TheGenealogist launches the First World War issues of The Sphere newspaper and more War Memorials

Disclosure: Please note this post contains affiliate links.

 

Press Release:

TheGenealogist has expanded its Newspaper and Magazine collection with the release of The Sphere that cover August 1914 to June 1919.

Using the Historical newspapers and magazines resource on TheGenealogist enables researchers to follow current affairs that may have affected or concerned our ancestors at the time. Because the articles were written as events were occurring, they provide contemporary accounts of the world that our ancestors lived in and can furnish us with great insights into opinions of the time. In the case of the First World War years, covered by this release of The Sphere, we can gain information about individuals or read about situations that are similar to ones that our ancestors may have found themselves in.

The Sphere on TheGenealogist

The Sphere was an illustrated paper founded by Clement Shorter (1857-1926) who was also responsible for establishing the Tatler and it covered general news stories from the UK and around the world.

 

War Memorials collection

Also being released at this time by TheGenealogist are another 116 War Memorials containing 10,795 names. Included in this batch are a number of Boer War memorials as well as those for the First World War. With this addition the total figure for memorials on

TheGenealogist has now reached 1,540 with 363,838 names.

 

To search these and many other records on TheGenealogist, go to: www.thegenealogist.co.uk

 

 

The Sphere, providing insights into your ancestor’s lives.

I wrote this piece for TheGenealogist to show how I used the Newspaper and Magazines collection to better understand conditions in World War I.

The Sphere 1914 on TheGenealogist

The Sphere December 12 1914 

 

 

I have been looking a little closer into the war exploits of my step-grandfather. I knew that he had joined the Royal Engineers Special Reserve Motor Cyclist Division as a despatch rider but, like many of his generation that fought in the First World War, he didn’t talk much about his experiences. What I did know was that he had found it ‘quite exciting’ to ride his despatches from headquarters to the front and back on a motorbike. He never expanded on this and certainly didn’t tell us stories about his escapades, nor what it was like to be a soldier on two wheels.

 

With the recent release of copies of The Sphere, on TheGenealogist, I was thus fascinated to come across the December 12 1914 edition of the publication. Here was an article about motorcycle despatch riders from the early part of the war. This day’s publication featured a double page evocative image of a motor-cycle despatch rider on his machine fleeing with the enemy on his tail. As I knew that my step-grandfather was in his late twenties at the time and a keen motorcycle rider I could imagine him reading pieces such as this and wanting to join up to the R.E. Motor Cyclists to ‘do his bit’.

 

I know that Grandpa also served in the western theatre of war and so this image and the report that followed, resonated with me. I could now imagine him in similar situations as had been described and pictured in the newspaper. In this particular article from the newly released records, the rider telling his story suffers a whole lot of problems: ‘On returning I take the wrong road and my machine gives trouble, and whilst repairing same I suddenly find myself surrounded by Uhlans.’ This narrator is captured, has his hands bound behind his back and he feigns illness. When his guard goes to fetch a doctor the British Tommy escapes by rolling into a ditch. This episode makes me realise that when my step-grandfather said it was ‘quite exciting’ this was probably a bit of an understatement. Their duties were certainly not a simple ride in the countryside.

The Sphere 12 Dec 1914
The Sphere 12 Dec 1914

 

 

The British Army in World War I would often used Douglas or Triumph Motorcycles for despatch riding duties which only had between 2 and 5 hp engines. Some riders, however, brought their own machines along when they joined up. These motorbikes would have to be inspected by the military to make sure that they were suitable for the purpose; but in the early days, when many of the men were volunteers, this would have meant that this section of the Royal Engineers Signals would have been up and running quickly. In my step-grandfather’s case, however, looking at his attestation papers I can see that this part had been scored through –  indicating that he would have had to be issued with an army bike.

 

Later in the First World War Grandpa was wounded and by reading other articles, such as that published on the 9th January 1915 about the RAMC work at the front, I got an understanding for how injured men were transferred in motorised omnibuses and ambulances that were also subject to breakdowns of their own.

 

Resources such as The Sphere, The War Illustrated, The Great War, The Illustrated London News, plus the other historical newspapers and magazines already found on TheGenealogist are great for building a picture of situations that our ancestors may have found themselves in. In some cases we may be lucky enough to find an ancestor actually named in a report – but even when that doesn’t happen we can find write-ups that provide us with an understanding of the wider conditions in which our ancestors worked, played or went to war in.

