British Newspaper Archives

[Ladkyis]

The new website with the first batch of digitised newspapers is due to go live next week. Some people have been able to beta test the site (Me, me they picked me!!!) and I have to say that it is going to be such an enormous help to people in their research.
I have not been fortunate enough to go to Colindale, which is where the British LIbrary Newspaper Library is kept so I can only imagine what it must be like to search through all the newspapers.
Searching the digital stuff is sooo exciting. Trust me, I have just spent three hours looking for my actors and I am delighted to say that The Era is in the first batch of pages along with papers like the Sunderland Echo and Shipping Gazette, The Manchester Evening News, Nottingham evening Post, Belfast newsletter, Freemans Journal,
It has thrown up a mystery for me (nothing unusual with my ancestors)
On Saturday 8th December 1894 the Manchester Evening News carried this story
Harriet Guilfoyle Seymour aged 14, whose parents reside in Halley Street, Greenheys, left home on Thursday afternoon. the girl is of stout build, has short hair and large dark eyes. She was wearing a Tam-o-shanter, black and white check coat, old grey working dress and low lace-up shoes. The mother mentioned this to Mr R. A. Armitage at the City Police Court this morning and the applicant was referred to the press representatives.
please note the address in this first article and the length of time between her leaving and the mother "mentioning" it at the City police court.
On Friday 14th December 1894 the Manchester Evening News carried this story
Mysterious disappearance of a girl
A girl ages 14, named Harriet Guilfoyle Seymour is missing from her home in Craven Street, Chorlton-on-Medlock. She is 4ft 6ins in height and has a round face, brown eyes and dark hair, cut short. At the time of her disappearance she was wearing a grey dress, check ulster and Tam-o-Shanter hat. Her parents would be glad to receive notice of her whereabouts

see the address? well thanks to the expert researches of Jellylegs I know that Harriet was living at Craven Street in the 1891 census with her siblings and a housekeeper. Her mother was in Liverpool in a boarding house. So why does the first story say the parents were residing in Greenheys? I know she was found or came back because I have information from other sources that tell me she was with her mother in Newport in 1905 so she wasn't murdered or anything I am just curious now.

[LittleMissP]

That is fantastic news, so exciting. Keep us updated with progress on your new mystery :)

[David Tuson]

This news is far more exciting than the release of Apple's latest iPhone -- thanks Ladykis

[Mitch in Notts]

I have also had a very quick look - found a bit of illegal fishing at Stratford on Avon and a fine of 2s 6d for breach of peace at Carronshore Stirlingshire - can see loads more but am going to wait til the site goes live and have a whole day. Its going to be genealogical heaven!!

[RoyW]

This does sound very good and maybe I am missing something but when it goes 'live' next week? where do I find it? what can I expect? and will I have to pay?

Thanks

Royw

[Jan1954]

Hello Roy,

This is the website: http://
newspapers.bl.uk/blcs/ and yes, there is a subscription, although it seems that there is a free option as well, but without the full access. Visit the website and have a read.

[Kerrywood]

RoyW (and Jan)

When it goes live, it will be here
www.
britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/index.php

And yes, we will all have to pay. As far as I can see the full price schedule has not yet been revealed.

[RoyW]

I have had a very quick look around the site and agree it looks as if it will be worth searching, I have bookmarked the site
Roy

[Pam Downes]

If anyone in the UK is up early enough (i.e. 6am) then switch on BBC Breakfast because it's (or at least part of it) is coming from the British Newspaper Library at Colindale, and you'll be able to see the scanning team at work preparing stuff for the website.
And the website goes live today as well. |woohoo| |woohoo|
http://www.
britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/

(Make that 'the website is now live' - I've just checked. :biggrin:)

Pam

[Jan1954]

Although up in time to watch the programme, I do not have a television and so missed it. :nonod:

However, I have copped a brief varda at the website and can see me revelling in the pages for hours. Pity that I have to wait until I come back from work..... :cryin:

Thank you, Pam for the heads-up. :biggrin:

[Pam Downes]

Now I'm finally up, I thought I'd switch on the telly, but so far I've seen the presenters sitting on the (studio) sofa reading today's newspaper headlines; a report from a bakery in Llanelli, and now they're back in the studio interviewing someone talking about oysters.
And literally now (7.25) they're at the library - though the caption says 'British Library', which ain't quite the same as the British Newspaper Library. |doh|
Update: That was short and sweet. :smile5:
About four sentences about the project, then 'And now over to news, travel, and weather in your area'. :biggrin: (Obviously going back to the Library later.)

