Old newspapers can be tremendous sources of historical information. Particularly good are local publications - such as those produced in the Channel Islands - which manage to capture news and events at the community level. In going about their business, they record both the exciting and mundane, the significant and trivial, the big and small. In short, they can be viewed as snap-shots of contemporary events, recording life as it happens in words and photographs.
Now, having extolled their virtues, it also has to be also said that old newspapers can prove equally very frustrating as sources of historical information. The key reason seems to be that they were written to present the news at the time - as it happened. Few editors, I imagine, saw their publications as historical documents; more likely as a means to an end. This often means that key details are missed, glossed over, or tantalisingly hinted at. It can at time seem as though you are viewing life through a door that it only partly open.

Still, on balance, I find them fascinating. So in researching Jersey during the First World War, I have found myself spending hours hunched in front of the microfiche viewers in St Helier's Library, squinting at the dimly lit screens whilst seemingly endless pages of news scroll by. For the most part, my focus has been on men leaving Jersey to serve overseas. However, during my page traverses, I have come across lots of local events that have caught my eye. In come cases, I noted a few details down, together with a date as reference, and resolved to maybe go back to them at some convenient time in the future. Unfortunately, at the present, convenient times always seem to remain a long way off and so for the most part they will have to wait. However there was one item that I wanted to take a closer look sooner rather than later - mainly because its somewhat mysterious circumstance, and its tragic nature. An offer to put something together for the CI Great War Study Group was the catalyst to head back to the library and start some work on it. In so doing, it soon became obvious that this story was a good example of the best and worst aspects of using a paper for historical research: enlightening and frustrating at the same time!