UK Newspaper Digitization, and Indexing

In a GENBRIT Rootsweb posting Hugh Watkins draws attention to the free online Cambrian Index database. It contains close to 400,000 entries for birth, marriage and death, most of them extracted from The Cambrian which claims to be the first newspaper published in Wales, and covers the major part of the nineteenth century. There are also entries from The South Wales Daily Post and the Western Mail.

Watkins' post was commenting on a new set of databases from the "Gale Group" which came online 22 October. The 19th Century British Library Newspapers contains full runs of 48 influential national and regional newspapers including the Birmingham Daily Post (1857-1900). Liverpool Mercury (1811-1900) and Glasgow Herald (1820-1900). For those with black sheep grazing in the family tree, or their victims, the collection includes the Illustrated Police News (1867-1900). A full list of titles and coverage is here.

Those of us outside the UK are shut out of access at present. Put a trip to a local university on your list of things to do on your next visit. Supposedly it's available to all further and higher education UK institutions.