From: Robert Welbourn <robert@welbourn.com> > It's well worth a go. The 19th C British newspaper collection > includes the Leeds Mercury, the Manchester Times and the Northern > Echo. I was able to find an account of my great-great-grandfather > Robert Hird's death on a train from Shipley to Bradford in 1891; an > account of the tragic death of his nephew Benjamin in 1873 who drowned > after falling through the ice on Frizinghall Mill Dam, leaving a widow > and eight children; a report from the Yorkshire Assizes where his > great-nephew John who was convicted of stealing a watch in 1877 and > sentenced to five years in gaol (*now* I know why he was in prison in > the 1881 census, but why was he locked up in the 1891 census?). > > Go for it.> And I have found..... 1) A gt-gt-grandfather who was a policeman in Scarborough and who in 1865 was awarded a pension of 30 pounds a year by Scarborough Council for his long service. 2) A gt-uncle in Bradford who in 1873 was runner-up in the comic song section in a vocal competition at St George's Hall. 3) Another gt-gt-uncle from Bradford who was a bit of a rogue and black sheep and went to prison several times in the 1870s and 1880s, with court reports of his misdemeanours. All these were found in reports in the Leeds Mercury. Not exactly world-shattering, but all wonderful stuff for what we call "putting flesh on the bones" of family history! One of the lectures I give is about researching from newspapers and I am always preaching the ethos that it is a wonderful way of finding out those titbits about your ancestors that you would never know otherwise. This trial of the British Newspaper Library holdings is an outstanding chance, for as long as it lasts, to add colour to your family history research. -- Roy Stockdill Professional genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History: www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE