If you find a record relating to the ancestor you are interested in, then you can contact Lancashire Archives and order a copy (but sadly an ordering facility is not currently available for the photos of Fleetwood trawlers).
There is also an ongoing project to index people and places named in the local history book collection, these indexes will appear on the Lancashire Libraries catalogue.
I did a 'quick search' for 'Manchester', and 'Salford' in the online search box and there were over 2000 results for Manchester and nearly 800 for Salford, so if your ancestors came from those cities or any other towns in historic Lancashire, it's well worth your time exploring the site.
It's worrying, however, that Lancashire County Council is thinking of making more changes to services like libraries owing to the unprecedented squeeze on local authority funding by the government - this is on top of the recent closures of five Lancashire's museums.
To think when I was growing up, I took it for granted that amenities like libraries and museums and social housing were an immutable part of the landscape. By the Tories' austerity ideology has run its full course we will have nothing left. There would be plenty of money for all these facilities if the big corporations and businesses paid a meaningful amount of tax instead of parking it offshore. In my humble opinion, anyway.
3 comments:
I agree with your ,"humble opinion," wholeheartedly,Sue.Museums, galleries and libraries are important to our society. They have always been a free source of self education; they are our memory and our understanding and a rich source for creativity and imagination. We will all be poorer for their going.
Now, don't get me on to social housing!!!!!!
A lot of museums and galleries digitise their collections. The big museums in London have. At least accessing stuff on line is better than nothing. Its not the same as seeing the real painting or being able to see or even handle the actual artefact or document I know. As for books, there is always Waterstones, Amazon or the Charity shops I suppose!! I'm desperately grabbing at straws, Sue.
I have been lucky enough to build up my own collection of books, but everyone should have access to them. I know there are online collections like Google Books now, but not everyone has internet access, and it's not the same as holding a book in your hands.
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