I have an addiction. I am not ashamed of it, but I will probably bore you with it given the chance. I am addicted to old newspapers. No, I don’t live surrounded by cobwebby editions of last years Herald-Sun I mean OLD newspapers.
I love history, especially Australian convict and colonial history and finding the National Library of Australia website was like finding a small slice of heaven. This site has digitized copies of many Australian newspapers dating back to March 1803. This might sound boring but you have to remember that back then newspapers were the internet of their day. These days newspapers are all about exposing badly behaving footballers and trying to come up with the most scandalous expose. Back then there were no phones and radio so the only way to transfer information was to put it in the papers.
Some of my Great Great Great Grandparents were transported as convicts and arrived in Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) in 1827 and 1831. To read the papers that were published at the very time and at the very place that they were living is an amazing thing. It is documented that my Great Great great-grandmother Margaret Shaw was a bit of a ratbag even after her arrival as a convict but so far I have not been able to find an article relating to her. I continue to read all I can though in the hopes that her name has been badly scanned and translated incorrectly.
My personal favourites are the Police Reports, especially the Hobart Town Police Reports. Partly because there is always the chance of finding Margaret Shaw being sentenced to solitary confinement with bread and water yet again and partly because of the amusement I get from reading what people got up to and the judgements passed. These days everyone looks out for someone to blame. Back then the judge sometimes pretty much told them to get over themselves and go away. I also love the language used at times.
This blog is my chance to inflict my addiction on you and to try to resurrect some old words.
Just found your funny history site. Like you I’m addicted to finding old ‘curiousness’, and apart from looking on internet and all the readily available sources I can’t help trying to find the original books, or the reprints of really old magazines and books. Corliss and Fort are basic, leading to other finds. You know the excitement. It’s always great to find new Fortean happenings only to discover the same things happened 1 or 2 centuries ago, which puts everything in perspective and provides an argument against pseudo- sceptics who usually pick one happening to debunk them all. Wish you many wonderful finds and lots of fun!
Loes
Thank you! I love it when I find an article that could easily be re-published as current news with a change of location. Sometimes I suspect that is what really happens!
I just looked at your website and I loved your photos. I take photos of the little things as well, but not quite that little! I wander around the garden and hope the critters that live out there don’t notice me sneaking up on them. The amount of times I have had to clean spiderweb off my lens and apologize….
Thank you! Yes, nature is amazing on every scale. You should see a (small) spider under the microscope!
Glad I discovered you, pity you live so far away. I’ll look out for historical stuff that might be of interest to you.
I once lived next to a nasty neighbour. Your paper cutting makes me happy that I still have my head where it belongs.
Loes
I was thinking, did you contemplate searching in OLD magazine’s?
I don’t know about Australia, but there are jewels in the US and U.K. and many are available on internet. I have lots of them here, mostly in print on demand books, like Gentleman’s Magazine, The Terrific Register, Notes & Queries, Book of Days, The Strand Magazine, Illustrated Police News and many others. Good for a lifetime of amusement.
It’s wonderful that so much is digitalized, I share with you the fun of searching and finding a gem!
I only started looking through the old newspapers in the hopes of finding articles about my family. Some of my Great Great Great Grandparents were transported convicts and clearly this punishment didn’t curb their bad ways. The same website I get the news articles from has started digitizing magazines but they are still in copyright and I didn’t want the drama of asking to use someone elses stuff everyday. I will run out of interesting newspaper articles one day so I will have to start looking elsewhere eventually!