Pam

[DorothySandra]

a subscription is tempting, but so far I've had some fun finding out what's available for nothing. Before I commit an extravagance, I'm still checking what I can read via my Library membership: 19th Century newspapers, for a start.

[Sue Mackay]

Just logged in, and the unused credits from my beta trial are still there

[Mutley]

It is on the BBC News Online. Quite interesting!
http://www.
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15932683

and the cost is now available.

I wonder if at some time in the future it will appear on FMP?

[Chris Doran]

I note that the original Gale one still exists, and has free access to some, like The Graphic, that the new one charges for, though maybe not all the dates. http://
newspapers.bl.uk/blcs/

The very original BL mini demo site with a few free papers is still up at http://www.
uk.olivesoftware.com/

Whether these will stay up/partly free remains to be seen.

[Ladkyis]

The GAle site is primarily the Times archive isn't it? while the Britishnewspaperarchive has wonderful things like the Sunderland Echo and shipping News or the Burnley Express or the delightful Freeman's Journal.

I have my darned actors to thank for my knowledge of the British newspaper scene. Try putting in the name Guilfoyle Seymour and then take your pick of the 47 pages of hits!
Let me tell you that 1000 credits soon melt away in that situation. I am getting a lot of new information about where my lot were at any given time - and I have discovered that one of their children ran away from home when she was 14 because there was a bit in the Manchester evening News! We know she came back because ten years later she was a witness at my grandmother's wedding.
Downloading the files is ..... erratic..... and sometimes impossible but I am putting that down to the pressure on a new site. I also like that I can correct OCR errors in the transcribed text.

[Thomasin]

I also like that I can correct OCR errors in the transcribed text.

I'm glad you can do that. I was puzzled, in the report of a horticultural show, by 'darned Wild flowers'. This should have been, in the children's section, 'A collection of named wild flowers'.

[Chris Doran]

Gale started with The Times many years back, but did a lot of British Library newspapers a year or two ago. It looks as if they lost the bidding for the next round and some of them got done twice. All a waste of time.

Be warned that the whole page PDFs are of rather poor quality compared with what you see at reasonable magnification on the screen, and if you only want a small article you'll do better to take a screenshot with Print Screen/paste or one of the specialised utilities like EasyCapture. I've found that this applies to many online archives, including current issues of our local rag -- they try to save disk space and bandwidth at the expense of quality.

[Gillmar]

Thank you for all the information.

I am debating whether to take out a year's subscription or not. I started off with the credit system on FMP but was always wary of "calling up" another page. Here, I took out a 6-monthly full subscription and have not regretted it. I often research for my friends and relatives so it sort of "pays off". When I next visit England I am expecting lots and lots of Lemon Meringue Pies!!

Shall I pay CHF 115 for a full year's subscription, knowing that my immediate family is from Northwich, Cheshire and surrounding areas? Or shall I pay it and know that I shall be sitting even longer in front of my PC and searching, searching, searching? The historical events would also interest me.

The offending thought for everyone outside Switzerland is that CHF 115.- will pay for a "decent dinner" at a "decent" restaurant and no more.

I frequently visit FamilySearch, Free BMD, am a member of Rootschat.com, SheffieldHistory, Great War and World War II sites and am very appreciative of these.

So where does the "penny" stop??

[margarita]

I am debating whether to take out a year's subscription or not. I

I have decide to start just using the seach facility and if I find a relevant article I will bookmak the search page. If/when I think I have found a reasonable number of hits I will take out a 2 day package.

Well, that's the plan - I am sure if I found something really juicy I would want instant access to it.

Regards,

Maggie

[bsward]

Found a phote of my 5x great grandmother which made me subscribe immediately - haven't regretted it - lots of interesting stuff!

