Genealogy Chat

When you are bored and can't sleep why not get out all the old newspaper reports you have and see whether there are any other stories that might be of interest to someone else on this site. I have just one page of the Bucks Advertiser 1857 and there are tons of little petty theft reports that most of us would never find otherwise. I have just added all the names mentioned to the for who we are looking Bucks thread and hope that other people will do the same.

There are often several other names included on parish register printouts too. I have contacted someone on this site about an unusual name ( for that village) on a burial one. She was able to pinpoint the death registration in the GRO index and order the certificate.

i go to my local studies library every saturday, whether i have anything to look up or not, having come to a stop on my research, i started going through my local news papers, starting at 1840, and have found a few interesting court cases involving rellies, but also as you say there are hundreds of other interesting cases, petty theft to murder trials, drownings, accidents etc, one thing i have found though, making notes of names in court cases, then going back, even a few months to the nearest census, over half the names do not apppear on the census of that year or any other, i am begining to think there was a large under class that never ever put there name on a census, so what chance you would have of tracing these people are slim.

I had the same idea a few years ago, which led me to set up an Obituary Exchange. You can view it at www.ukancestor(.)co(.)uk

Thanks for this site Dan. Next time I get a free moment I will add some names. I don't suppose you could add a section for news stories such as theft and asssault etc and make them searchable by county as well? Lyla

Hi Lyla, I have made some changes - the stories are now arranged by county as you suggested (which ties in better with the rest of the site). Take a look at Middlesex for an example. I did have a separate section for general news stories (Extracts and Transcriptions), but it has been offline since I updated the site, some time ago - I’ll get that back up when I have time - or I may merge it with the Obituary exchange. Dan.

Lyla I have a book 'Daily Life in Bromley and Neighbourhood 1858-1900' The author has extracted news from the local paper. It is a fascinating insight into life at the time, and there are references to one of the families I have researched. If I have time to spare I will try and extract some of the names and see if they are relevant to people here. Dee xx

Thanks Dan, I will keep a look out and add my petty crimes when you are up and running again. Dee - I don't suppose the Flewers and Wood families are mentioned in your book?

Just to let you know, I’ve made “Police and Crime”, a category within the Obituary Exchange (makes more sense that newspaper stories be kept together). Any newspaper story that doesn’t fit into the other categories can go under “Miscellaneous”. I’ve moved the police stories that I had previously added, into this category. Thanks, Dan.