Are you interested in Family History? If so we have good news! Access to Ancestry Library Edition has been temporarily extended to Bradford Library members at home. Ancestry is normally only available in library buildings so during the period of library closures this is a great opportunity to start your family tree or to continue your research into historical records.

Ancestry is one of the main genealogical websites in the UK. Some of the key records for starting family history include the census records 1841-1911, Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes for England and Wales from 1837-2005, WW1 service records and many parish records. Ancestry is increasingly adding records from across the world.

To access Ancestry Library you will need a Bradford Libraries membership.
Go to https://capitadiscovery.co.uk/bradford/ and log in to your library account with your card number and pin.
Remember to input just the numbers. Next, click on the special link to Ancestry Library Edition.

Did you know you can access 19th Century newspapers from the British Library through Bradford Libraries digital library? This service is available to anyone with a Bradford Library membership.

This fascinating collection features mainly local and regional newspapers showing history as it happened. Local publications include The Bradford Observer 1834-1875, The Leeds Mercury 1807-1900 and The Northern Star 1838-1852. The text is searchable in a variety of ways including keywords or topics. The collections will be of interest to local and family historians as well as to the curious browser.

You can access it from home via the Bradford Libraries website.
Simply go to https://www.bradford.gov.uk/libraries , click on Digital Library and scroll down to ‘Nineteenth Century Newspapers’. You will then need to enter your library ticket number without any letters.

Our Special Collections at Bradford Local Studies Library include a large collection of pamphlets from the 19th Century.

Always informative, often quirky and entertaining, these flimsy pamphlets reflect the ideas and concerns of the day and give us a revealing insight into the everyday world of the past.

Our regular feature ‘Treasure of the Week’ brings to light a selection of these accounts of incidents, issues and people relating to the Bradford district of the time.

View the posts here:

https://bradfordlocalstudies.wordpress.com/category/treasure-of-the-week/

Discover the hidden histories within maps and plans in the library by visiting our dedicated map website.

This series of articles explores the stories behind a selection of maps from Bradford Local Studies Library, mainly from the 19^th Century.

The posts demonstrate how a wealth of detail can be extracted from these fascinating and invaluable historical sources.

Access the website here:

https://bradfordlibrariesmap.wordpress.com/