Ben

[Thomasin]

It's a wonderful site. I have found an account of a violent thunderstorm in 1827 which caused the Black Bull Inn at Middleton, kept by my children's 4 x great grandfather, Joseph Lees, to be struck by lightning. No-one was hurt, but the lightning split the chimney, made a hole in the roof 'and entered the bed-chamber of Mr and Mrs Lees, tearing away the bed curtains, breaking the windows and rolling up the blind in a very curious manner.' The clock at the top of the stairs was shattered, silver spoons were melted, crockery was broken 'and tinged with a brimstone hue.' A fireplace was knocked down and a window torn out - and the gilt lettering on the inn sign was obliterated. It surprised poor Miss Lees, who was in the kitchen preparing dinner, 'wheeling her completely round.'

Where else could you find such detail about something that happened 184 years ago?

[pok4r]

is this a free site can you tell us,, had a quick look but not easy to follow options,, i'm a little sssssslow


The new website with the first batch of digitised newspapers is due to go live next week. Some people have been able to beta test the site (Me, me they picked me!!!) and I have to say that it is going to be such an enormous help to people in their research.
I have not been fortunate enough to go to Colindale, which is where the British LIbrary Newspaper Library is kept so I can only imagine what it must be like to search through all the newspapers.
Searching the digital stuff is sooo exciting. Trust me, I have just spent three hours looking for my actors and I am delighted to say that The Era is in the first batch of pages along with papers like the Sunderland Echo and Shipping Gazette, The Manchester Evening News, Nottingham evening Post, Belfast newsletter, Freemans Journal,
It has thrown up a mystery for me (nothing unusual with my ancestors)
On Saturday 8th December 1894 the Manchester Evening News carried this story
Harriet Guilfoyle Seymour aged 14, whose parents reside in Halley Street, Greenheys, left home on Thursday afternoon. the girl is of stout build, has short hair and large dark eyes. She was wearing a Tam-o-shanter, black and white check coat, old grey working dress and low lace-up shoes. The mother mentioned this to Mr R. A. Armitage at the City Police Court this morning and the applicant was referred to the press representatives.
please note the address in this first article and the length of time between her leaving and the mother "mentioning" it at the City police court.
On Friday 14th December 1894 the Manchester Evening News carried this story
Mysterious disappearance of a girl
A girl ages 14, named Harriet Guilfoyle Seymour is missing from her home in Craven Street, Chorlton-on-Medlock. She is 4ft 6ins in height and has a round face, brown eyes and dark hair, cut short. At the time of her disappearance she was wearing a grey dress, check ulster and Tam-o-Shanter hat. Her parents would be glad to receive notice of her whereabouts

see the address? well thanks to the expert researches of Jellylegs I know that Harriet was living at Craven Street in the 1891 census with her siblings and a housekeeper. Her mother was in Liverpool in a boarding house. So why does the first story say the parents were residing in Greenheys? I know she was found or came back because I have information from other sources that tell me she was with her mother in Newport in 1905 so she wasn't murdered or anything I am just curious now.

[Pam Downes]

pok4r,
The site referred to in this thread is
http://www.
britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/
(You need to paste the two halves 'together', as because it's a commercial site we are not allowed to post the URL as 'clickable'.)
It's free to search, but then you have pay to see the complete entry. Click 'subscribe' in the top righthand corner of the page for details of cost.

Those newspapers are regional ones.
The Times Digital Archive is often available for free through your local library, and you can usually access it from home if you have a library card.

Pam

[Gillmar]

Well, after reading all your posts, I decided to search "free of charge". At first I had no luck with my English ancestors but then decided to check on my German ancestors, and the German immigrants (mostly pork butchers) who are living in the North / North West of England.

Here, I obtained numerous "signposts" due to their uncommon names.

I searched for the above without clicking on a decade or location and found this to be more successful. I also just gave the surname as often the results would refer to a Mr. .....

I did however find the death of a certain Harry Whitlow who drowned whilst bathing in a pit near Winnington school in Northwich.

I am still learning how to "word" the searches to obtain the result I require.

I found a Christian Jaag of Liverpool (a family I am researching) who was jailed for one month for keeping a homing pigeon. The year was 1915!!! There was no mention of what Christian Jaag was intending to do with the bird which was ordered to be destroyed by the magistrate!!

[Ladkyis]

He could have been a foreign spy!!!! or perhaps he was a receiver of spying info and he would send out the pigeons in boxes on the railway - they used to be sent like that, in fact they could well still be sent like that - and then his agents would write their coded messages and put them in a little tube on the bird's leg and let them fly home.
On the other hand he could have been a pigeon fancier and didn't want to get rid of his favourite bird.

