Week 6: Social Media #52Ancestorsin52weeks

In the future, our descendants will have access to a wealth of information about us and the sort of life we led from the internet and from our use of social media. But how can we find out information about our ancestors, the type of information not recorded on official records or censuses?

Very simply, by researching and viewing the ‘social media’ of our ancestors’ day - newspapers. From big events to local gossip, that’s where everything was chronicled.

The British Newspaper Archives have newspapers from the 1700s-2000s online. That’s where I found and read a murder trial report from the High Court in Edinburgh in the Scottish Chronicle dated June 1811. The murder victim was my 3 x great grandfather, Alexander McAra. The defendant was his brother, James, my 3 x great uncle.

The report goes into great detail. The circumstances leading up to the offence, graphic detail of the ‘attack’, the witnesses’ statements, the judge’s summation and verdict. Much more detail than we would get for the report of a trial in today’s newspapers.

(Source: The British Newspaper Archives)

A really interesting, but quite horrific, read – when you realise this actually happened to your ancestors. These brothers were real people and the account given makes them so much more than just names on a family tree. It puts skin on their bones.

More recently, newspapers.com. which gives similar access to USA newspapers, was really helpful in research I was doing for a friend. An obituary notice from 1978 in the Minneapolis Star, gave names and locations of family members attending a funeral. Other articles showed that the family was very active in the community, attending many local events.

Our ancestors might not have recorded their lives on Facebook and Instagram, but aspects of their lives may be waiting for you to find in their local newspapers.

Comments

2025 Week 26 : Favourite name #52Ancestorsin52Weeks

As well as researching my own family, one of the other trees I have spent a lot of time on is that of my daughter-in-law, Lucy. Whereas my heritage is Scots and Irish, Lucy's is English and therefore some of the names I came across were quite different to those found in my own tree. One of my first favourites was a Francis Badger who appeared in the 1851 census for England! He wasn't actually a relative, but an apprentice to Lucy's 3 x great grandfather and who also lodged with the family. I did wonder how that surname came about - did the original Badger have a funnily shaped face? or perhaps a white streak through his hair?? Or was he just an annoying person?? I'll never know, but it was fun to find him! Francis Badger's entry at the bottom in the 1851 census for England. Source: Ancestry.co.uk However, my all time favourite name - and character - from Lucy's tree is a man named Golden Bridge ! He is Lucy's 5x great grandfather and he was born in Essex...

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A few years ago, I came into the possession of a family bible. It was the family bible of my paternal grandparents, John McAra and Christina Walker. Until her death in 2018, the bible had been in the hands of my Aunt Inez, widow of my Uncle Will McAra. When I started enquiring as to its whereabouts, I found that it was her grandson, John, who now had it. John himself had no real interest in it at all, so he was quite happy to hand it over to me. However, it was, to say the least, in a bit of a state. The front cover was completely detached and there were many loose pages as the spine of the book was also damaged and detached. I had no choice but to take it to a book repairer in Glasgow, where it was repaired as best it could be. The bible itself had been originally published in Glasgow in the late 19th century. In Victorian times it was common for Christian families to have such a large bible in which they could record events such as births, marriages and deaths. The one I have al...

2026 Week 2: A record which adds colour #52Ancestorsin52Weeks

My husband's paternal grandmother, Janina Ciupka, was born in 1902 in a small town, Nieszawa, north of Warsaw, Poland, on the banks of the River Vistula. She was the youngest of 12 children, only 8 of whom survived to adulthood. At this time Poland had been occupied by their three neighbours, Germany, Russia and Austria and Warsaw was under Russian control. Her family were very wealthy, owning granaries, bakeries, brick factories and carriage factories and they also bred white horses for the Russian Tzars. As with her elder siblings, Janina was taught by a private governess and the family had many servants, including cooks and cleaners. She obviously was leading a very privileged life. There was little known about the period of her life from about 1909-1919, The family had moved south eastwards to Haczow around 1909. The reasons for the move seems to have been a combination of business and politics, as Haczow was under Austrian rule, considered more liberal than that of the ...

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