Author Topic: LINKS - Even More Newspaper Links - British Newspapers  (Read 5224 times)

Offline Richard Heaton

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LINKS - Even More Newspaper Links - British Newspapers
« on: Tuesday 27 May 14 20:56 BST (UK) »
Online Newspapers whether free or fee based are an amazing resource for family history

One of the challenges is knowing what is available offline and online

So first a couple of "signpost sites" you might find an ancestor in them but you are more likely to find resources which will enable you to find your ancestors

For British (and Irish) Newspapers the British Library has the best collection in the world

http://catalogue.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=1&dstmp=1401219396194&vid=BLVU1&fromLogin=true


Another site you might want to try for newspapers and other printed material (e.g. Directories and Poll Books) in the English Language is the English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC). No single library holds everything. This is a database of printed material dating between 1473 and 1800 covering over 2000 libraries. Even some of my collection appears here (under a private library)

http://estc.bl.uk/F/?func=file&file_name=login-bl-estc

Almost finally for this post. Last year I was driving home after giving a talk which included online newspapers and the thought crossed my mind ... having shown numerous sites ... wouldn't it be useful to have one site I could point researchers to which listed all the newspapers for the UK and Ireland currently online including the content of the various large databases. And so the following weekend I started to put something together ...

It covers the content of c.31 sites whether containing a single newspaper title or hundreds of titles

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~dutillieul/BritishandIrishNews.html

You will find links to England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Channel Islands and Isle of Man
England splits between London and Regional Newspapers (though I should add the Guardian is classified as a London paper) and London splits further between Regional London papers and Central London Papers (which were distributed across the country)

And now finally a recommendation for some reading ... simply the best publication (even if it has dated a bit as it is pre internet) is Local Newspapers 1750-1920 England and Wales by Jeremy Gibson, Brett Langston, and Brenda Smith ISBN 1 86006 157 5 . This will give you an idea of what has yet to go online !

Very Best Regards
Richard Heaton