Many thanks John and Ruth, I took a break from C18th newspaper transcription to have a further look at Thomson Gale, (I'd been through the Times Online last year...) and found another handful of references for my ONS. I should also compliment British Origins, having added some 1841 Census Indexes , I managed to find several "Middlesex" Ancestors who had eluded me, which I've managed to access through my SOG login no less ! Regards Richard J Heaton ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Addis-Smith" <genl@addisgen.com> To: <SOG-UK-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2006 3:07 PM Subject: [SoG] Online Thomson Gale Databases > On Sat, 15 Apr 2006 18:29:57 +0100, Ruth <historyscape@gmail.com> > wrote: > >>I haven't noticed anyone mentioning the current free access to the >>Gale Group's databases which is running throughout April. Have a look >>at: >>http://trials.galegroup.com/nlw2006/portal.html >> >>I can particularly recommend the Eighteenth Century Collections >>database (under History, Biography and Literature) > > I can also recommend: > > The Making of the Modern Economy > --------------------------------------------------- > "The Making of the Modern Economy: Goldsmiths'-Kress Library of > Economic Literature 1450-1850" provides digital facsimile images on > every page of 61,000 works of literature on economic and business > published from 1450 through 1850. Full-text searching on more than 12 > million pages provides researchers unparalleled access to this vast > collection of material on commerce, finance, social conditions, > politics, trade and transport. > > They have taken copies of books from London University's Goldsmiths' > Library and Harvard University's Kress Library, and cover the periods > prior to the 18th century plus the first half of the19th century which > the 'Eighteenth Century Collections' obviously does not cover. > > As Ruth has indicated there are some amazing resources hidden in these > databases. I would add to her list: Law Lists and Commercial > Directories. > > We have been using these resources for months and have saved hundreds > of items, ranging in size from single book pages (together with the > corresponding title page), through small pamphlets, complete book > chapters and even complete books of several hundred pages. > > Here are some tips for those not familiar with the Gale Group of > online databases: > > - Select 'Full Text' from the drop down list for 'Search Type', or > else you will be searching only from the bibliographic details of the > books (title, author, subject, etc). For the 'Times Digital Archive' > default search option select: 'Search for words in entire article > content' > > - select the 'Advanced Search' option if you want to be more > selective. This is particularly useful for the Times Digital Archive > when you have a common name, as you can then select the 'People' > section or even a People sub-section such as 'Marriages' > > - if a surname you wish to search is too common so that you need to > use a forename as well, just enter both words together. The search > mechanism will find them if adjacent (or even if only within a few > characters of each other in the Times search) in the original text. > However because of errors in the Optical Character Reading (OCR) some > such text pairs will be missed. For the same reason stringing more > than two words together in a search string leads to diminishing > returns! > > - If you want to save and/or print pages from a book make sure you > select the highest value from the 'Scale' drop down list - the latter > only appears once you have a facsimile page on screen. The highest > scale value is usually 100 per cent (400 per cent for the Times > Digital Archive) > > - to save a facsimile page right click on its image on the screen (do > NOT try and save the whole web page) and select 'Save Picture As' > option from the pop up menu. With Windows XP you can also just click > on the floppy disk icon that should pop up when you hover your cursor > over the facsimile page picture. Be careful when saving the Times. > Generally select 'Article' rather than 'Page' from the results list. > (If you save a full Times page it is just readable if printed out on > an A3 printer . . . ) When saving an article be sure that you get the > correct part of the page, as some articles have been scanned in > separate sections, but appear together on screen - so hover cursor > over the column containing what you want to save and right click, etc. > There is a problem that the Times Reference appears towards the top > left of the screen and the part of the page you are interested in may > appear well away from this area - I take notes before combining the > reference with a short description of the subject of interest into the > full saved image name, eg: > Addis, George Thorburn - Apptd to Straits Settlements Legislative > Assembly - Times 13 Feb 1886 Pg.10 Col. A, Issue 31682.png > > - the saved Times 'article' can vary in size from a few lines to a > whole page. So I generally crop the section of interest from the saved > image in order to obtain a printed image, or series of images, which > is/are easy to read. I find the graphics program 'ACDC' fastest for > this purpose, but most graphics programs are suitable. > > > Cheers, John > > John Addis-Smith > Thurleigh, Bedfordshire, England > >