Is this My Ancestor? (And Free Access to the British Newspaper Archive)

FindMyPast is offering free access to the British Newspaper Archive during this time of national mourning for Queen Elizabeth, through Monday, September 19, 2022 (but I don't know until what time).  It may be a helpful source if you have British ancestors.

I generally love using newspapers for family history but newspapers in England in the early 1800s gave so little information that it's hard to tell whether the person is an ancestor or not.  Many of my ancestors have commonly used names--Mary Bell, William Doyle, Robert Laws, Robert Reay, Elizabeth Thompson--returning many search results, usually with nothing more than name and location to help identify.

When I searched for William Doyle this is what I found on the front page of the Saturday, February 11, 1826, edition of the Newcastle Courant.  (The link may not work unless you have an account.) 

The second entry under the heading "GENERAL HUE AND CRY" (What a foreboding phrase!) reads,

WHEREAS JOHN BAILEY, late of Rainton, in the County of Durham, Hewer; DANIEL GILLONS, late of the same Place, Hewer; WILLIAM DOYLE, late of Wallsend, in the County of Northumberland, Hewer; and GEO. MAUDLIN, late of Walker Colliery, Hewer, being bound or under Agreement to work at the Coed Talon Collieries, North Wales, belonging to the Welsh Iron and Coal Mining Company, early on Saturday Morning last, ran away and absented themselves from their said Employment without Leave or Notice—This is therefore to give Notice, that if they do not return to their say Employment, they will be prosecuted to the utmost Rigour of the Law; and any Viewers of Collieries, or other Persons employing or harbouring the said John Bailey, Daniel Gillons, William Doyle, and George Maudlin, after this Notice, will be prosecuted as the Law directs.—Coed Talon Colliery Office, 3d Feb. 1826.

My ancestor William Doyle was born in about 1802 (based on his age at death as stated in his U.K. GRO death certificate).  William would have been about 24 at the time of this article.  He had married Martha Reay about a year earlier in Wallsend, Northumberland.

The only two identifiers in this notice fit my William.  He was a coal miner and he had lived in Wallsend as recently as May, 1825.

How would I know if this is my William Doyle without more identifying information--either from the newspaper notice or from previous research?  The U.K. Census didn't begin until 1841, three years after William's death.  My only records for William are his church banns and marriage records, and his civil death record.  And church records from the births of his children:  Jane was born in 1826 in Wallsend; William was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1928.  It's not for lack of searching that I don't have more information about him.  You can't find records that weren't created.

If I knew in which colliery William worked; if I knew the names of his friends, neighbors, or co-workers; if I knew anything about his work history....  Any of those might help.  But as it is, I feel helpless to know if this is my own ancestor, my third great-grandfather.  And for the record, I hope it isn't!

As I said before, I love newspaper research but I don't find--or haven't yet found--British newspapers of the early 1800s to be of much help.

But by all means, you should take advantage of Find My Past's free access to the British Newspaper Archive this weekend if you have British ancestors.  I hope it's helpful to you.

-–Nancy.

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