In Australia Trove is a fantastic source of free online newspapers as well as a range of other resources. It is simply a matter of doing a keyword search on a person’s name and narrowing the results by using any combination of the available filters. It is important to remember that not all newspapers have been digitised yet and placed online - new papers or expanded year ranges of existing papers are becoming available all the time, so you need to remember to redo your searches from time to time.
It is due to Trove that I discovered one of my great-uncles, Norman Clark, was killed by a shark off Middle Brighton beach in 1930. He was the first swimmer taken by a shark in Victorian waters for a number of years, and the attack occurred during a boating regatta in full view of hundreds of horrified spectators, including his fiancee and 12 year old brother. His body was never recovered and several sharks found too close to swimming areas were subsequently killed, and the incident made the news around the country. It was even reported in New Zealand - Papers Past is the New Zealand equivalent of Trove. When I asked my mother if she knew about the attack she never knew what had happened, ony that Norman had died young. Trove even produced an article with a grainy photo of Norman, the only image of him I have ever seen.
I regularly visit Trove and am always rewarded with some snippet of information about my family, and also find Trove a great way of finding out about community events they quite likely were involved in.
Visit Shaun's blog on Newspapers to read her full entry on this topic.
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