 

Another use that we can make of this resource is where we have an ancestor who was unfortunate enough to have lost their lives, while serving as an officer in the First World War.  In many editions of The Sphere Rolls of Honour were published. In these we are able to find a picture along with a few lines recording their loss. The Newspaper and Magazine collection is available to all Diamond subscribers of TheGenealogist.

Click here to find out more:

www.thegenealogist.co.uk

 

 

 

Disclosure: Compensated affiliate links are used in this post.

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Newspapers From Overseas now on Findmypast

 

125 million newspaper articles added to findmypast.co.uk

Now you probably know by now just how much I like finding ancestors in newspapers. I’ve written several posts on the subject!

So you can imagine how extremely pleased I was to get this message …

 

“We wanted to share with you the new and exciting developments at findmypast. This month we have released 125 million new worldwide newspaper articles added to findmypast.co.uk

Leading family history website findmypast.co.uk has dramatically increased the size of their newspaper offering and begun their first coverage of several new nations with 120 million newspaper articles from all over the world spanning from 1753-2012. Paul Yates, Head of findmypast.co.uk, commented on the new release: This amazing collection of newspapers from around the globe will enable our customers to discover the fascinating stories of their overseas ancestors for the first time. This great addition to the website complements perfectly the millions of existing British newspapers, which our customers love and are already available on findmypast.co.uk.

Full details of the records contained in this release are as follows:

4,322,702 Canadian newspaper articles 1872-2012
  144,845 Chinese newspaper articles 1850-1926
  1,019 Danish newspaper articles 1884-1936
  54,361 French newspaper articles 1848-1979
  573,759 German newspaper articles 1948-1999
  1,304,344 Jamaican newspaper articles 1834-2012
  589,460 Japanese newspaper articles 1920-1999
  560 South African newspaper articles 1904-1945
  119,462,212 million American newspaper articles 1753-2012

These records can be searched here and can be viewed with PayAsYouGo credits or a World subscription.

The records are also available on all findmypast sites.

 

I hope that you find some of your ancestors in one of theses collections.

Happy ancestor hunting!

 

Disclosure: The above links are compensated affiliate links which may mean I get compensated should you click on them and take out a subscription to Findmypast.

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Found My Ancestors in the Newspapers!

I’m travelling back home today from a trip to a part of the country that some of my ancestors once lived in. On my visit I have been to Reading and Gloucestershire and seen the towns that various of my forebears lived.

While in my hotel room, however, I decided to take another look at the online British Newspaper Archive. I was really pleased to see that The Cheltenham Looker On is now available on The British Newspaper Archive up to 1920! This, they say, is rather like an historical Hello Magazine.  Imagine my delight to find that my Cheltenham based ancestors appeared in the comings and goings of this paper with several mentions of where and when they were leaving on a trip or returning to their house!

Talking of coming and going, I have to rush now to catch a train!

If you are interested to see if you can trace your own ancestors in the pages of historical British Newspapers then click the box below. The British Newspaper Archive have just added several more titles and are doing so all the time. You never know what you may find!



Disclosure:Compensated Affiliate Links used above.

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ConnectedHistories.org, a Usefull Tool For Research.

Here is a new resource that would seem to be quite a useful tool for doing historical research.

www.conectedhistories.org on screenwww.connectedhistories.org brings together several important resources to search from one place. I can see how it could be used to track down records and to also fill in some background knowledge for people researching their ancestors, even though some of the records are not specifically aimed at family historians.

Including more than two billion words that have been recorded in documents ranging from the 1500s and the start of the 20th century, it has been created by the universities of Hertfordshire, London and Sheffield, taking them 18 months to complete.

While it doesn’t provide online access to any new records, it does allow a researcher to make connections
between multiple data sets that were previously only available separately. One of its good points is that it
makes it easier to track down the names and locations of people who are in records and who, previously,
would have needed to search for using keywords on the websites that it now accesses.

Connectedhistories intends to grow with a major update scheduled for later in the year when the British
Library will upload 65,000 books and thousands of 19th century pamphlets. Currently, with a single search, you gain access to… British History Online, British Museum Images, British Newspapers 1600-1900, Charles Booth Archive, House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera, John Strype’s Survey of London Online, London Lives 1690-1800, the Origins.net and The Proceedings of the Old Bailey Online 1674-1913.

While some of the providers are subscription sites, you do get access to brief extracts from them without
needing a subscription and so this is a useful feature. I shall be looking forward to the update later in the year from Connectedhistories.org.

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