Richard Heaton has been providing a list of links for online historical newspapers for genealogical research for many years. These links cover the UK and Ireland.

There are 31 collections now available, representing hundreds of historic newspapers for your research.  

On September 12, 2015 he published an update to the list. The lists include free, subscription and library-based collections.

This is a list of links, not a site where you can search the actual online repositories.

The lists are very well organized by locations, including city and county. Start and end dates for the newspaper publication dates are also included.

If you are researching British and Irish newspapers, this is as "must visit" site.

The link is Richard Heaton's Index to Digitalised British and Irish Newspapers Online (updated 12th September 2015)

The cool thing about searching my family history is finding out about the lives and life stories of my ancestors. Genealogy to me is way more than just birth, marriage and death dates.

I have been particularly fascinated by the occupations that my ancestors had; especially the terms that I had never heard of - such as busheler and gas fitter. What the heck are those? (At the end of this article is a link so that you can find out some of these occupational terms used decades and centuries ago.)

But what records and documents contain our ancestors occupations? Here is a list of many of these documents and records that I use to record my ancestor's "work" life.

• Census Records
• City Directories
• Draft Cards
• Death Certificates
• Passenger Lists
• Birth Certificate/Record of child -  the parents occupations are often provided
• Military Enlistment and Other Records
• Photographs -  although not written - if in some kind of uniform, this can be a good hint as to occupation
• Marriage Certificates
• Voter Registrations
• Mortuary Records
• Naturalization Records
• Passport Applications
• Patent Applications
• Social Security Applications - Employer's name is included often
• Obituaries
• Membership in Fraternal Societies
• Union Membership Documents
• Wills/Probate
• Newspaper Articles of all kinds - Legal notices, advertisements and classified ads are often useful
• Miscellaneous Court Documents

What others can you think of?


Here is a terrific list of occupation names of old:

Ranks, Professions, Occupations and Trades


So let's get to WORK and find our ancestors occupations! (pun intended)