In this month’s ‘behind the scenes’ blog post, Scott and Andrew from The British Newspaper Archive’s scanning team tell us about their trip to London to attend Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE.
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Welcome to the second update from the newspaper scanning team in Boston Spa, Yorkshire. We are now in full operation and working to the high standards that the original Colindale team set for us.
Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE
In February, we were given the opportunity to attend the annual Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE event held at London Olympia.
Following on from the successful television show, the show is the world’s leading family history event, bringing together family historians, genealogy experts and numerous family history organisations.
The British Newspaper Archive had its own stand and we were honoured to be asked to go and speak about what we do, as well as meet our customers.
Using newspapers for family history
We were amazed by the sheer volume of people wanting to know about the website, their obvious passion for the past and dedication to tracing their family tree.
We were able to give advice about using The British Newspaper Archive for family history research and have since helped to write a blog post about our top tips for searching the newspapers
The newspaper searches we helped with revealed some amazing information about our customers’ ancestors. One woman found details about a relative who had died in a mining accident and another found this photograph of her ancestor:
Aberdeen Evening Express – Tuesday 04 June 1918
Image © D.C.Thomson & Co. Ltd. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.
Scanning historical newspapers
Our experience at Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE was an eye-opening one. Although we knew that the newspapers we scan are full of interesting stories, we didn’t fully understand just how useful they can be for family history research.
It has made us want to do our jobs to the highest possible standard, so we can help the people we met at the event.
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See what you can discover about your family history with local and regional newspapers dating back to the 1700s.
Search for an ancestor’s name to get started
