British Newspaper Archives

[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.
Update: That was short and sweet.
About four sentences about the project, then 'And now over to news, travel, and weather in your area'. (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!
https://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. https://
newspapers.bl.uk/blcs/

The very original BL mini demo site with a few free papers is still up at https://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