Genealogy Chat

The following website is the online archives for The Guardian and Observer Newspapers. search for free and decide which way you want to pay for the information.

http://guardian.co.uk/archive

Janet North London Borders

Yes, free, although the following taken from the site is slightly misleading.


How much does it cost?
Timed pass Price 50% discount until Nov 30 2007
24 hours £7.95 £3.97
Three days £14.95 £7.47
One month* £49.95 £24.97

Janet North London Borders

Well thats a bit naughty!! By the way, does anyone know when these two papers started?

Carole x

The Observer is the oldest Sunday newspaper founded 1791

Manchester Guardian first published 5 may 1821

Janet North London Borders

Nudge for everyone to see
Elaine

You seem to be able to get 1 day free. You just have to fill in you email address.

Thanks for putting this up Janet. I've just spent a happy hour rummaging but now it's blocked me from searching the articles and I've opted for the free 24 hour pass.

Some of the stories make fascinating reading - even though I haven't found what I was looking for yet!

Thanks again and happy searching to everyone.

Maria

I had to register and it won't let me view anything without paying. How have others viewed without paying please?
Lynne

Im the same Lynne, when I click on the article it just asks me to sub.Ive registered with my email addy.

Can anyone advise please.

Also can anyone advise the best words to use in the search box.
I am looking for a possible mention of the death of my ggrandfather in 1878 in Manchester.
I entered his name but am getting loads of things that look unrelated.
Thanks in advance.
Lynne

Oh, over on FTF they are saying it was for one day only - yesterday :(

Did not get back earlier but I registered for 24 hour one yesterday (Thursday) and got some interesting info Manchester itself from 1868. Have just been on this afternoon Friday and have got back in again.

You will have to register for 24 hours once you are on the site and you do that by clicking on the left hand green box whuch says "My Collection Introductory Offer. Click here for a free 24 hr pass" I am sure that this is still on offer and was not just for yesterday so at least happy hunting for 24 hours.

To save it I found it was best to save it on the whole page and sort out later what I wanted as saving it with just the article, I found I wasted a lot of time saving the articles and when I went to view the article was only half there! After messing around i then found saving the whole page seemed to be the best solution.

Janet North London Borders

Has anyone actually paid for this yet?

I've registered but unsure wether to pay or not yet as I don't know how usefull the site has been for others on here?

Sarah

I presume you have had your free 24 hours?

I would not pay unless I have actually found something I want. But if you have found something of interest to you then whether or not you pay is up to you, but bear in mind that if you go to Colindale to research the newspapers, unless you live nearby, then you will have to pay to get there and the cost of good quality copies does not come cheap through Colindale. You can get copies there for 75 p but they are very poor quality, so in the end you have to decide what you want.

I would think that whether or not others found the site good is surely irrelevant? It is up to you as to how good it is for you. We all have relatives that will be found in newspapers, but in the main not so many of us will find ancestors in the quality papers of the Times/Guardian, but may find them more in the parochial newspapers.

But the quality newspapers tended to give good, rounded arguments on debates over the years on so many subjects, which touched all our lives, and so could be interesting for our social history side of family history. The choice has to be yours and yours alone.

Janet North London Borders

No I couldn't get it to work for the free 24 hours thats why I asked has anyone had any luck on there for info when they had access I meant :-).

I will still use the paper site regardless to try get info on a rellie who was a footie player years ago just waiting for top up in bank account lol.

Sarah

I can only say that I did get my 24 hours and it was worth while to me because I was researching some background history into some Irish Social History problems of 1867/1868. I had already done some research into this area through an Irish newspaper which had given me Manchester Guardian References for further help, so I did know what I was looking for. I did not get all I want as I did not have the time to spend on it, but I would be prepared to go back to pay £7 for 24 hours to get the rest of the material that I am interested in. I did find it easy eventually to save on to my computer though it took me a little while to fathom that out.

I have not been back but Family Tree Forum seem to think the site has collapsed at present, not uncommon when many people try to access info at same time just like 1901 Census! I am sure it will come back with most glitches sorted.

Janet NLB