Author Topic: British Newspaper Archive - tips sought  (Read 2234 times)

Offline LDaw

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British Newspaper Archive - tips sought
« on: Wednesday 24 October 18 21:37 BST (UK) »
I have read the tips on the website itself.

Can anyone here suggest where I'm going wrong?

Specific example, Lincolnshire Echo on 16/10/1944 had a family notice saying, "Hughes. -Walter, reported killed in action during September, the dearly loved nephew of Mr and Mrs Allen, 38 John Street,"

I discovered it as I searched under "38 John Street".  When I look up under "Walter" and "Hughes" it doesn't trace this item.

This might be the reason I'm not finding death notices for other people.  I just can't spot where I might be going wrong.  Even if I leave all the trace options open (all areas and all article types) it only brings up the death notice when I input the address.

Any ideas?

(As an aside, putting in the address has brought up the odd interesting advert for eras prior to popular phone ownership.)

Thanks

Offline jonw65

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Re: British Newspaper Archive - tips sought
« Reply #1 on: Wednesday 24 October 18 22:02 BST (UK) »
"38 John Street" brings up zero results for me in the Lincolnshire Echo, 16/10/1944
Add a hyphen, John-Street, and it brings up an article, On Active Service, no text is shown

"HUGHES.—WaIter, reported killed action during September, the dearly loved nephew of Mr. and Mrs. Allen. 38. John-street."

The l in walter has been "translated" as a capital i
They use OCR - optical character recognition. The software doesn't catch all the words correctly. Just keep trying different search terms (as you have done!)
Hopefully you will get some good tips.

Offline Mart 'n' Al

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Re: British Newspaper Archive - tips sought
« Reply #2 on: Wednesday 24 October 18 22:13 BST (UK) »
Also, shorter search terms are more likely to find what you are seeking, but will also generate more false hits.

Martin

Offline LDaw

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Re: British Newspaper Archive - tips sought
« Reply #3 on: Wednesday 24 October 18 23:19 BST (UK) »
I’ve re-tried using “waiter” and “Hughes”, it brings up other mis-read Walters so that’s a very useful tip.  Thanks.

Unfortunately, Hughes is quite a common surname so just using that hasn’t reaped any rewards so far.

More tips welcomed.


Offline BushInn1746

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Re: British Newspaper Archive - tips sought
« Reply #4 on: Friday 26 October 18 17:05 BST (UK) »
Hello

I suspect the original OCR reading is the problem and you'll see this in some of the snippet view results.

As Martin suggests, better to search with a word individually, or try differing combination of two or three words in the top search bar and one of those words in the lower.

When I search "Hood" I get 'stood' e.g., all those who stood indebted to ... or Wood, or Neighbourhood etc.

However, I have made some fantastic finds over 9 years:-

My ancestors:-

i) one was Elected Overseer of the Poor 1838 (no Elections survive for 1838)
ii) owned a 10 H.P. Steam Engine.
iii) one was involved in a Trust and who the other party was
iv) properties advertised and described too, that he had purchased (according to the Deeds Registry entries)
v) someone who died at the bar in the Hoods Dram Shop
vi) my 3 x Great Grandfather was attacked in a highway robbery and left for dead (found this by using a corrupt spelling for Selby).
vii) 1815 Marriage Notice of my 4 x Gt Grandfather.
viii) Numerous Death and Marriage Notices.
ix) adverts as they sold properties with full property description, even of a Tannery they rented.
x) a failed attempt to prosecute an ancestor, regarding his dog being alleged to be sheep worrying
xi) several (named with occupations) who served on the West Riding Grand Jury.
xii) one of those ancestors (named) who raised a toast to the Lord of the Manor.
xiii) A Hood living elsewhere at Bowdon, Cheshire (related), who attended the Selby Agricultural Show.
xiv) Members of my family who won prizes at the Selby Agricultural Shows.
xv) one relative who appeared listed at a seaside resort as a visitor (several years) ... Hood Miss, Selby
xvi) a knowledge of people they rubbed shoulders with and who appear in property registrations
xvii) named as a Tenant with Road name and a brief description of the Lot, in an 1835 Sale of a number Lots of the Manor advertised in the newspaper.
xviii) a possible Ancestor, who was a Master Mariner. The newspapers list sailings from Hull and later Selby which give name of vessel and surname of the Master and other adverts had led me to surviving Muster Rolls, using the vessel name and those sailings in the Muster Rolls, they confirm place of Birth and Abode as Selby and corroborate with Dades Registers. I'm hoping it will not be too long, before I can rule him out, or in, as a much older relative and hopefully a generation backward too.
xix) an Inquest and the shock in the town of the sudden loss of William Hood
xx) a sale of the partial contents of my 2 x Gt.G. house, before a house move with an address that tallys with a known family Birth Certicate.
xxi) my Ancestor who loaned her Brother money, who subsequently went bankrupt before repaying it, was revealed at a Bankruptcy hearing reported in his local newspaper.

