Family History

[Richard Brown]

How I have used my iPad to get the best value from a time limited subscription to the British Newspaper Archive online.

The British Library newspaper archive is a superb resource for historical information..



To view finds, you have to buy a subscription. There are different types of sub. The cheapest 2 give you a number of credits which have to be used in a time limit.

What I have just found is that once you have VIEWED a page, you can return to it at any time, free of charge. I have also discovered that the iPad does a pretty decent job with viewing pages on the website. The image just below this is an iPad screenshot.



So, if I cannot use my computer to view finds, I use the iPad. If you have bookmarked a great quantity of pages, the trick is to open a page just to view it. Don't search for anything you can do that at leisure. Close the page then repeat the process for all of your bookmarked stuff.

I use screen shots to capture my items of interest. The iPad shot is a large file of over 1.2 Mb.

On the computer, I use a screen view capturing programme, such as TNT. Here are examples from the PC screen capture process...







These last 2 images are less than 400kb each.

I hope this is of interest.

Sent from my iPad using iPF

 

[iPadclassic]

Sometimes you have relatives watching you grow up so you do not mess up. I remember thinking I was alone and then one day my distant distant relative came back out of no where and slap me in the head for being a knuckle head! hehe Well, I got in trouble with the law to make a long story short and they like got me out of it. Thank goodness! Those are the days of youth. Well, I am still stupid so they might rear their perfect heads in my life again soon.

 

[Richard Brown]

Sometimes you have relatives watching you grow up so you do not mess up. I remember thinking I was alone and then one day my distant distant relative came back out of no where and slap me in the head for being a knuckle head! hehe Well, I got in trouble with the law to make a long story short and they like got me out of it. Thank goodness! Those are the days of youth. Well, I am still stupid so they might rear their perfect heads in my life again soon.

That's an interesting take on things, iPadclassic. It sound as though you lived and learned.

There are positives in families and their histories too.

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[Richard Brown]

I got distracted while composing my post about using the iPad to maximise usage of a subscription website. My post is now up, with images, about 3 posts back.

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[scifan57]

How far back does the archive go? Can you read articles from the Times, written at the time of the American Revolution, for example?

 

[Richard Brown]

How far back does the archive go? Can you read articles from the Times, written at the time of the American Revolution, for example?

The earliest Year I can find at present is the 1718 Stamford Mercury.

New pages and publications are being added constantly. I don't believe The Times will be added to the site. The Times, of course, has it's own digital archive.

Sent from my iPad 1 using iPF - Greetings

 

[scifan57]

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

 

[Richard Brown]

There is a potentially useful app which converts your iPad into a portable scanner. The app is in the iTunes Store.

There is a useful article and walk through tutorial in April's edition of Who Do You Think You Are.

Here are results of some test scans. I have taken a photo - left hand image - and a scan - right hand image - to compare results.








A feature of the scan is the ability to "flatten" curved pages.
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I need to work on my technique to improve the scanned image. The scan is in colour to let fine lines show more clearly.
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This document is from the companion book to that from which I scanned the map. The B&W scan is pretty good. I had to decrease brightness to show fine details.

The app has great potential and could save me forking out £126+ for a portable scanner. Also, having this app on board increases the versatility of my iPad which already has my family tree on board.

My iPad is becoming a great tool to use in the field

Sent from my iPad using iPF

 

[twerppoet]

There is a potentially useful app which converts your iPad into a portable scanner. The app is in the iTunes Store. . . .

Unless I missed it, you didn't mention the app's name. I use Scanner Pro. It has all the features you mentioned, plus the ability to save the results to Evernote; where, if you have a pro account, the document gets scanned for text to make it more search friendly.

 

[Richard Brown]

Hi Twerppoet, it's Fasterscan.

I mentioned the name under the ingenious thread, and wanted to avoid announcing the app 2X in different threads.

The ability to search for text in a scanned document may be available in the paid for version of the app. I haven't check that out.

Sent from my iPad using iPF

 

[twerppoet]

Hi Twerppoet, it's Fasterscan.

I mentioned the name under the ingenious thread, and wanted to avoid announcing the app 2X in different threads.

Ahhhh. . .

The ability to search for text in a scanned document may be available in the paid for version of the app. I haven't check that out.

Sent from my iPad using iPF

To be clear, the text search option is a feature of the Evernote Premier account. It has nothing to do with the scanning app, at least not the Scanner Pro app.

 

[Richard Brown]

Ahhhh. . .

To be clear, the text search option is a feature of the Evernote Premier account. It has nothing to do with the scanning app, at least not the Scanner Pro app.

Thanks for clearing up that, Twerppoet.

Sent from my iPad using iPF