Advanced Genealogy
Newspapers
Newspapers can be wonderful sources of information, particularly the kind you cannot find elsewhere. You may think your ancestors did not achieve anything newsworthy – but think again. Think literally. Did someone die in an accident, or was his or her death the subject of an inquest? If so, the local newspaper might have reported it. The more horrific the details, the more likely something is to be in print. Since time immemorial newspapers have thrived on bad news with ghoulish delight, so any tragedies in your family may well have made it into the press. For family historians, bad news is good news. Also, newspapers have always salivated over court proceedings, so the trials of any criminals in your family could well have been reported. Many newspapers carried – and some still do – announcements of births, deaths and marriages. People who made their mark on their community – or on the country as a whole when it comes to national newspapers – might be rewarded with an obituary. There exists no richer genealogical source, though, as is still the case, lilies were often gilded and reputations airbrushed when it came to recounting someone’s life in print.
Unless you have a specific date, searching newspapers is difficult because of lack of indexes. But the national press can provide priceless information about what was going on in the world at the time your ancestors lived, while local newspapers can tell you what was happening in the community on the day someone was born, married or died. They can paint a picture of the life and times of your ancestors like few other sources.
Your library will possess back issues of local newspapers. The major collection of national and local newspapers, and periodicals, in the United Kingdom is the British Newspaper Library in northwest London. Indexes are few, though they do exist for The Times and the Manchester Guardian, as was – now renamed simply the Guardian.