Newspapers for Family Historians, Christine Morris

Christine Morris, who works for the Family Tree Magazine at Ramsey, was welcomed to our May meeting to talk to us about Newspapers for Local and Family History. Christine gave us a short history of newspapers, information about the British Library’s newspaper archive at Colindale and examples of how newspapers have helped in her own personal research.
Newspapers have a very long, but patchy, history in this country. The volume available at anyone time has depended on the availability of paper, licensing regulations and the level of censorship at each period. For many centuries newspapers had no illustrations although the earliest had engravings. Photographs started appearing in the late 19th century. Until relatively recently, local news was not seen to be important and local newspapers contained mainly out of date national news.
Old newspapers can be found at local libraries and record offices but the primary source in this country is at Colindale, North London. This repository hold 650,000 volumes on 15 miles of shelving and its holding are growing at 900 foot a year. British publishers are obliged to provide one copy of every item published to the British Library. Overseas material is also held.
Old newspapers are not easy to read but can reward you with much material for your family history research. They may be the only extant source of coroners’ reports supplying details of the death on an ancestor. Obituaries can provide information about the whole life of an individual while lists of mourners and floral tributes included can provide details of relatives, including those who have moved away from the area, perhaps even overseas. Obituaries, as well as modern newspapers retrospective articles, may direct researchers to contemporary accounts of events in our ancestors’ lives. Imagine the joy of finding that your ancestor has been interviewed by his local newspaper!
Finally, the Internet is always a valuable source. Many indexes to newspapers are published on the Web and Colindale has a good website including a search by area facility.
[Sue Paul]