As of today, two exciting new databases have been launched at the State Library just in time for National Family History Week.
17th & 18th Century Burney Collection
This collection has nearly 1 million pages of digitised rare 17th and 18th century material published in Britain and the colonies including pamphlets, broadsides and newspapers.
19th Century British Library Newspapers
This database consists of over 2 million pages of digitised 19th century newspaper titles held in the British Library. Newspapers are from all over Britain including Ireland, Scotland and Wales as well as England.
British Newspapers 1600 – 1900
Select this option to search across the two collections at once.
Because there are so many regional newspapers in the database, you have a very good chance of finding references to your ancestors. Even if you can’t find them mentioned, try searching for the name of their town or village and limiting your search to their lifetime to discover local and national events which may have affected them. These collections will also be of enormous interest to historians. For instance, searching for the keywords “Swan River” results in over 5,000 hits.
You can access the new databases from any public computer within the State Library and they are very simple to use. Next time you’re in the State Library, why not pick up one of our promotional bookmarks and have a go.
For information on the wonderful events we have lined up for Family History Week have a look at our website at www.slwa.wa.gov.au/famhistwk.html
