11 June 2025
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10 June 2025 Findmypast and the British Library announced an ambitious extension to their historical newspaper digitisation project.
Originally launched in 2011, the Findmypast-British Library newspaper digitisation project has delivered over 90 million pages covering the UK and Ireland.
Which newspaper titles are covered? Thousands of regional, national and specialist titles. Start your search here.
Are there any free newspapers? Yes Findmypast set itself a target to provide access to selected digitised newspapers completely free of charge. 4 million such newspapers may be now searched free here. To make sure your search results return free access digitised pages, scroll down to the bottom of the Advanced Search form (accessible in the link just given) and select 'Free to access' or 'Free today'.
Datespan covered? 1699 to the present day.
What sort of news is covered? Events from history, as they happened - from the American Revolution, for instance, to the Suffragette Movement; to notices of births, marriages and deaths. Of course too are details of local events - from cricket matches to house clearance sales, flower shows to street fights! Explore the collection to find out what was going on in your ancestors' era and area.
About the renewed British Library - Findmypast newspaper digitisation project?
- The renewed contract will see an estimated further 70 million pages digitised.
- These will be made available to the public over the next five years.
- A wider range of regional and national newspapers will be covered.
- The number of specialist titles in the archive will be increased.
- Greater coverage of titles representing minority communities and newspapers from across the Commonwealth will be included.
- At the same time, Findmypast will continue to improve the accessibility of the existing digital archive.
About the digitisation project
The team: Findmypast state that 'As a UK-based company, Findmypast’s team is uniquely placed to undertake the intensive digitisation work required by the project. Their scanning team is based beside the British Library's newspaper storage facilities in Boston Spa, Yorkshire, with access to the original bound volumes of newspapers and periodicals.'
The scanners: Significant investment in the latest technology on site, including state-of-the-art A0 colour scanners, allows pages of up to a square metre to be scanned, and means that some of the rarest and most fragile newspapers in the collection can be included in the project.
OCR technology: Once the pages are scanned, the images are moved to Findmypast’s operations centre in Dundee, Scotland. Here, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology is used to "read" the pages and create a text version of what is on the page. Findmypast’s powerful search function then allows users to search names, dates, locations, keywords – even phrases – within seconds once the material is published on the website.
Emerging technologies: Findmypast also state that they 'will explore opportunities for innovation and the responsible use of emerging technologies to unlock greater value from the collection'.
Easier access: Prior to digitisation, this vast newspaper archive was held entirely in hard copy and microfilm, meaning access was restricted to those who could visit the Reading Rooms in St Pancras, London and Boston Spa, Yorkshire. Now people may access over 90 million pages at their own convenience online.
Lee Wilkinson, Managing Director of DCThomson History, which owns Findmypast and the British Newspaper Archive, said:
“We are thrilled to renew the unique partnership between Findmypast and the British Library, which has already produced an unparallelled digital resource. As a key partner to the UK heritage sector, we want to increase access to our shared resources while bringing context and understanding to the nation's history. By contextualising the social behaviours, customs and events documented in historical newspapers, we believe we can provide the public with a greater understanding of the lives of those who came before us and the world in which they lived.”
How to access the British Library-Findmypast newspaper collections.
Individuals are able to access the editions free of charge by visiting the British Library's sites in St Pancras, London and Boston Spa, Yorkshire or at libraries across the UK with a subscription to the Findmypast archive. They are also accessible to people around the world with a subscription to the Findmypast or British Newspaper Archive websites. See links above.