I have been a subscriber to The British Newspaper Library for 9 years to find all that (as it requires immense patience for short periods, to work through possible corrupt spelling combinations, corrupted by OCR) and my family were not well to do, but probably comfortable and certainly working class characters.

Obviously, I'm frustrated at the numerous OCR corruptions of just the word Selby (e.g. Selbv and Salhy, Selhv, 8elbv, etc., etc.) and also the search sometimes taking you to the wrong page of the right issue and having to search with a word having one, two or more erroneous letter variations in words.

However, I would never have found all the above in a lifetime of reading all those newspapers and it has made my Hoods an everyday living family and what they were up to!

Mark

Offline LDaw

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Re: British Newspaper Archive - tips sought
« Reply #5 on: Friday 26 October 18 23:46 BST (UK) »
Mark - some of those successes must have been very heartening over such a long period of time (the highway robbery looks fascinating).


I'm also wondering how common it was for families to put notices in the press for births, deaths and marriages.  The part of the family I'm researching at the moment I keep drawing a blank for.  I find it odd that an aunt and uncle in another city would place a death notice for their nephew (1944, killed in action) yet I've found no notice from his parents or wife.

Offline Jang

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Re: British Newspaper Archive - tips sought
« Reply #6 on: Saturday 27 October 18 03:11 BST (UK) »
Try searching on street names. One of my unexpected finds was the report of an inquest into an ancestor who was supposedly lost at sea during WW2. It turned out he couldn't get work in the Merchant Navy in the 1930s - and jumped off Tower Bridge and was drowned. So sad.
England:
Durham: COULSON, FENWICK, HUNTER, LOWES, NAYLOR, ROBSON
Norfolk: DEWING, OUGHTON, TAYLOR,
Lancashire: TWEDDLE
Ireland: KEATING, KIRBY, Limerick; NELSON, Donegal
Scotland: BENNIE, Glasgow; COOK, Renfrewshire; HENDERSON, Alloa/Dundee; HUNTER, Glasgow; KIRKWOOD, Alloa; LAMONT, Dalkeith; YOUNG, Glasgow
Switzerland: VOSTI, DELUBINI
Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Offline panda40

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Re: British Newspaper Archive - tips sought
« Reply #7 on: Saturday 27 October 18 09:53 BST (UK) »
I have recently helped someone with the surname Pay you can imagine the amount of returns that produces from newspapers.
 ;D
Panda
Chapman. Kent/Liverpool 1900+
Linnett.Kent/liverpool 1900+
Button. Kent
Sawyer. Kent
Swain. Kent
Austin/en. Kent
Ellen. Kent
Harman. Kent/ norfolk

Offline hallmark

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Re: British Newspaper Archive - tips sought
« Reply #8 on: Saturday 27 October 18 09:55 BST (UK) »
I have recently helped someone with the surname Pay you can imagine the amount of returns that produces from newspapers.
 ;D
Panda


I hope it paid off!   ;D
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