The British Newspaper Archive attended Who Do You Think You Are? Live at London Olympia this month, helping a number of people track down their ancestors in our newspapers. Don’t worry if you weren’t able to attend the family history show – we’ve asked our lovely team to share their top search tips here so that you can take advantage of them too. 1) Put “quote marks” around a name This will tell the website that you only want to …
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The lovely people at Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine have sent us this special offer to share with you: *********************** Try five issues for just £5! Build your family tree and discover your ancestry with Britain’s best-selling family history publication. Packed with practical advice, from getting started in genealogy to expert tips, Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine shows you how to build your family tree using online resources, such as the census, as well as where …
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Introduction and background We love hearing about your discoveries in The British Newspaper Archive. John Bland of the Lincolnshire Family History Society dropped us a line to tell us about his family history research in The British Newspaper Archive. John has been researching the millers and blacksmiths in his family (research that involves learning about major legislation such as the Enclosures and the Corn Laws) and, thanks to The British Newspaper Archive, has just learned that one of his ancestors also …
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‘Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour…’ John Milton died at his home in Bunhill, London, on 8 November 1674 – he was 65. To mark the bicentenary of Milton’s death, many Victorian newspapers published articles about the great poet – ahem, almost as if they were anticipating the arrival of a’Who Do You Think You Are? type of newspaper series. In ‘The Standard’ newspaper, we found a terrific article about Milton, including a section on his genealogy. Included …
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We’ve said it before, but hearing your wonderful stories about what you’re finding in The Archive make us feel like we’re travelling to Canterbury with a motley crew of ancestor-finding pilgrims. The latest family history pilgrim to share her story is Emma Jolly, a genealogist from London, who has been researching her ancestors from the Birmingham area. Emma has been finding newspaper stories that offer a fascinating insight into the personalities of her forebears. In particular, we love the colourful …
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We’re often moved by the amazing stories you tell us about what you’ve been discovering in The Archive. Jan Barlow, a professional genealogist based in SE England, recently tweeted to tell us about some of the stories she’s been finding about her family ancestors in the BNA. Poignantly, Jan’s research has uncovered some very sad facts regarding the many dangers of the workplace during the Victorian era. Jan has written a fascinating article about her “bus driver’s holiday” ancestral research, …
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We love hearing stories about what you’ve been finding while rummaging around in the Archive. Pollie Scott, a family history researcher from East Yorkshire, has been finding dozens of fascinating stories in the Archive about her ancestors. And not only stories, for on her most recent visit to the Archive, she found a photograph (pipe in hand and standing in front of a very rickety-looking biplane!) of an ancestor who served in the Royal Flying Corps during World War One. Poignantly, this is …
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Much like Scheherazade’s husband, the BNA Team is lucky enough to hear a wonderful story almost every day from visitors to the website. So when Sarah Hayes, a freelance curator from the West Midlands with a passion for social and family history, tweeted to tell us about her research in the BNA, we were all ears. Sarah and her mum are researching their family tree and, well, they are certainly discovering some fascinating stuff. In particular, the story of one …
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We had a grand day out in Dundee last Friday, at the ‘Tayroots’ Family History Day at Discovery Point. We heard some terrific and intriguing stories about jute workers, sailors, soldiers, terrible accidents, divorce cases, missing ancestors, dockers, ships – well, in short, life, the universe, everything. Here are some photos of the BNA Stand. You can see a full gallery of photos from this event on our Facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/TheBritishNewspaperArchive Amy and Grant of the BNA Team Photograph courtesy and …
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We love hearing stories about what people are finding in the Archive. In particular, we enjoy hearing stories about how the newspaper reports have provided added insight into the lives of ancestors and helped people to gain a better understanding of their forebears. So we were delighted when Debra Watkins tweeted to tell us about how she had learned more about her ancestors through reading newspaper reports on the BNA website. In short, Debra had long been puzzled by the …