Using newspapers to collect information

In today's post I will outline some of the information you can gather from old newspapers

Newspapers can provide a wealth of information about your ancestors' lives. These are available on the web through various sites. The most obvious being Find My Past, the British Newspaper Archive and Ancestry. The Times Digital Archive can also be accessed. Hampshire Library's website allows members to access this site free of charge via a link. It is worth checking if other libraries offer a similar service. You can visit your local library where the librarians will be able to advise you what is accessible . Local newspapers allow access to their archives. You may even be able to use copies of the actual newspapers. Check out what is available at your local records office or museum. Obviously some on-line sites require payment. Make sure you have a clear picture of the costs involved. Once you have obtained an item that is relevant to your family you may want to crop the actual article. This makes it easier to use and you can put a paper copy in your records. Victorian newspapers tended to be broadsheets packed with typeface.

Census records and certificates can provide a good skeleton of facts about an ancestor. News articles help to put flesh on the bones. One of my great great grandfathers was a multiple bankrupt (amongst other things!). Reports of the various court cases he was involved in read like a script of the trials. This includes the laughter that broke out in the court room when his integrity was referred to. You may find details of their businesses, social lives, court cases and family announcements. Details from a funeral announcement in an Australian newspaper helped me to find more recent relations. Their birth records were inaccessible due to the time limits on public access to Australian civil records.

www.findmypast.co.uk   www.ancestry.co.uk

In my next post I will use examples from my research to show what you could discover. 

Hint😉 You can find little nuggets of information about your family in unexpected places.

Solving a Family Puzzle

On today's post I am going to tell a story about my 3x great grandmother, Mary Magee, and show the various sources I used to investigate it.

Did Mary Magee own the Crescent Hotel?

There has always been a story in the family that my 3x great grandmother Mary Magee owned the Crescent Hotel in Douglas, Isle of Man. She was said to have bequeathed it to another branch of the family. One relative was even said to have visited the hotel meeting the distant cousins. Over many years I have managed to untangle the story. Mary's sole link to the hotel is that it was for a while the residence of her executor. Although at one stage she does appear to have held a licence for a common boarding house. The story in itself is quite tangled and interesting. Rather than tell it here I have created a page for it that can be found to the right of this post. See → "Mary Magee and the Crescent Hotel". I intend to refer to it in later posts.  Therefore a separate page will be more accessible. See also ➜" The Family of William and Mary Magee" .

Here I am going to show all the sources of information I used. 

Sources of Information for Mary Magee and the Crescent Hotel

28 March 2017

16:54

Will of Mary Magee: My mother obtained a copy from the Isle of Man many years ago.

Census 1841-1911: Ancestry www.ancestry.co.uk, Find My Past www.findmypast.co.uk , Isle of Man Museum (www.imuseum.im )

Newspapers: Isle of Man Museum

Property Deeds: Isle of Man Museum

Photographs of the streets the Magees lived in:  Isle of Man Museum (These gave some idea of the types of properties they could afford.)

Details of banking in the Isle of Man:
Manx Notebook http://isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/fulltext/sx1925/mb.htm
RBS Heritage Hub http://heritagearchives.rbs.com/companies/list/isle-of-man-bank-ltd.html

Mary Magee's marriage details:  Find My Past (typed summary), Family Search (image from church register) https://familysearch.org 

Death and Burial of William Magee Senior (Mary's husband): Find My Past (typed summary), Family Search (image from church register),  Isle of Man Museum (typed summary)

As can be seen the sources were extensive and varied. Although they do give some idea of the material available to the amateur family historian. There are many record offices around the country that contain similar archives.

 Hint😉 Many family stories are true. Others contain some element of truth that has been altered over the years. Approach these stories from various view points. Collect as much evidence as you can to prove and also disprove the story. Then try to analyse all the facts you have gathered and so draw your own conclusion.