At The Archive we are delighted to welcome guest blogs from our users, which highlight a wealth of different research interests. This month, we are excited to feature a blog on researching queer history by Staffordshire researcher Rebecca Morris-Quinn. My name is Rebecca, I am a queer woman living in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. I’ve been interested in genealogy and history for many years, since I found out that I share a birthday with a great-great aunt, Olive (albeit over 100 years …
family history
Our newspaper Archive contains many thousands of obituaries and death notices, which can help you unlock fascinating information and stories about your family history. In this special blog, we present your guide to obituaries on The Archive: how to search them, where to find them, and how to make the most of them for your family history research. But first, what is an obituary? Register now and explore the Archive What Is An Obituary? An obituary, according to the Cambridge …
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While many are enjoying the summer holidays, we are continuing to bring you thousands of newspaper pages every week. This week we have added 371,962 pages. We are celebrating the 90s with additions to 64 newspapers from Dover, Sutton Coldfield, Southall, Brent, Plymouth and more from 1990-1999. If you are feeling nostalgic, you can jump into these regional newspapers and take a journey back to the time of Margaret Thatcher, Doc Martens, the Spice Girls, and Mr Blobby. You can …
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The British Newspaper Archive, in partnership with the British Library, has been bringing history to life for over a decade through the pages of its extensive collection. We are now delighted to announce that the British Library will be extending this long-term partnership, and together we will continue to digitise more and more historic newspaper titles from across the United Kingdom and beyond. First launched in 2011, the British Newspaper Archive, working with the British Library, has so far digitised …
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This week we have added 103,570 new pages to The Archive, with an impressive 6 brand new titles joining our collection. In addition to these new titles, we have updates to 9 of our existing publications. In all, our new pages this week cover 120 years of history, and span the towns, cities and countryside of England, Scotland and Wales. This week sees a brand new addition to our Leicestershire newspapers. The Ashby-de-la-Zouch Gazette covers the area around the market town, and was a weekly …
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Using newspapers for your Scottish genealogy research Do you find yourself daunted at the prospect of researching your Scottish ancestors? Keep the heid! There exists a fantastic array of records that can get you further along in your family history research. The main problem, however, is access. Much of what exists has not been ditigised, and for those that have been, many are not indexed. It is overwhelming figuring out where to search and what records, if they were created, survive …
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Paul Roberts’ book is now available to purchase! Order your copy of History Maker here. How The British Newspaper Archive played a key role in the completion of a new book about my great-great-grandfather who had 30 grandsons serving King and Country I found the picture by pure chance – on a village history website. It was of John Roberts, a man with a bushy beard and sideburns and wearing a bowler hat and a big smile. A caption below …
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Researching British army ancestors in The British Newspaper Archive As part of our military themed month, we are delighted to bring you a guest blog post by military researcher Paul Nixon. Paul is the author of the blogs Army Ancestry Research and Army Service Numbers 1881-1918. He has also recently launched a new endeavour, British Army Ancestors, a database of over 11 million men who served their monarch and country between 1850 and 1920 and a resource which enables visitors to …
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Emma Willis explored the back streets of Birmingham, uncovered a violent ancestor, and revealed magnificent Irish craftsmanship in her family tree. In this week’s episode of Who Do You Think You Are?, we followed the lives of three of Willis’ ancestors: James Gretton, Richard Fowler, and Michael Kirwan. We will take a closer look at the newspapers and explore what more we can discover about the stories and lives revealed. James Gretton Emma Willis found out that her three-time great …
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On 20 July 2017, many of you joined us for our webinar, Journeys Through Time: Discovering Travel & Migration in Old Newspapers. In the webinar, we reviewed how to find passenger lists, emigration notices, letters from abroad, and so much more. If you were not able to attend the live webinar, you can watch it on demand through our You Tube channel. The theme of this month’s webinar was travel, thus we received many questions about early passport requirements. …