Being a curious bunch, we did a quick search in the Archive to see what we could find out about William Roache’s family ancestors.
We searched for the surname, ‘Waddicor’, and then used the website’s filtering options to find stories for the late 19th Century in the Blackpool and Darwen areas – which is where William’s family lived.
We found loads of stories, and think that many of these stories will be about family ancestors of William Roache.
We also found a report (from ‘The Blackburn Standard’ of 18 August 1894) about an assault on William’s grandfather, Albert Waddicor, and we’ve posted this story below. It’s the story listed near the end of the report – just look for the blue rectangle (this is the search term highlighting feature used on the BNA website).
So if William Roache is looking to develop his genealogy research, he could probably discover many other stories about his ancestors by searching the British Newspaper Archive.
Blackburn Standard – Saturday 18 August 1894
Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000154/18940818/008/002
1 comments On Using Historical Newspapers for Family History Research – William Roache on ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’
I also have connections with Alton Towers as my great-grandparents were 2 of the three owners between 1919 and 1937. The Estate was sold after the Second World War to Bagshaw Family. My great-grandparents were Charles Henry Cowlishaw and James Jones. My grandparents were the son of Charles and daughter of James. My father John Cowlishaw remembers counting people as they came off the train to visit Alton Towers. My great grandfather also lived in the Tower most likely the same time as Zillah Waddicor.