Genealogy Chat

If anyone has been to the archives at Colindale I would appreciate any information about what can be found there and any tips on getting the most from a visit. Do you have to have the exact date of a newspaper or is it easy to 'browse'? thanks

The following website will give you all the holdings. You can order up to 3 items online before you go so that you can go straight to the desk snd ask for the ones ordered. This saves some time at the beginning. I have used the Nespaper Library many many times and have found so much that has added to my tree. There are Irish newspapers as well as New York Times and all the British newspapers to include Scotland and Wales. You need some form of ID to be able to get a Library ticket that lasts about 3 years and also lets you into the British Library. Take own food and drink. There is a place to eat but little to buy. You leave your bags on entry and only allowed pencils/a clear Plastic bag with a few bits of paper. Be careful of your handbag if you take it in with you, keep it with you at all times. It can be cold so take an extra jumper. If it is a very hot day outside it is bliss working inside the library. There is plenty of room inside the library but parking is dreadful! No browsing until you have actually got the newspaper then its all browsing! So you need to know what year to order up. You can browse the New York Times Indexes whilst waiting but that may not be helpful to you. Bring something to read in the beginning as not a lot to look at whilst waiting for your papers. Make sure you put in your 3 orders so you always have plenty to do. There are still some actual newspapers but much of it is on microfilm these days and printing off the reader can be a little daunting and not very good photocopies either. Using the printer yourself cost 75p and often poor quality. If you get them to do it for you it can be quite costly but much better quality. The staff are mainly helpful but when they are rushed, which does seem to be always these days, they do not always spring to your rescue! Suggest you take a friend, especially one who can help you set up your Reader! I was there about a month ago and spent quite a bit of time helping others to work the Microfilm Readers! It is probably a good idea to have some real reason for accessing newspapers to get the most out of a trip. Some people use it for finding marriages/obituaries which can be goldmines. Others use the papers for finding accidents/ unusual deaths and coronors/Inquests Reports, which may hit the headlines, but for this you do need an approximate year otherwise it could be daunting. I am using it at present for projects. I have 3 on the go. I am researching 1940's and 1950's Devon/Cornwall and I have also found Irish Newspapers, giving me much background info on the county of my interest. I am also researching for letters that a Great Uncle wrote to one of the Irish Newspapers in the 1850's. Hope this gives you some ideas and tips for research at Colindale, good luck. I usually get there early and am usually the last one to leave! www(.)b(l.)uk/catalogues/newspapers.html Janet

Hi Julie. first the practical side. - 1. Parking is limited. If you need to park, you should get therte close to 10:00 when it opens. It's very close to Colindale underground station if you prefer that method of transport. 2. You will need to obtain a reader' s card. No problem - they issue them for the day, but if you expect to go there regularly, if you give good reasons, they will give you an annual one. How it works. -- You have to fill in request forms for the papers you want. These you take to a counter, and they go to find them for you. You ocuupy a desk which is numbered, and they bring them to that desk. You can do other things in the meantime, so have something to fill the time - they may take 20 minutes plus. The requests need the newspaper name (they can be a bit pedantic if you get it wrong. You also give the dates you want, as accurately as you can. Most weeklies are in folders covering a whole year. Dailies may be only 3 months. You can only have four requests at a time, so get a supply of forms so that you can give them another as soon as you finish with each file. Some papers are filed on paper but a lot are on microfilm particulary London local papers. The microfilm readers are not very friendly. For microfilm, you can print pages yourself. It costs about 72p and you have to obtain a card from reception to put into the printer. From paper, you can request copies of pages - a bit more expensive and they take about a week. They are done opn a scanner and quality is not too bad. Preparation- you can search the newspaper catalogue online to find out what papers they have - by date and location. If you do this before you go, you can fill in the requests as soon as you get there. I think you may be able to pre-order by email and have them waiting for you. If so, that could save your time. You can also search the catalogue when you are there. web site is http://www(.)bl(.)uk/collections/newspapers(.)html ** remove brackets from this. There are reference books available and some books of info - indexes to some papers. Remember that you can search the Times and the London Gazette online without going to Colindale. Hope that helps, but do come back if you have any questions. Jim

Thank you for all that information - very helpful! We think my grandad may have committed suicide and it may have been reported in the local paper, but not having a death cert. we don't know exact date only know it was late 1913 or 1914 so I'm not sure if information we have will be too vague. But thanks for reply, it's always a bit daunting going somewhere for the first time!!

Newspapers in the past did not have lots of large pictures and adverts. The information is crammed in. The papers are often broadsheet size, so finding what you want can be difficult. Lots of the papers have been filmed and finding the right page on any newspaper can be very hard on the eyes. Take some paracetomol with you. One of my cousins has paid endless visits to Colindale on the strength of a rumour that one of her great aunts commited suicide. Needless to say, she has never found it. If you have a precise date, life is much easier. You can use the catalogue to help you decide which paper to look at. Generally, the smaller the area covered and the more frequently the paper was published, the more likely you are to find a local event. Old newspapers vary amazingly. Some have lots of national and international news. Some are gossipy, some political. It is very easy to get sidetracked, but that can be a plus point. Even if you don't find the person you were looking for, you will have a feeling for what was important in the neighbourhood at the time. Enjoy yourself.

Julie Just to add that I looked for a suicide for 2 years from 1931/1933 in a Glasgow newspaper and could not at first find it. This was mainly because I was looking for this in Glasgow and big cities have many newspapers and I was seraching in the wrong sort of newspaper. Not all the newspapers will report this sort of item so it is a good idea to have some knowledge of which newspaper to look in. For my Glasgow one I contacted Mitchell Library and they gave me a list of a 4 papers that I would probably find helpful. The first newspaper they had given to me gave me all the info I wanted, so if it is a big city I suggest you check with the Library of that City first to see what sort of newspaper would report this sort of item. Janet

Thanks again to everyone. We are ready to try anything as a last resort in tracing my gt grandfather as we have searched the death indexes at FRC and nothing there, checked deaths at sea too. Maybe we'll be lucky but as you say it's still interesting to get a feel of what was going on in the area at the time. By the way it's the Stepney area of London I'm looking at so will try and narrow down the search before I go.

Julie If you don't have an exact date, and no death cert, how do you know it was 1913/14 that he committed suicide? Don't rely on what family tell you. Have you tried finding a burial record? It would be much easier if you have a definite date to look at in the newspapers. nell