Other Sources of ancestor Information

It is not just official sources that one might direct time and energy to uncovering facts about one's own family tree. A host of other useful sources are available from family members, friends and relatives, as well as commercial and other concerns. Family bibles, letters, books, certificates and photograph albums can of course provide much reliable information, as can word of mouth usually the latter especially so if supported by other people or sources.

Newspaper articles and announcements can also provide useful information not always available from any other source. Announcements of births, marriages, divorces, and deaths were often placed in the personal columns of local and county newspapers, or national newspapers where prominent families are concerned. Most families would extract the printed material about their relatives, usually keeping the same safe in bibles, photograph albums; shoeboxes with other documents of one sort or another, or sometimes the more organised family might have its own scrapbook in which such documented pieces of evidence might be available for reference.

If cuttings are not available from the family, then most main reference libraries and newspaper publishers' archives are able to produce back copies often extending over several decades for reference by interested individuals. Some County Record Offices are also able to provide reference facilities to old newspapers and periodicals, usually covering the area in which they themselves work, which might be available on microfilm.

Microfilm incidentally comes on a reel that fits into the spindle of a special viewing machine. The film runs between this and another spindle, both of which have handles for the viewer to move around the film to select those parts of particular interest.

After looking for newspapers through which to probe for a few hours or so, but what exactly are we hoping to find in our efforts? Perhaps firstly we might seek straightforward announcements of births, deaths and marriages, from which other information will almost result.

The names, and possibly the address, of the newborn’s parents might perhaps be contained in the announcement. A death notice might give a signal about where burial took place (if you do not know from other sources). A death notice might also suggest cause of death and disclose any suspicious circumstances or inquests that might have arisen; an obituary might also be enclosed about prominent citizens who have lived in the locality.

Apart from announcements placed by family and friends, and perhaps short write-ups on prominent citizens, there is also the possibility of news coverage of accidents, strikes, and many other events to which the family concerned might have once been party. You would usually need information that a particular ancestor was involved in something likely to be so documented as well as have access to a likely date of such event before you can source the newspapers with any reasonable chance of finding information worth the time and trouble involved.