18th Century Belfast Newsletter Index Available

The Belfast Newsletter is an Irish newsletter that began publication in Belfast in 1737. It was published three times a week during the 18th century.  The surviving 18th century issues have been indexed and abstracted at http://www.ucs.usl.edu/bnl/ . 

Unfortunately, only about 1/4 of the newspapers from 1737 to 1750 have survived. However, the newspapers from 1750 to 1800 are nearly complete. 

The site contains several instructions to use the database, which I recommend you read since the database is set up a little differently. At the very least, read the subject headline directory -- every item has been indexed with one or more subject headlines, making it easy to find certain types of information. 

Query results include the document ID, issue date, page number, abstract (which contains all the "significant words" of the article, along with notations to indicate place names, personal names, ship names, etc.) and the subject headers under which the item was indexed. The abstracts are not enough to give you the full story, but in many cases you can get the gist.

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