British Newspaper Archive

[Jane Lucas]

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 ...

[Maiden Stone]

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.

[Maiden Stone]

I always 'quote it'  then delete the bits I don't want before posting.

That's what I do.

[Jane Lucas]

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!

[Maiden Stone]

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.

[cbcarolyn]

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.

[cbcarolyn]

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?

[giggsycat]

"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' ! 


Giggsy

[Maiden Stone]

"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.