What happened when

Tips for finding when small events happened

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Andrew McConville
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Subjects: Literature

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Finding dates of specific events can sometimes be difficult.

The more famous an event the easier it will be to find out when it happened.

Sometimes more obscure events can be harder to find.

Often we can remember past events but they usually seem more recent than they are.

Minor events may only be relevant to a small group of people, and may not have been reported in newspapers. But such events can sometimes be tied to other events where dates, or approximate dates, can be located.

For instance you might remember that a family event occurred around the time of the Lara bushfires. Using Auschron you could ascertain that those bushfires occurred on 8 January 1969.

You might be able to remember that a particular song was very popular at the time an event occurred, or that you saw a particular film, or sporting event at about the same time.  In this way you may be able to narrow down an approximate date for a small personal event.

This guide has pages relating to searching for events that occurred in Australia, or outside Australia. There is also a page on researching events relating to people through biographical sources.

Chronologies

Chronologies list events over a period of time.

For instance a yearly chronology may list events for every week of the year.

Chronologies covering a longer time period might list events by each month of the year.

Details of chronologies that might be helpful, both online and in print, are listed on other pages of this guide.

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Books

Books on subjects or people related to an event might be useful. There are many biographies of people associated with many different fields that can have reference to events you may be interested in.

Also there have been many histories of towns and suburbs written. You may find details of an event within a book about the area where the event occurred.

Bibliographies and footnotes

Bibliographies and references in books can also be useful for establishing details and dates of an event. Sometimes an event or related matter may be mentioned briefly in the text of a book.

The footnotes and bibliography may list often obscure and hard to find references in newspapers, journals or books.

Footnotes and bibliographies should include page numbers for the sources listed, so it is reasonably easy to check the reference.

Famous for a day

Newspapers report what happened every day and so are an excellent source for minor events.

Events that were moderately famous for a day and then forgotten may appear in newspapers.

The other pages of this guide give some tips for using newspapers to locate events.