Finding your own history lessons

Finding your own history

As the reality of this week’s events starts to sink in, many families are facing the question one how to keep their children engaged with their studies over the new few months.  Whilst I am no teacher (although I loved playing teacher with my dolls back in the years before school, which is many moons ago), a thought came to my head for history lessons and using The British Newspaper Archive.

I’ll confess, I’m a geek when it comes to history, especially family history and I can spend hours reading about the past. And I know that kids aren’t going to want to take it to the level I sometimes do. However, getting them to engage in history might be easier if they are learning about people in their own family tree. Do they have relatives that fought in the war or royalty in their past? Perhaps relative fought in Culloden or emigrated to Australia. Family history can often open the door to understanding wider events in the world.

For myself, I was recommended The British Newspaper Archive by a dear friend as she knew how much research I was doing on my family tree and thought this might help fill in some of the blanks in my head. She wasn’t wrong. Since using the archive, I managed to find articles about my Great-Grandpa’s school days in Broughty Ferry, a wedding photograph of my Great Aunty and descriptions of what one of my Great-Grannies wore at social events. It is so interesting and it takes a simple historical date and puts more context around it.

If Family History is not your cup of tea, don't worry as that's the great thing about The British Newspaper Archive, you can research anything, be it the local football team you support or the village you grew up in. I’ve found articles about myself on the site and about my friends. 

Though not a free resource, it may be a great study aid for a home lesson during these months of uncertainty. If you want more information or a starter for ten, I would be happy to make some suggestions or pull some articles for you to get you started. 

The link to the British Newspaper Archive can be found here: https://bit.ly/2J6E1UY