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*Tracing Your Roots > First Steps in Family History > Miscellaneous Sources
* Newspapers 
 
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Newspaper Office
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The biggest problem with newspapers is the vast amount of information contained in each issue - so you need to know fairly precisely the date of the events you are looking for. Few papers, with the exception of The Times, are indexed and, in addition, with small print and distracting advertisements they can be difficult to read, especially on microfilm.

The biggest collection of newspapers is held by the British Library Newspaper Library , but local studies libraries or local record offices should have copies, usually on microfilm, for their area. Jeremy Gibson's Local Newspapers 1750-1920 (FFHS, 2002) provides a list of surviving papers and where they can be found. The National Archives has some newspapers, including:

  • A collection of colonial newspapers between about 1830 and 1850
  • A microfilm set of The Times in the Microfilm Reading Room
  • The Resource Centre and Library has indexes to The Times on CD-ROM
  • A microfilm set of the London Gazette (series ZJ 1), although the Gazette has since the early-18th century printed mainly government notices
  • Railway staff magazines, from about 1900 to the 1980s (if you have an ancestor who worked on the railways he or she is likely to have featured here at some time)

Creators: Simon Fowler

 
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