~must learn to curb my imagination~

[Gillmar]

~must learn to curb my imagination~

Please don't do that - imagination is more important than knowledge (and far times more spicy!!)

[t@nya]

I decided to look for a newspaper report on the trial of one of my ancestors, only to discover that there are no issues of the newspaper in question (the Birmingham Gazette) for that year in the Archive. And that, in fact, there are more than one year missing. Does that mean that the issues no longer exist? Or will be issues be scanned and put online sometime in the future.

[Kerrywood]

The digitisation is ongoing, and will be for a long time to come.

From the FAQs ...
Unfortunately, we're not able to tell you exactly when specific newspapers will be added but we will be constantly adding new records so if the one you are searching for is not available at the moment, please do keep checking back as we are adding 8000 new pages every day.

[Coromandel]

To see if the edition in question survives at the British Library, check their catalogue at

http://
catalogue.bl.uk

Choose the fourth option ('Search the Newspaper Catalogue subset'). For the Birmingham Gazette it appears that there are only a handful of surviving issues from before 1800. Later the coverage looks better. A few are marked 'unfit for use'. Though that means they won't be produced for readers, I don't know if it will also prevent them being digitised: I suppose it depends quite what state they're in.

[t@nya]

Thanks for that.

I checked, and 1834 is marked as 'unfit for use'. :(

It appears to exist in microform form, though, so maybe one day it'll be digitised and online.

[Ladkyis]

Sooooo excited now! I entered a competition on Find My Past - I think it was on Facebook - it had the chance to win one of their top subscriptions or several other lesser subscriptions including a year's subscription to the British Newspaper Archive. I didn't want to win the FMP subs because I already have it and use it a lot but the Newspaper archive - as you can see from my messages in this thread - will be so useful to me because there are literally hundreds of advertisements and reviews of my actors in lots of local papers so if I was coveting a subscription it was for the newspapers.
This morning I had an email to say that I have won the subscription to the BNA. I have to wait for them to set up my account for me but pretty soon I will be spending far too much time reading newspaper reports about Miss Bessie Nathan and Charles Guilfoyle-Seymour.
See, I said it was exciting didn't I?

[Kerrywood]

Well done, Ladkyis, great news! :clap:

[margarita]

Well done you.

I have always steered clear of Facebook up to now. Maybe I should change my attitude to it.

Regards,

Maggie

[CanadianCousin]

Congratulations!

[Ladkyis]

Well done you. I have always steered clear of Facebook up to now. Maybe I should change my attitude to it.

There is nothing to fear about facebook as long as you remember that you are in control and you don't have to fill in all those details they ask for. Keep your comments and wall postings available to friends only and do not make everyone that asks be a friend.
OH and never, ever write anything you don't want the world to see because if you do someone will share it.

[Mutley]

OH and never, ever write anything you don't want the world to see because if you do someone will share it.

And don't post pictures that you are not prepared to share the location with the world, especially when taken with a modern camera or phone.:no:
Apparently, your posted photos on the internet can be tracked by GPS co-ordinates within an accuracy of 15 feet!

That's very scary:wacko:

[Jonesy]

It is a great resource, and I've found a few bits of interesting information.

However I do think the access structure is very measly; spend £6.95 on the Ancestry website and you get 14 days of access; on Findmypast/1911 census websites, 90 days of access.

British Newspaper Archive website: 2 days. :confused5:

[cristol]

:hurray:

Oooh Ladkyis - how exciting, congratulations, hope you have a great time browsing to your hearts content. I am very jealous !

Lesley

p.s. have to agree with Jonesy - I do find the low level access very offputting - not everyone has two whole days to use the site continuously to use the credits efficiently.

but Ladkyis - you can blissfully search at your leisure now - well done again

[PamG]

Finally got around to looking at the British Newspaper Archive site, and on registering was immediately awarded 30 free credits! Not enough of course to have an indepth three cuppa session, but enough to wet my whistle, and satisfy my curiosity on what naughties landed my gt gt grandfather in prison for six months hard labour!

Just thought I'd mention in case anyone else hadn't got round to registering yet and was thinking of it...

Pam