This means the project to digitise the British Library's Newspaper Collection, which dates back to the 1700s, is now three-quarters completed.
If there were such a title, this would be its front page today |
From the start, the collection has been hugely popular with genealogists of Irish and British heritage because the papers are full of genealogical and family history details, intrigue and colour, as well as providing the social and political context in which our ancestors lived their lives.
With today's milestone of 30 million pages achieved, the 10-year digitisation project appears to be comfortably ahead of schedule.
As of today, there are 146 historical Irish newspapers in the archive. Some 43 were published in the counties that now make up Northern Ireland; the remaining 123 titles were either national papers that would once have covered the entire island or local/regional papers in counties that now make up the Republic of Ireland.
The full online collection is available via the dedicated BNA site (see link above) and via some FindMyPast subscription packages*.
* Pro subscriptions via FindMyPast Ireland, FindMyPast UK and FindMyPast Australia/NZ; Ultimate subscriptions via FindMyPast.com.
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