Hatches, Matches & Dispatches
You may find details of your ancestors in the Births, Marriages and Deaths sections of local newspapers:
- Births may just be an announcement of a new baby’s arrival but, if your ancestor was ‘of the middling sort’, there may be more detail about the baby’s parentage
- Sometimes there are detailed reports of weddings, including what the bride wore, where the reception was held and other priceless details. There may even be a photograph
- Obituaries will provide so much more than just a death certificate. When little may be known about an individual, other than birth, marriage, occupation and death, an obituary will often reveal all kinds of extra details leading to further investigation