Category: Newspapers


America, family history, Newspapers, WattsLeave a comment

Local papers for local people Surprising details in press archives, but also errors

Cutlock & Co

A new resource of searchable back editions for various newspapers published in and around Seward county, Nebraska, has appeared online, at the Seward Memorial Library Digital Archives {1}. As mentioned on the Going Abroad section of Cutlock & Co, this is where a number of Watts relatives emigrated to. It didn’t take a great deal of searching to find interesting material.

Continue reading Local papers for local people Surprising details in press archives, but also errors

family history, Newspapers, WorkLeave a comment

Going to see Uncle An everyday tale of pawnbroker folk

Cutlock & Co

A bonus, month, subscription to FindMyPast has enabled another trawl of the British Newspaper Archive records. There are more digitised journals than the last time round, but a new target seemed a good idea. Who in the family tree might be most likely to appear in a regional or local rag?

Continue reading Going to see Uncle An everyday tale of pawnbroker folk

family history, Living Conditions, Newspapers, Osborne, Rhondda10 Comments

No beating about the Bush Dreadful conditions, a strong community in Cwm Clydach

Cutlock & Co

The Cutlock & Co articles on Bush Houses are some of the most popular on the website. As the latest batch of old news uploaded to the Welsh Newspapers Online archive includes nine year’s worth of the Rhondda Leader from the start of the 20th century, a quick trawl seemed a good idea. Forty items came up for “bush houses”. Here are some key ones about the place {1}, which also shine a light on inhabitants’ lives.

Continue reading No beating about the Bush Dreadful conditions, a strong community in Cwm Clydach

family history, Newspapers, Rhondda, Wales, South, WatkinsLeave a comment

There’s no news like old Welsh news

Cutlock & Co

The National Library of Wales has released the beta (not quite finished) version of its Welsh Newspapers Online resource. It is already a brilliant addition to the bookmarks.

I found that it was ‘live’ last night, and quickly mentioned the site on the Glamorgan FHS Facebook page. I think a few of the others signed up to that have spent quite some time since enjoying both browsing by newspaper/place and searching for their own family names. One quote “It is great just searching for the parish or town where your ancestor lived – lots of interesting articles, adverts etc.”. This can certainly give a sense of what was going on in town when your ancestors were around.

Continue reading There’s no news like old Welsh news

America, family history, Manitoba, Newspapers, WattsLeave a comment

Making the news makes family history

Cutlock & Co

This post was going to be about bringing together disparate sources to build a picture, but has evolved into one on the increasing availability and usefulness of newspaper archives.

The British Newspaper Archive website went live late 2011, but while I have yet to use this, cuttings are increasingly adding to the data available. And the new series of Who Do You Think You Are? has featured newspaper extracts in each of the three episodes so far, with a particularly strong impact on Patrick Stewart’s view of his “angry” and abusive father when a cutting mentions shell-shock during evacuation from Cherbourg in 1940.

Continue reading Making the news makes family history