Guide to Online Newspaper Archives - My piece in Family Tree Magazine UK

Family Tree Magazine  UK Jan 2017  OUT NOW

Guide to Newspaper Archives Online 
by Ruth A. Symes

#news #newspapers #press #familyhistoryresearch #searchmyancestry #newspaperarticles #britishnewspaperarchive

Competition Winner Announced! Tracing Ancestors Through Letters and Personal Writings

And the winner of the TELEGRAM FROM YOUR ANCESTOR COMPETITION is: 

M. Diane Rogers (President at the Vancouver Postcard Club)


for her entry:


 'Lift my old trunk's lining [Stop] Love Great-Grandma [Stop]'

Well done Diane!


A copy of my book Tracing Ancestors Through Letters and Personal Writings will be on its way to you tomorrow!

Thanks to all the other entrants. Follow this blog (by entering your email address in the right-hand column) for more competitions and genealogy news!

Winner Of Competition To Be Announced Later Today - Tracing Ancestors Through Letters And Personal Writings

Winner Of Competition To Be Announced Later Today

Competition Time! - Win a Copy of Tracing Ancestors Through Letters and Personal Writing

Win a copy of my new book:

Tracing Ancestors Through Letters and Personal Writings (Pen and Sword, 2016)

Write a telegram from your ancestor to you (8 words max).

Send via the comments box on this blog or message me through twitter @RuthASymes or Facebook: Searchmyancestry.

Example: 'Ignore birth certificate [Stop] Check DNA [Stop] Great-grandfather'
Winner drawn 21 December

#ancestry #ancestors #familyhistory #familytree #familyhistorybooks #familyhistorygifts #wdytya #ruthasymes #genealogy

Search My Ancestry: Search My Ancestry: Search My Ancestry: Search My ...

Last Day to Send in Your Entries

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Search My Ancestry: Search My Ancestry: Search My Ancestry: Competitio...

Search My Ancestry: Search My Ancestry: Search My Ancestry: Competitio...: Search My Ancestry: Search My Ancestry: Competition Time - Win a Copy ... : Search My Ancestry: Competition Time - Win a Copy of Tracing Anc...

Search My Ancestry: Search My Ancestry: Competition Time - Win a Copy ...

Search My Ancestry: Search My Ancestry: Competition Time - Win a Copy ...: Search My Ancestry: Competition Time - Win a Copy of Tracing Ancestors... : Competition Time! - Win a Copy of Tracing Ancestors Through Lett...

JUST OUT

Tracing Ancestors Through Letters and Personal Writing (Pen and Sword, 2016)

http://bit.ly/2gIgnz8

Could your ancestors write their own names or did they mark official documents with a cross? Why did great-grandfather write so cryptically on a postcard home during the First World War? Why did great-grandmother copy all the letters she wrote into letter-books? How unusual was it that great-uncle sat down and wrote a poem, or a memoir? Researching Family History Through Ancestors' Personal Writings looks at the kinds of (mainly unpublished) writing that could turn up amongst family papers from the Victorian period onwards - a time during which writing became crucial for holding families together and managing their collective affairs. With industrialisation, improved education, and far more geographical mobility, British people of all classes were writing for new purposes, with new implements, in new styles, using new modes of expression and new methods of communication (e.g. telegrams and postcards). Our ancestors had an itch for scribbling from the most basic marks (initials, signatures and graffiti on objects as varied as trees, rafters and window ledges), through more emotionally-charged kinds of writing such as letters and diaries, to more creative works such as poetry and even fiction. This book shows family historians how to get the most out of documents written by their ancestors and, therefore, how better to understand the people behind the words.

http://bit.ly/2gIgnz8

                                                                                     http://bit.ly/2gIgnz8

#ancestry #ancestors #familyhistory #familytree #familyhistorybooks #familyhistorygifts #wdytya #ruthasymes #genealogy #letters #personalwriting #autobiography #poetry #graffiti #postcards #greetingscards #diaries #appointmentdiaries #signatures #traveljournals #commonplacebooks #telegrams

Search My Ancestry: Search My Ancestry: Competition Time - Win a Copy ...

Search My Ancestry: Search My Ancestry: Competition Time - Win a Copy ...: Search My Ancestry: Competition Time - Win a Copy of Tracing Ancestors... : Competition Time! - Win a Copy of Tracing Ancestors Through Lett...

Search My Ancestry: Competition Time - Win a Copy of Tracing Ancestors...

Search My Ancestry: Competition Time - Win a Copy of Tracing Ancestors...: Competition Time! - Win a Copy of Tracing Ancestors Through Letters and Personal Writing Win a copy of my new book: Tracing Ancestor...

Competition Time - Win a Copy of Tracing Ancestors Through Letters and Personal Writing

Competition Time! - Win a Copy of Tracing Ancestors Through Letters and Personal Writing

Win a copy of my new book:

Tracing Ancestors Through Letters and Personal Writings (Pen and Sword, 2016)

Write a telegram from your ancestor to you (8 words max).

Send via the comments box on this blog or message me through twitter @RuthASymes or Facebook: Searchmyancestry.

