Showing posts with label newspapers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label newspapers. Show all posts

Sunday 6 September 2015

Honouring the "Action by a Farmer's Daughter"

After stumbling upon the Welsh Newspapers Online site a few years ago, I've become addicted to it - checking back often to see new editions, newspapers and content added. When I've hit roadblocks in my research or enter the research doldrums, it's a great diversion and often returns unanticipated treasures like the one I want to tell you about.

I've always wondered about the birth of William Spickett Ball, 1892-1982, the illegitimate son of Charlotte Ball, elder sister of my great-grandfather, Thomas Huxtable Ball. There also always seemed to be an air of mystery to him - at least for those of us in Canada - no name, no details. Late one night, on a whim, I entered the name of "Charlotte Ball" and hit enter and began scrolling through the list of entries.

Imagine my excitement when I came across this 15 July 1893 Cardiff Times article:


You can read the full article here.

Our Charlotte sued the father of her child for breach of promise and won in a Cardiff court in July 1893! And she was awarded a 350 GBP damages settlement, which in today's money amounted to nearly 34,600 GBP. Whether she ever received the settlement is another question and research query.

Charlotte had been living with her brother, John Ball, who farmed at Ty Gwyn in St. Andrew's Major, Glamorgan, when she met her suitor, William Howell Spickett of Cadoxton. On the 1891 census, she is shown living there with John and younger brother, Thomas.

On reading the article, I could not help but feel proud that she had taken Spickett to court. As a single mother in the late 19th century, there would have been some measure of public disapproval in her decision to keep her child. Despite the "fair damsel" description of her in court, she pursued Spickett for his breach of promise to marry her and to provide for their child.

Charlotte - you rock.

Cheers, K.

Tuesday 11 August 2015

Welsh Newspapers Online - my new happy place

Source: Pixabay.com
In searching around for information about South Wales, I happened to come across a great genealogy and history resource - Welsh Newspapers Online. Created by the National Library of Wales, the database is a free online resource. It contains over 1.1 million pages from over 120 newspapers, from 1804 to 1919. According to the introductory page on the site, it also includes the digitized content from The Welsh Experience of World War One Project.

The search page allows you to specify if you wish to search Welsh or English language content, specific newspapers, date ranges or article types.

If you like to browse, you can do so by title or by titles in a geographic region. I've found it interesting and informative to browse titles within a geographic region to get an idea of coverage, focus and publication dates. The helpful calendar of published issues makes searching for a specific event or occasion that much easier. For an example of the calendar and publication information for the Cambrian, click here.

Happy searching!
Cheers, K.