There are many ways of discovering information from the past but few give us much of an indication of the people involved. Written social histories scratch the surface but tend to focus on events rather than people while biographies can give more information about people but few people have their biographies written and they tend to be the rich and famous (or infamous); diaries can provide a useful inside into events seen from a personal perspective but few people keep diaries nowadays and the modern equivalent in the form of social media is awash with so much trivia it is a meaningless (and transient) mess.

Official records in the form of census records, birth/marriage/death records, parish registers and so on are a treasure trove of verifiable information but these stark facts tell us little about the individuals concerned and although information about some people can be found in court records the information is not easily accessible and tends to focus on wrongdoers which while it is interesting is hardly typical.

Our best window into the past is through the pages of local newspapers and in Wales we are very fortunate that all newspapers published between 1804 and 1919 are available online free of charge thanks to The National Library of Wales and can be found here. A companion site provides access magazines and journals relating to Wales that were published between 1735 and 2007 is available here.

The stories uncovered while reading through old newspapers range from amusing to scandalous, tedious to sensational, so perhaps I should issue a gentle word of warning here - if you search for the names of your ancestors the information you uncover may shock you (it certainly shocked me)