Old Newspapers

Think of the possibilities.

Your great grandmother’s family in Britain had a major event in their lives.  Perhaps it was a 50th anniversary….and perhaps the news and photo made the local newspaper.

Perhaps there was a successful rugby match and your great uncle Joe’s photo, along with his team mates made the front page of the newspaper.

Wouldn’t these be great genealogical finds?  It may soon be possible.

The British Library intends to digitise 40 million of its newspaper pages.   Mentioned in a BBC report,this would be a ten year project and would include more than 300 years of journalism, including coverage of the Crimean and Boer Wars.  The information will be put on the web.

Pages written during the census years between 1841 and 1911 will also be made available online.