Read All About It!
We reveal how you can use newspaper archives to learn more information about your forebears’ lives
Happily for genealogists, the insatiable appetite for news and the newspapers that broadcast it has seen everything from major events to people’s everyday lives documented over the past 400 years. The online archives that have recently made tens of millions of pages from newspapers and other periodicals easily accessible provide a rich hunting ground for family historians seeking to flesh out the lives of their ancestors – from the upper echelons to the lowliest labourers. In fact, they helped me shed light on a myth in my own family. The story was that my grandmother’s cousin, Robert Henderson, died in 1937 at the age of 16 after falling down a ravine in Switzerland while on a Boy Scout trip. Other than an original clipping, there was no information about him, but my findings in the archives made this event more than a story and gave me a unique picture of his life.
Early Days
The history of newspapers in Britain is fascinating. They didn’t appear until 150 years after William Caxton introduced the printing press to England in 1476. Prior to this, the town crier served as the source of news for a population that was mostly illiterate. The oldest newspaper, the Corante, appeared weekly in 1621 and was published by London printer Nathaniel Butter. The format was the Dutch style of newspaper of the time, containing densely packed articles printed on one or two pages. It contained news from European countries but not England, due to the censorship laws in effect.
The right to print was strictly controlled from the beginning of the 17th century by a series of edicts from the Star Chamber court that regulated the number of presses throughout the kingdom and prohibited negative reporting about statutes and laws of the realm. The Government enforced these edicts by searching premises, confiscating equipment and imprisoning the lawbreakers.
After the Star Chamber was abolished in 1641, restrictions on printing were lifted and a variety of newspapers appeared such as the London Gazette, the official newspaper of the Crown, in 1665. Berrow’s Worcester Journal claims to be the world’s oldest surviving newspaper, founded in 1690 and published weekly from 1709. And on 11 March 1702 the Daily Courant was launched. This was Britain’s first daily newspaper and consisted of a single page
with news on the front and advertisements on the back.
The Government placed a tax on page count in newspapers in 1712, hence the rise of the broadsheet. With the advent of the freedom of the press in the early 18th century, more newspapers appeared across Britain: the Leeds Mercury (1718) and The Times (1788), followed by the Observer (1791) – the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper.
The Heyday Of Newspapers
Advances in production processes in the 19th century saw a rise in the number of periodicals being published including penny dreadfuls, which first appeared in 1836. These contained sensational stories featuring largerthan-life characters such as Dick Turpin and Sweeney Todd, and cost a penny. They were typically published in weekly parts with lurid cover illustrations. Visit bl.uk/romanticsand-victorians/articles/ penny-dreadfuls to view the British Library’s hair-raising collection.
In 1855 the Daily Telegraph appeared, and by the start of the 20th century newspapers were widespread and had become vital parts of the communities they served. And as the industry evolved, so did the content and style of the journalism that they published. The first and oldest surviving tabloid in the UK is the Daily Mirror, which launched on 2 November 1903. To increase their circulation, many papers began featuring human interest stories to attract female readers, alongside the sports reporting traditionally enjoyed by men. If you want to use newspapers to research your ancestors, there are plenty of online resources to help you on your way. This
‘To increase their circulation, many papers began featuring human interest stories’
includes several subscriptionbased websites with newspaper collections that are generally free to search, although you have to pay to see an article.
The most important one for British researchers is Findmypast ( findmypast.co.uk), which holds British and Irish newspaper collections, although the main search function on the website doesn’t check these records so you need to visit search.findmypast.co.uk/search/british-newspapers.
However, last year the company trialled an improved method of extracting first and last names from print with greater accuracy, starting with the Essex Newsman
collection (1881–1943), using optical character recognition (OCR). This data will be returned through the general search page.
The British Newspaper Archive (BNA; britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) offers the same collection of newspapers as Findmypast, and features a powerful ‘Advanced search’ option that can help narrow down results.
On Ancestry ( ancestry.co.uk)
you can search the collection ‘England, Andrews Newspaper Index Cards, 1790–1976’ at bit. ly/anc-news-cards. This contains original newspaper clippings featuring all sorts of material including family announcements, wills and advertisements for unclaimed estates.
I discovered an index card about the death of my grandmother’s cousin that read: “In loving memory of Robert Hallam [Henderson] (only child of Mr and Mrs JM Henderson), killed when climbing in the French Alps with the Westminster School Scouts, on Aug 5, 1937, aged 16½ years.”
