Behind the Headlines of History

It’s the last episode of our inaugural season of Behind The Headlines of History, and this week we’re marking Remembrance Day with stories related to the lives of people during WWI. Michala starts the episode with the incredible tale of Sapper Dorothy Lawrence – the ambitious female war correspondent who dressed as a man to make it to the British front line (from The Observer, 21st September 1919)...

Live from Rootstech London! All newspaper articles referenced in this episode were sourced on Newspapers.com, with additional research conducted by Brad and Michala using Ancestry® and other resources.

Halloween is just around the corner, so in this week’s episode, Brad and Michala’s stories take a *spooky* turn. ‘Headline-less’ Brad kicks off proceedings with an article from the Observer on 31st October 1880 on old Halloween rituals and traditions – including a bizarre husband-snaring tactic involving a wet shirt, salting keyholes and the origins of apple bobbing. Then Michala takes us on a mac...

Brad’s tasked himself with the challenge of trying to answer someone’s plea to help them find living family members (from Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper, 9th Sep, 1900) and Michala’s story this week focuses on the surprising tale of Sir Gregory Lewin, a barrister gone bad: ‘”The Del Boy of History”! (Sparked by a news report in The Bradford Observer, 12 March 1840). Then, News In Brief evolved into a pu...

Behind the Headlines of History is a podcast series from Ancestry and ⁠⁠Newspapers.com⁠⁠ that explores intriguing news stories from the past, hosted by historian and genealogist Michala Hulme and Ancestry’s Brad Argent.

This week, Michala introduces us to Fanny Oliver, a Victorian femme fatale who murdered her husband by arsenic poisoning (as reported in Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 24 July 1869) and Brad digs into a family rift triggered by the stealing of cattle (covered by the Yorkshire Herald, 24 October 1881). And listen to ‘News In Brief’ at the end of the episode for a tongue in cheek report on what Victori...

If anyone can link a man being attacked on the street to a woman shopping for flower pots (covered in The Illustrated Police News, 6 September, 1879), Brad can! Stick with it, it’s a good’un! And Michala seamlessly takes us from ‘Snow’ to water, uncovering one of her history heroes (reported in the Yorkshire Herald, 26 June, 1858) Rounding off the episode In ‘News In Brief’, Brad spends a penny, a...

This week, Brad takes us up, up and away with a dramatic, theatrical and ultimately tragic tale of aeronaut Lieutenant George Gale and his flying pony (covered by the London Examiner on 14 September 1850), and Michala’s story of a Victorian bigamist (reported in the Newcastle Weekly Courant, 20 August, 1858) rivals the plot of any TV period drama! Then to round things off, a menagerie of creatures...

There’s a somewhat sombre tone to episode three, with Brad and Michala each sharing a story and research stemming from the tragic year of 1862 – from a boiler explosion in Leicestershire (reported in the Bury and Norwich Post, 25 Jan. 1862) to the Hartley Colliery disaster (covered by the Newcastle Weekly Courant, 24 Jan. 1862). And if you’re not a fan of rodents or horse manure, prepare yourself...

In episode two, Michala tells the story of the colourful life and times of Old Jane Cakebread, who was making her 271st appearance before the North London Magistrates’ Court (as reported in the Huddersfield Chronicle and West Yorkshire Advertiser, Nov 1894) and Brad makes an impressive segue from a near drowning (covered by the Preston Chronicle and Lancashire Advertiser, 24 May 1851) to dentistry...

In the first episode of Season 1, Michala shares the love story behind The Great Bullion Robbery that was reported in the press in 1855, and Brad’s research reveals how the perpetrator of a hazelnut theft, covered by The Hampshire Advertiser in 1877, is linked to Downton Abbey! To round the episode off, this week’s ‘News In Brief’ stories have a bit of a love and marriage theme… All newspaper arti...