Using Newspapers for Genealogy Research

I love old newspapers! The smell, the feel, the wording. All of it. But best of all, I like old newspapers when they can help me fill in the details about the lives of my ancestors. Like this one:

Glasgow Herald, Oct 19, 1872

This article refers to the mining accident that killed my 3x great grandfather and his only son. I knew from the death record that William had died as the result of an accident and that the death had occurred at Greenfield Colliery, but without the details in the newspaper article, I was unaware that William and Andrew were at the end of their shift, that they were almost at the surface, or that they died because the lift they were on broke. A true tragedy. Even sadder is that there was a third person who died in the accident. It was his first day on the job and he had said it was to be his last as mining wasn't the life for him. Sadly, he never had the chance to try any other line of work. He was dead before he got to the surface of the mine. 

The best place to get online access to newspapers for Scottish research is the British Newspaper Archive. And if you have a premium subscription to Findmypast, access to the BNA is included in the subscription!