I am a BBC producer and journalist working in news and current affairs with a passion for history and science. But in this blog I delve into the newspaper archives to rediscover the long lost forgotten stories of normal people from the past. But the best bit, and most exciting, is when I trace the living descendants of the people in involved in those stories.
Most of the time they know nothing of their ancestors, other than names and dates of birth, so it’s a wonderful surprise when I tell them. I’ve appeared on BBC’s the One Show and as well as a number of radio stations across the country including BBC Radio Merseyside, BBC Radio Bristol and of course my home station BBC Radio Shropshire – telling the stories I’ve uncovered. The British Newspaper Archive covers the 17th – 20th Century. It’s an extraordinary record of the past and the stories within them are fascinating, often sensationalist, biased, amusing, sad, and most definitely surprising.