Example: 'Ignore birth certificate [Stop] Check DNA [Stop] Great-grandfather'
Winner drawn 21 December

                                               Click here for more on books by Ruth A. Symes (UK)

                                         Click here for more on books by Ruth A. Symes USA

Click here for a complete article on how your ancestors decorated for Christmas

Click here for a complete article on Christmas pudding and your ancestors

For more daily Christmas tips from your ancestors follow this blog (by putting your email address into the box in the right hand column). For tips that have already been posted, scroll through the blog!

#ancestors #ancestors #ancestryhour #familyhistory #familytree #ideasforchristmasfromyourancestors #wdytya #ruthasymes #genealogy #letters #personalwritings #telegrams #greetingscards #postcards #marginalia #graffiti #diaries #appointmentdiaries #commonplacebooks #autobiographies #memoirs #selfhistories #poetry #poems #letterbooks #traveljournals

How to Trace Ancestors Through Letters and Personal Writings - On Family Tree Magazine UK Blog

See my 'how-to' article on how to trace ancestors through letters and other personal writings on the blog of :

Family Tree Magazine UK


Read the magazine blog article here

 Learn more about my new book and buy it by clicking here

Don't forget to enter your email address in the box on the right to follow this blog!

For women's history and social history books - competitive prices and a great service - visit:

Naomi Symes Books

Tracing Ancestors Through Letters and Personal Writings OUT NOW AND AVAILABLE TO BUY

Tracing Ancestors Through Letters and Personal Writings, by Ruth A. Symes (Pen and Sword Books, 2016)


JUST OUT

Buy book by clicking here

Could your ancestors write their own names or did they mark official documents with a cross? Why did great-grandfather write so cryptically on a postcard home during the First World War? Why did great-grandmother copy all the letters she wrote into letter-books? How unusual was it that great-uncle sat down and wrote a poem, or a memoir?

Tracing Ancestors Through Letters and Personal Writings looks at the kinds of (mainly unpublished) writing that could turn up amongst family papers from the Victorian period onwards - a time during which writing became crucial for holding families together and managing their collective affairs.

With industrialisation, improved education, and far more geographical mobility, British people of all classes were writing for new purposes, with new implements, in new styles, using new modes of expression and new methods of communication (e.g. telegrams and postcards). Our ancestors had an itch for scribbling from the most basic marks (initials, signatures and graffiti on objects as varied as trees, rafters and window ledges), through more emotionally-charged kinds of writing such as letters and diaries, to more creative works such as poetry and even fiction.

This book shows family historians how to get the most out of documents written by their ancestors and, therefore, how better to understand the people behind the words.

Buy book by clicking here

Click here to find out more about this book and others by 

Ruth A. Symes

Don't forget to enter your email address in the box on the right to follow this blog!

#ancestors #ancestors #ancestryhour #familyhistory #familytree #ideasforchristmasfromyourancestors #wdytya #ruthasymes #genealogy #letters #personalwritings #telegrams #greetingscards #postcards #marginalia #graffiti #diaries #appointmentdiaries #commonplacebooks #autobiographies #memoirs #selfhistories #poetry #poems #letterbooks #traveljournals

Search My Ancestry: Search My Ancestry: Competition Time! - Win a Copy...

Search My Ancestry: Search My Ancestry: Competition Time! - Win a Copy...: Competition Time Win a copy of my new book: Tracing Ancestors Through Letters and Personal Writings   (Pen and Sword, 2016)  Write a te..

Don't forget to enter your email address in the box on the right to follow this blog!

Search My Ancestry: Competition Time! - Win a Copy of Tracing Ancestor...

Competition Time

Win a copy of my new book: Tracing Ancestors Through Letters and Personal Writings  (Pen and Sword, 2016) 

Write a telegram from your ancestor.to you (8 words max).

Send via the comments box on this blog or message me through twitter @RuthASymes or Facebook: Searchmyancestry.

Winner drawn 21 December

Click here for more on books by Ruth A. Symes


Don't forget to enter your email address in the box on the right to follow this blog!

Competition Time! - Win a Copy of Tracing Ancestors Through Letters and Personal Writing

Win a copy of my new book:

Tracing Ancestors Through Letters and Personal Writings (Pen and Sword, 2016)

Write a telegram from your ancestor to you (8 words max).

Send via the comments box on this blog or message me through twitter @RuthASymes or Facebook: Searchmyancestry.

Winner drawn 21 December

Click here for more on books by Ruth A. Symes

Don't forget to enter your email address in the box on the right to follow this blog!

#ancestry #ancestors #familyhistory #familytree #wdytya #ruthasymes # familyhistorybooks  #familyhistorygifts #tracingancestorsthroughlettersandpersonalwritings

Ideas for Christmas From Your Ancestors - 9 - Decorate Your Doorway!

Deck Your Lintels!

‘Downstairs young hands are decking mantles, shelf and doorway with evergreens, and nimble fingers are twisting and twining the berried holly into a crown -a crown for the [New Year],’ Dundee Evening Telegraph, 31^st December 1889. 


For a complete article on how your ancestors decorated for Christmas

Click here for more on books by Ruth A. Symes

Don't forget to enter your email address in the box on the right to follow this blog!

'Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim' by Fred Barnard. 1870s photogravure. Frontispiece, Dickens's A Christmas Carol. Wikimedia Commons.

#ancestors #genealogy #familyhistorybooks #familyhistorygifts #ancestry #ruthasymes #wdytya