52 Weeks to Better Genealogy - Challenge #6 - Online Databases

Amy Coffin of We Tree has teamed up with Geneabloggers.com to run a weekly program of genealogical challenges this year - this week it is the turn of online databases, specifically the online databases that might be available to you as part of your ordinary local library subscription.

If you haven't already investigated this I do recommend it. I'm in Auckland, New Zealand, but have access to a number of very useful UK databases from the comfort of my own home. It's a wonderful thing to see my rates dollars at work supplying me with genealogical goodies via the Auckland City Library!

You can see a list of what's available to me here. Key for me are the newspapers - British Library Newspapers! The Times! The Guardian! I could also check out The Scotsman or Irish Times if I had any ancestors from there - although now I think about it, checking the Irish one for any signs of the Irish boxer I found boarding with one of my London families in the 1911 census might be worth a shot....

I don't have any ancestors that came to NZ (my parents in the early 1970s doesn't really count for the purposes of this exercise) but if you have branches of your tree that came to New Zealand the majority of the NZ databases at the Auckland City Libary website are free for everyone to search. Are there any good finds at your local library website that are free for everyone worldwide to use? Do post a comment and let us know!

PS - if you are doing searches of newspaper databases that throw up a lot of entries, it's a really really good idea to keep track of exactly which search phrases you used and which years you have looked at so far. And a really really really good idea not to lose that file or piece of paper. I know of which I speak - I still can't bring myself to restart my meanderings through the Times database looking for Wing Bucks/Ascott Bucks/Burcott Bucks/Crafton Bucks/Littleworth Bucks.