74

The British Library recently announced plans todigitize their newspaper collections, currentlyheld at Colindale but due to be moved to a newrepository in the coming months and years. Their

chosen partners are brightsolid, who own the genealogywebsite www.findmypast.co.uk, and hold the licence forthe 1911 census for England and Wales, and the contractfor www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk. By adding this immensecollection to their portfolio of records, brightsolid arebroadening the horizons of the entire genealogicalresearch community by providing a natural connectionbetween the traditional ‘person’-based searches and a linkto the communities and events that shaped their lives.

The importance of newspapers as a research source haslong been realized, but in the 21st-century Internet Ageone of the main barriers to greater use remains pooraccess – in particular, the lack of readily available nameindexes. Some of the national newspapers haverecognized the fact that their back issues form anincredibly valuable archive for social history. The Timeswas the pioneer: it has been possible tosearch back issues from 1785 offlinevia printed and microfilm indexes formany years, and these now form thebasis of the more readily availableTimes Online archive. However, themain use of this digital collection hasbeen in the academic sphere, assistingstudents with their studies by providing a link tocontemporary stories. Other newspapers have started tofollow suit, with The Guardian providing educationalaccess to their back catalogue, for example.

The genealogical potential for national newspapers hasbeen somewhat limited to announcements of births,marriages and deaths, and obituaries of famous people.Occasional news stories may feature our ancestors,particularly if they fell foul of the law or were involved ina prominent event. However, they mainly providechronological or background context to national life ingeneral, because they follow politics, world events orevents in major cities, consequently making it harder touncover the issues that gripped local communities. Thereal source of genealogical information lies in the hiddenand often long-forgotten archives of the local newspapercollections, many of which are gathering dust at not onlythe British Library’s repository at Colindale, but alsocounty archives and regional archives, because there isinsufficient means of access. Volunteer groups haveattempted to provide personal indexes for some papers,

but the sheer number of titles published over the last twoand a half centuries has made a comprehensive indeximpossible. Many researchers are therefore unaware ofthe rich potential stored in the pages of local papers.

This is a crying shame, because local newspapers arethe lifeblood of a community and bring us closer to theissues and events that mattered at regional or city level –not just headline-grabbing reports of criminal activity,local disasters and social unrest, but also the daily routinein which our ancestors played a part – grain prices,houses for rent, the sporting life, published sermons,departure and arrival times for trains and stage coaches,new products to cure ailments, the latest technologyadvertised for domestic use. It’s an eclectic mix ofmaterial, and some careful searching can paint awonderfully vivid picture of how our ancestors mighthave spent their spare time, and any spare money!

This new digitization project focuses on the periodcovered by the published census returns 1841–1911, andtherefore provides a clear indication that the target

audience are the family, local andsocial historians who already alsouse the collections provided bybrightsolid’s portfolio of companies.The aim, therefore, is to allowpeople to use the newspapers atlocal level to fill in the gaps betweenthe decennial censuses, and this

represents an encouraging attempt to link personal liveswith local events. We will observe with interest the waythe project developsover the forthcomingmonths, and urge theproject managers tobuild in searchengines that reflectthe varied use ofnewspapers formodernresearchers aswell as a simplename-searchfacility.

J U LY 2 0 1 0 YO U R FA M I LY H I S TO RY

Digital Newspapers

T H E L A S T W O R D

Local newspapersare the lifebloodof a community…

HAVE ANY OF your ancestors appeared in a localnewspaper? What stories have you unearthed? Letus know via Twitter @yourfamhistory or online atwww.your-familyhistory.com/yourstories.

LAST WORD NICK 74 8/6/10 10:32 Page 74