19th c British Library newspapers search tips

[Coromandel]

There are some really useful search tips in the Help section of the 19th Century British Library Newspapers site. Some of these are widely used in other search engines (such as using quotation marks to search for an exact phrase, or using wildcards). Others are perhaps less familiar but nevertheless useful in refining searches.

My favourite discovery, which has revolutionised the way I search the newspapers, is the existence of proximity indicators. There are two of these, n (meaning 'near') and w (meaning 'within').

Here's an example:

Search for inquest n5 oxford to find mentions of the words 'inquest' and 'oxford' no more than five words apart (you can use any number you like).

The within search works in the same way (use w instead of n, plus a number) but is more specific: the search will only find the words if they are in the same order as specified in your search.

There are also some handy tools for narrowing down dates of search results (without using the rather tedious drop-down menus). In one of your search rows, change 'Keyword(Ke)' to 'Publication date(da)'. You can type in a range of dates e.g. 1850-1855 or put <1830 (before 1830) or >1890 (after 1890).

I expect this is 'old hat' for some of you, but hopefully it will help some members to find what they're looking for more easily.

Happy hunting...

[Richard1955]

Very useful indeed and nicely explained.
I'll give it a go. Thanks.

[Sue Mackay]

Many thanks for this tip. I had, after much searching for information on the death of my great great grandfather, John Chandler (plumber) of Norwood, finally discovered via the 19c newspaper site that he decamped after embezzling money in 1858 and his body was washed up in the River Lea. I had found several references at the time, all with the same wording from papers around the country, and had assumed they were all taken from the same source. Using your proximity marker as a test I have just found another paper with an extra nugget - he was taken from the river near Leyton. In the london area anything that narrows things down is a godsend!! Maybe I'll have yet another go at locating his death certificate.

[AnnB]

Many thanks from me too - just goes to show that it pays to read the Help section of any site......I tend to jump in without reading them first - and in this case I could have made life a lot easier for myself on more than one occasion

Best wishes
Ann

[helachau]

Like Ann, I must confess to jumping straight in - but it does pay to read the instructions on the tin.

Thanks for that Coromandel - will try out immediately

[billee-g]

Hi,I think some of us on site are related,I too jump in without reading instructions on the tin (I don,t multi-task either) mere mortal male you know!!!

[billee-g]

Hi,Again, It,s not all that obvious to me yet,but is there a way for me to store particular items of advice (yours re; newspapers)of interest to me for future reference? saving etc; the only way I know of at present is to print and save. is there a bookmark or similar,if permitted?excuse my ignorance,regards.billee-g.

[Coromandel]

Hi billee-g and sorry for the delay in replying

I know just enough to get by when it comes to computing; here is my interim answer while we wait for someone to come along who really knows what they're talking about.

I suppose you could bookmark the page in your web browser, but if you kept doing that you would soon have a long list of bookmarks which might get rather unmanageable unless you're really organised. Another method might be to go to File -> Save Page As [that's in the browser I use, i.e. Firefox; I expect it is something similar in Internet Explorer], give the page some meaningful name and save it. Then you could open it in your web browser. You could even create a special virtual folder for all your Brit-Gen tips.

A paper print-out in a real folder would work just as well though - or better if (like me) you forget what you called your computer files and where you put things.

[cristol]

I know just enough to get by when it comes to computing; here is my interim answer while we wait for someone to come along who really knows what they're talking about.

Hi billee-g
While we are waiting for someone who really knows what they are doing – here’s my two pennyworth !
At the top of the threads there are various options to help organise the information.
If you click on “Thread tools” it will give you the option “subscribe to this thread” click on that and it will connect you with this thread and any updates to it.
Then if you click on “forum actions” and then “general settings” it will show your subscriptions on the left hand side. Clicking on this will bring up any threads that you have marked.
As long as the original heading is clear then you will be able to see at a glance what the thread relates too and choosing this will take you straight to the pages you need.
Eventually it can get a little crowded, but it’s somewhere to start saving the snippets you are interested in and finding them again quickly.
A bit long winded but tried to “talk” you through it.
Welcome to the forum and don’t get too worried about your postings – everyone is very understanding and we all had to start somewhere and we remember how daunting it once was.
Lesley

[Procat]

Hi Bille-g,

As far as I know Cristol has come up with the only solution to "store" information within the forum itself. Alternatively, you could copy and paste bits and pieces into a word document or similar on your computer.