Very few of us go through our lives without a
mention in a newspaper. It may only be a short
announcement of a birth, marriage or death, but
we may have done something noteworthy, which may
have been noticed in the local press - winning a
cup at the local horticultural show, a sporting
event at school, or a report on the local WI
meeting.
It wasn't until the 1870s and 1880s that local
news included everything, from Sunday school
outings and garden fetes, to local concerts and
horticultural shows. These can be a real treasure
trove. Coroner's inquests can be another useful
source of information, as the inquest is always
noted on the death certificate, and inquests were
usually reported in the local press. Once you
have established the date of death of an ancestor
it is always worthwhile to consider a search in
local newspapers. However, searching old
newspapers can be very frustrating and time
consuming as the majority remain unindexed.
Not surprisingly there was a vast increase in
the number of local newspapers during the
nineteenth century, as stamp duty was lifted and
literacy improved. So finding which newspaper
covered any particular area of the County can be
difficult: it is easy to assume that a Reading
newspaper only covers Reading, when in fact it
may report news for a large surrounding area.
Some titles were only published for short periods
of time and it is only too easy to ignore a
newspaper that may be vital in your search.
The three principal locations of local
newspaper sources are the British Library
Newspaper Library (Colindale Avenue, London NW9 5HE
tele: 020 7412 7353); the County Local Studies
Library and associated reference libraries (both
Reading and Oxford libraries have substantial
collections of Berkshire newspapers); and
backfires in the offices of surviving papers.
At Colindale and other libraries be prepared
to use microfilm copies. Colindale can be reached
on the Northern Line and it is open from Monday
to Saturday loam to 4.45Pm. A reader's pass is
necessary, but it can be obtained on the day if
you can show some kind of identification: a
driver's licence or passport is acceptable.
Copies of individual pages or articles may be
ordered at a reasonable rate. Earlier this year
the Colindale catalogue went on line so now it is
possible to log on to prodigi.bl.uk/nlcat/
to find details of newspapers held by the Library.
You may search by title, place, or date. Each hit
then links via the title of the publication to a
page giving the catalogue reference numbers and
dates held. Details are also given where a
publication continues under another title. When
typing in place or county watch out for the local
government changes in 1974. The other main
collections in England are with the Bodleian
Library at Oxford, and the University Library,
Cambridge.
As well as local newspapers most libraries
have copies of The Times on microfilm and
Palmer's Index and the Official Index to The
Times can be used to identify local stories that
may have reached the national press. Both
Palmer's and the Official index are available on
CD-ROM.
One final point; do not forget the many
magazines devoted to life in Berkshire, from
football to the more learned Reading Review. Also
some local studies libraries have compiled
indexes and keep cuttings collections of people
and places. Reading Local Studies Library has an
excellent collection of newspaper cuttings some
of which are more than 60 years old.
Bibliography:
General
British Library, Catalogue of the Newspaper
Library, Colindale (1975), Vol. 1 London, Vol. 2
England and Wales
British Museum, Tercentenary Handlist of
English and Welsh Newspapers, Magazines and
Reviews (1920, facsimile 1966)
Chapman, Colin, An Introduction to Using
Newspapers and Periodicals (1993)
Gibson, J.S.W., Local Newspapers 1750-1920: a
select location list (1987)
Steel, D.J., The National Index of Parish
Registers, Vol. 1: General Sources for Births,
Marriages and Deaths before 1837 (1976)
Guides to Local Newspapers
Bluhm, R.K. (ed), Bibliography of British
Newspapers: Wiltshire (1975)
Burton, K.G., The Early Newspaper Press in
Berkshire 1723-1855 (1954). Includes lists of
early newspapers from Oxfordshire, Wiltshire,
Hampshire and Buckinghamshire, and of Berkshire
papers 1855-1900.
Edwards, F.A., 'A list of Hampshire
Newspapers', The Hampshire Antiquary and
Naturalist, i. pp. 94-98 (1891)
Using Local Newspapers
Catt, J., 'Sources for Local Newspaper
History', Local Historian, Vol. 16 No. 8 (1985)
Elliott, B.J., 'The Problems of Indexing a
Local Newspaper', Local Historian, Vol. 14 No. 3
(1980)
Lueas, P., 'Sources for Urban History (9):
Local Newspapers' Local IIistorian, Vol. 11, No.
6 (1975)
MeLaughlin, E., 'Family History from
Newspapers' (1987)
MaeMahon, K.A., 'Local History and the
Newspaper', Amateur Historian, Vol. 5 No. 7 (1961)
Local Studies Based on Newspapers
Childs, W.M., 'The Town of Reading during the
early part of the 19th century' (19 10)
Townsend, J., 'News of the Country Town',
Abingdon 1914)
