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Newspaper Archives

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  • 20-07-2017 9:10am
    #1
    Whereisgerry?
    Registered Users Posts: 166 ✭✭


    I am currently looking for death notices for relatives in North Dublin (around Drumcondra) and for North county Dublin (Cloughran - near the airport) between the years of 1880 - 1940. Whats my best way of approaching this? Local library? Is there a website that I could join? I'm on ancestry but can't find much.


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    #2
    Hermy
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 11,313 Mod ✭✭✭✭Hermy


    The Irish News Archive is probably your best bet followed by Find My Past which are both freely available in many libraries.

    Genealogy Forum Mod



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    #3
    pinkypinky
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 6,622 Mod ✭✭✭✭pinkypinky


    The British News Archive is on Find My Past but I find their search engine terrible.

    And while the Irish News Archive is available in libraries, with the exception of in the NLI, they can be unaware of its availability & it displays poorly in Internet Explorer. €10 for a 24 hour sub can be done from home.

    Genealogy Forum Mod



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    #4
    Hermy
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 11,313 Mod ✭✭✭✭Hermy


    I like with the Find My Past search that you can search exclusively for family notices.

    Genealogy Forum Mod



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    #5
    KildareFan
    Registered Users Posts: 683 ✭✭✭KildareFan


    The search engines are patchy and don't always throw up the results you know are there.

    Findmypast archives only go up to the early 1900s for most newspapers. Irish News Archives go up to recent editions. If you're using Irish News Archives, when searching it helps to put "surname<and>funeral", or "surname<and>regretted" or variants thereof into the search window.

    If you have a date of death it is often best to use the browse function to select the newspapers published a couple of days after the death. In the earlier editions the Irish Independent published death notices on page 1, but after the 1940s you have to dig around inside the paper to find the Births/Marriages/Deaths....

    Another thing I've found is that different families used different newspapers to make announcements - the more upwardly mobile used the Irish Times, some used the Irish Independent or Irish Press only [perhaps depending on political leanings], some used both [maybe they had a wider circle of friends], some used the Evening Herald [only Dubliners need apply], some had to use the Sunday Independent if the death occurred on a Saturday, some lousers wouldn't bother to put a notice in at all especially if the wide circle of friends and close relatives had dwindled to a couple of tight firsted nieces and nephews....


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    #6
    Whereisgerry?
    Registered Users Posts: 166 ✭✭Whereisgerry?


    Thanks for your help guys. There was 30% off Irish news archives so I signed up for a month.


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    #7
    spurious
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 27,130 CMod ✭✭✭✭spurious


    Whereisgerry? wrote: »
    Thanks for your help guys. There was 30% off Irish news archives so I signed up for a month.

    It's one of those resources you try and justify the expense with.
    I'm not in a position to afford to renew at the moment, but I know I probably will eventually, especially if there is a discount for an annual sub. It is a little expensive for me to have it on my 'can't do without' list.


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    #8
    L1011
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 67,833 Mod ✭✭✭✭L1011


    The OCR on old papers is woeful - the films are poor, the fonts are not designed for OCR like modern ones are and in some cases the papers they were filmed from are in tatters. I figured out a few common mis-OCRs of my mothers rare maiden name (from looking at the OCR variations when the same surname was in an article repeatedly) and found a large amount of further content as a result. Mostly ads which helped push dates back on a family shop.

    In general anything from the era of moveable type should probably be transcribed not OCRed but nobody has the resources for that. Targetted transcription programmes for BMD columns would be a huge help but the archives have good reason not to enable that as that's a major reason people subscribe!


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    #9
    KildareFan
    Registered Users Posts: 683 ✭✭✭KildareFan


    The Australian newspapers have been transcribed from OCR and allow for edits and corrections.... sometimes Australian newspapers report Irish events - see http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/?q=


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    #10
    tabbey
    Registered Users Posts: 1,943 ✭✭✭tabbey


    KildareFan wrote: »
    The Australian newspapers have been transcribed from OCR and allow for edits and corrections.... sometimes Australian newspapers report Irish events - see http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/?q=

    Trove is one of the best websites for the English speaking world.

    Even when I am not searching the Trove site, but just googling, Trove will oten come up first when searching an Irish matter, even a book that is in the NLI.


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    #11
    Whereisgerry?
    Registered Users Posts: 166 ✭✭Whereisgerry?


    KildareFan wrote: »
    The Australian newspapers have been transcribed from OCR and allow for edits and corrections.... sometimes Australian newspapers report Irish events - see http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/?q=

    Kilfare fan,

    I think you read my mind. I found my first obituary on Irish news archives and it weirdly says "copy obituary to Australian newspapers"!! God knows who moved to Oz but Trove here I come! Thanks for your advice.


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    #12
    Whereisgerry?
    Registered Users Posts: 166 ✭✭Whereisgerry?


    KildareFan wrote: »
    The Australian newspapers have been transcribed from OCR and allow for edits and corrections.... sometimes Australian newspapers report Irish events - see http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/?q=

    Kilfare fan,

    I think you read my mind. I found my first obituary on Irish news archives and it weirdly says "copy obituary to Australian newspapers"!! God knows who moved to Oz but Trove here I come! Thanks for your advice.


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    #13
    Artdeco30
    Registered Users Posts: 82 ✭✭Artdeco30


    KildareFan wrote: »

    Another thing I've found is that different families used different newspapers to make announcements - the more upwardly mobile used the Irish Times, some used the Irish Independent or Irish Press only [perhaps depending on political leanings], some used both [maybe they had a wider circle of friends], some used the Evening Herald [only Dubliners need apply], some had to use the Sunday Independent if the death occurred on a Saturday, some lousers wouldn't bother to put a notice in at all especially if the wide circle of friends and close relatives had dwindled to a couple of tight firsted nieces and nephews....

    I enjoyed reading this - very evocative!


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