Accessing Free Newspapers
There is also a wealth of free resources available – some you can access online from home, while for others you need to go to a library or a specific repository. BNA’s website can be accessed for free from the Reading Rooms at the British Library’s main site in St Pancras, London, and at its Boston Spa branch in West Yorkshire. Some county libraries and universities offer free or partial access to this collection and others, including digital archives of The Times (1785–2013); the Gale Collections of British Library Newspapers (1732–1950); and the Burney Collection covering 17th- and 18th-century English publications, including pamphlets and newsbooks. You can search the archive of the London Gazette and view results for free at the gazette.co.uk, including many family announcements.
Libraries and local archives may also have newspaper collections, often on microfilm, that you can
view there. If you’re a member of your local library, check to see if it allows free or partial access to online collections from home using your library card.
Journals And Magazines
Journals and magazines are also useful resources for uncovering forebears’ lives. Following the lead from Ancestry’s Newspaper Index Cards, I visited the website of Westminster School which my ancestor Robert Henderson attended, and found his obituary in the November 1937 edition of the school magazine. Pupils launched The Elizabethan in 1874, and its nearly monthly issues included match reports, correspondence, alumni news and, during wartime, news of men who enrolled and those who died. Back issues have been digitised and can be searched at westminster.org. uk/schoollife/eliza.
Robert “was elected into the college in 1934 and soon showed that he was a boy of wide interests and unusual ability… he flung himself ardently into debates, and was regularly present at meetings of the Political and Literary Society; he was a member of the chess team; on the water he showed energy and promise… he had a gift for drawing…” The accident that led to his death was widely reported in a number of the newspapers available on Findmypast, but it was his school obituary that really gave a sense of who he was as a person. The Elizabethan is still published today, albeit annually.
Hatches, Matches And Dispatches
Paid-for family announcements started to appear regularly after 1820 when those of means put their notices in The Times, which carried a certain cachet. The trend really took off during the
late 19th and 20th centuries as more people could afford them. Photos started to appear alongside notices in the 1930s.
Other occasions to search for include anniversaries, engagements, and people moving abroad. Death notices usually contain more information than burial records. For example, in the 25 August 1797 edition of the Ipswich Journal, I found a death notice for my 6x great grandfather: “Died Saturday after a lingering illness, Mr Thomas Hewitt, baker, in the Market Place, Bury.” If your ancestor left a will, their solicitor may have posted a Deceased Estates Notice in the London Gazette or local newspaper, which gave creditors a chance to make a claim against their estate. This usually includes the last address and date of death. You should also look for their obituary, which may include details about the death, a brief biography, surviving relatives and even a photograph. Obituaries and family notices from the BNA can now be searched for free via familysearch.org, although you need to be at a Family History Centre or affiliate library to see more than just a basic index. If your ancestors served in the armed forces, the press may have mentioned their movements, medals awarded, acts of gallantry and promotions. Court reports feature regularly in newspapers and contain the names of victims, defendants and witnesses. Often a physical description of a defendant will be given, as well as details of their trial, sentence and witness testimonies. The Police Gazette also published details of wanted felons and missing persons. As well as the collection on BNA, lastchancetoread.com is also worth searching as it has copies of the Police Gazette and other titles not online elsewhere.
Coroner’s reports were frequently destroyed, but if mystery surrounded your ancestor’s death then you may find the facts reported on in local – or even national – newspapers.
These sometimes go into gory detail, and you can uncover all sorts of fascinating gems about the life and times of a forebear.
The newspapers also reported on bankruptcy proceedings, which include the names of debtors and creditors, as well as information about the place of business. Advertisements placed by ancestors can reveal a lot about their lives too, from occupation to address and circumstances – perhaps they were hiring servants, or selling all of their goods at auction.
Sport has always been widely covered in newspapers including local amateur events. If you find a sporting ancestor you can follow their progress and may even find a photo of them. The same goes for performing ancestors.
Tips For Searching
When you’re trying to track down a forebear in the newspaper archives, make sure that you’re looking for records in the right geographical area, because it is easy to assume that someone with the same name could be your ancestor when in fact they are not. Language and spellings have changed too: for example, the letter ‘s’ appears as ‘f’ in early newspapers. First names were not always published, and the spelling of first names and surnames may have changed – for instance, foreign surnames often became anglicised over time. Remember too that in certain legal notices names are written in reverse order, so try searching for ‘Smith, John’ instead of ‘John Smith’. Use wildcards to expand your search where the text digitised by OCR is of poor quality.
Although the arrival of the internet means that newspapers face an uncertain future, the printed word (albeit in digital form) remains an enthralling way to discover the stories of your forebears’ lives, and separate family fact from fiction.