Newspapers can be an excellent source of finding out more about or ancestors daily lives. They can provide information about not only the major events, but also about how they spent their leisure hours and the clubs and societies they belonged to.
Included in my newspaper records, I found several articles relating to musical events and concerts in which various ancestors performed, especially my Argent branch of my family tree.
The article above is from the Essex Standard published Friday 7 January 1876 and has several members of my Argent family preforming. My Great Great Grandfather John Thompson Argent was Chair or the event and his sister Ada Emily Argent was the pianist.
When my great grandfather James Nicholas Clark passed away in 1924 there were two death notices inserted in the newspaper - one from his family and one from the Masonic Lodge of which he was a member.
Had it not been for this Masonic notice, I would never have
known that James was a Mason. It is also worth noting the spelling
error - the heading of the Masonic notice has CLARG, not CLARK. The
family notice also gives me his occupation - Overseer at Brighton City
Council.
