaper; the column also reported deaths of 2 sisters-in-law with same name and gave address in each case. Admittedly they were all my lower-middle class ancestors.
Old newspapers got their income from front page business adverts.
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Have you found any other good information that has put 'flesh' onto your tree?
Yes. However the most interesting stuff I've found concerns:
One person who was a trades union activist & Chartist at a time when such people risked finding themselves on the wrong side of the law. He was mentioned in evidence in 2 trials. Shortly before the second trial a man who may have been him was a special representative to the Peoples' Parliament in Manchester. Karl Marx sent a message to the Parliament.
A family of father and 5 sons who had various business dealings. (A 6th son died, aged 21 after an accident - there was a detailed account.) One son and his brother-in-law were sued by an architect, losing the case and their homes. The sequel was a notice in the newspaper, placed by the architect, inviting prospective purchasers to contact my relative to arrange a viewing of the houses. A grandson of this family was a clergyman. I "lost" him as a young man from 1841 census and eventually located him at Maynooth seminary by his name among a list of prizewinning students in an Irish newspaper. He ascended the ecclesiastical ladder, organised the building of churches and composed liturgical music. His name was mentioned many times in secular and religious press, once because he was a witness in a libel case between 2 architects.
I had advantages: neither surname was common in the district where the people lived; "Preston Chronicle" and the Manchester papers reported some of the stories in detail; Irish papers reported religious news, some of it from England.
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sounds like the archive has served you well, and helped find lost ones. I will keep looking, the editions are coming thick and fast now, so sure there will be something soon.