Genealogy Chat

FREE ACCESS TO OLD NEWSPAPERS

It is rare to get something worthwhile for nothing. Lancashire County Library and Information Service offers its members just that however and you do NOT have to live or work in Lancashire to benefit from their generosity. All that you need is to be a UK resident and have a home computer with internet access.

The site which anyone living anywhere in the UK can join for free has something for everyone and should be particularly useful to anyone interested in family history. It offers free online access to the 19th Century British Library newspaper collection which has digitised copies of old local newspapers (National coverage), ideal for looking up reports of criminal proceedings, inquests ect. It also has free access to The Times Digital Archive (From 1785~1985). Both of these give access to news and events of the day via a simple search procedure. Just reading the old newspapers can give you an insight into peoples attitudes and priorities at the time.

In addition there are countless links to other sites of just about every type and subject.

To join all that you need to do is visit their site:

http://www.lancashire.gov.uk/libraries/borrower/application_form.asp

Fill in your details and you will be given a temporary log in number. Within a few days you will receive your membership card through the post which will give you access to their resources from your home computer. Just to reiterate membership is open to everyone no matter where you live in the UK and it is FREE.

Now that’s a bargain in my book.

You might also be able to do this via your own local library if you have a library card with the digital bar code on it.

I can access these on line from home using my Essex library card issued here in Chelmsford

If you live outside the UK the library emails your log in code so you can access the information.

I found so many articles about Thomas Moremon the blind evangelist from Bristol who was my gt grandfathers brother I was over the moon to read about his exploits.

Thanks again Jonesey for sharing this tip.

Thanks Jonesey
I have just signed up and already found details of an ancestor.

Di

Thankyou Jonesey............. Susan

Hey - thats fantastic!

They even let ME join!

I've already found half a dozen articles in Leicester papers
mentioning my GGGF!


xxxx mick

ooh, you'll have a long way to travel to collect your library books Mick ;)

does that mean you can access newspapers from all over like nottingham and leicester then

Yes, most of my finds were in London and Scotland newspapers lol

teesdale- just to confirm that information, on all events, is accessible. I thought at first they would be Lancashire papers, which in my case, would have been of interest. If for example there was a bankrupt case then that would appear in the London papers even though it might take place in Nottingham. I was struggling with one member of the family who was born in 1748, and appeared to have'disappeared'. His marriage was reported and he was living in the next parish to where he was baptised (Huddersfield) and he married a lady in Flintshire in 1772. Now thats what I call a pearl. Equally my gt gt grandmother, a very poor widow,living in a cellar dwelling in 1851 in Blackburn was called as a witness for the prosecution because her neighbour had blocked up the sewer on his land and caused 8 cellar dwellings to be flooded.My poor gt gt grandmother was one of them. To me information like that was brilliant. There is a place for a Keyword and the word is highlighted in green so searching is quite easy.I would suggest if a name is sought to enter the first and second name within inverted commas e.g."John Smith"- happy searching -JLe

I cant recommend that site more highly!
I have found articles about my GGGFs barn being burnt down (he was an overseer of the poor, and the story was even taken up by London papers!),
the sale of various parcels of land he owned, an assault at his pub, the trial of said offenders - all in amazing detail and it has given me so much insight into his life in the early 19th C! Just amazing l

xxxxx mick

thank you for that very usefull Jan

Jonesey,

Two minutes in and I'm already finding things that happened in Glasgow.

Edit: Better than I could have imagined - even finding unexpected bankruptcies in the family (should I really be shouting about this?)

Brilliant - thanks for posting the link.

nudge

Many thanks - my card has just arrived!

Many thanks - Will spend many hours rooting about I am sure

Irene

Thanks so much for this. I have found articles about my grandfather in Devon, including a football match he took part in! It also has his brother in law playing, so this connects them beautifully. Absolutely wonderful.

liz

n

As Janet said, if you live in England, you can probably use your own library card.

Thanks for the info, I've found it useful already although my husband was mighty curious when my card arrived as we are in Scotlannd :)