What Use Are Old Newspapers For Family History Research?
Old newspapers are excellent sources of social history. Apart from the information on births, marriages and deaths they are a mine of information on what was happening in society and often the world at any given time in history. It’s advisable to read them with an open mind on the time and context of their historical period and the outlook prevelant at that time. They often carried illustrations and advertisments. these are especially informative for the period fashions, although they were geared towards the more fortunate in society. Medicines and cures were frequently advertised and they seem so ill informed to us today. Old newspapers – writers had no need for the political correctness we have today and the language is often stilted by modern standards, this is all historical fact. You may be suprised at the amount of scandle in old papers, things haven’t changed much! The politics of the period will appear frequently in old papers and give the researcher a very good idea of the tim
