Saturday, February 22, 2014

OLD NEWSPAPERS IN AUSTRALIA

This is mainly for my Aussie blogger friends although people in other lands may be interested as well. There is a website which contains dozens and dozens of old newspapers and I've been having fun putting in family names and finding all sorts of interesting items.  I found in the "Albany Advertiser" the report of where my folks farmhouse had been destroyed by fire in 1927 (before I came on the scene).  Also where had a bay horse strayed on to their farm and dad had put in an advert seeking the owner, and also where he had written to the Albany Road Board about a bridge etc in his area.

There was also a court report of my brother Len having been fined 40s for 'driving' his motor cycle with inefficient brakes and a further 20s for having no number plates on the motor cycle. I think he would have been about 18 at the time.  (I do know Len used to ride in the speedway so perhaps he was riding his bike in the city when he was caught?  Speedway bikes wouldn't be licensed and possibly wouldn't have normal brakes perhaps?). Actually it seems he got caught a couple of times, the cheeky devil.  There's nobody left to ask about all that now so I will just have to guess.


I've found some other very interesting items about all sorts of people.  If you think you may find something about your friends or family the website is:

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper

The examples above give you some idea of the varied items you could find.  There are of course birth, marriage and death notices.  I found photos of myself I'd forgotten about and one taken on my wedding day in 1953 and amazingly on that same page the photo of Coralie Roberts' wedding.  She was the daughter of one of the families we knew from our annual holidays at Mandurah.  I have a photograph of Coralie and myself (when much younger) rowing a boat on the Mandurah estuary.  So much fun finding so many things from my past, fortunately all of which were good.

It takes a bit of patience at first but you do get used to it and I've found it to be very entertaining. Do let me know if you try it and, if you do, if you find anything of interest to, or about, yourself.

9 comments:

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    1. That is probably 'cos I'm a dodo EC. Check again and you will find it is nla and not nls. Sorry about that. : )

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  2. I'm not sure I'd find anything about my family, maybe my parents divorce notice. I didn't know about divorce at the time, I'd thought that when parents separated, that meant divorced. I learned more when a friend read me the notice from the newspaper when I called in to see if she was ready for school. I was 11 or 12 and until I heard her reading that notice I hadn't cared that mum left, but right then I was a little upset that neither had thought to tell me about the divorce.

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    1. There are birth marriage and death notices River which can be interesting and even exam results if you were musical or the like. Do give it a try and see if you can find anything. You can choose the newspaper you want to check instead of having to wade through dozens of them.
      That is sad about your folks' divorce. When I was 11 or 12 the reason mum told me I was adopted was because she heard of another adopted girl being old by her school friends about her adoption. Obviously parents had been overheard talking and kids can be cruel at times (and so can parents too without perhaps realising it).

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  3. What a great find and how wonderful to be able to discover some family articles.

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    1. I have found some amazing stories and family information. I am still enjoying finding out about family and friends.

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  4. That's fantastic you would spend hours and hours researching, and for free. There's not much free these days xxx Rae

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    1. I have it down to a fine art now Rae and am still finding lots of very interesting 'stuff' some of which has surprised me. xx

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