Newspaper Archives

National Newspapers

National newspapers report important stories which means that few of our ancestors are included unless they were prominent people or involved in a incident that was sensational or of  national importance.

Many were listed in the official announcements of birth, marriage or death or listed in the bankruptcy or insolvency announcements.

The two main searchable archives are the Times and the Guardian/Observer both of which allow a search of the archives by date, name or place.

There is a small charge for this service although for residents of the UK many libraries subscribe to the archives allowing a free search via the library web site or from terminals within the library.

The British Library maintains a national newspaper library that preserves copies of newspapers and makes the content available to the public. At present this content is not available online.

Local Press

Far more of our ancestors names will have appeared in print in local newspapers either in news/feature stories or in the announcements column.

County records offices maintain records of Newspapers active in their area and often hold copies of the newspapers.

Perhaps the best way to access this information is to contact the newspaper if it is still trading. Most newspapers have a copy of all of their editions to which they allow access to legitimate researchers.

Although there can be a charge often this service is free.