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Getting started at LostCousins
by Peter Calver
It's surprisingly easy to search for living relatives
at the LostCousins site, and in this article I'm going
to demonstrate how you can use census information you've found using free
searches at Ancestry.co.uk to connect with your living relatives.
Start by clicking here to go to the 1881 England Census search page, or here
for the 1881 Wales Census (I'm going to use an example from the English
census):
As you can see, I've typed in the name of my
great-grandfather, John Calver, and entered his approximate date of birth (ages
are often wrong on the census, but hopefully a 5 year
range will be sufficient
I could enter more information in the other boxes on
the form but there's the danger that some small discrepancy will prevent the
right record being found - unless you're looking for someone with a very common
name it's best to enter as little as possible on the Search form (you can
always enter more if necessary).
Here's what I get when I click the button:
The third entry down is the one I'm looking for - my
ancestor was born in Great Barton, Suffolk and although his birthplace isn't
shown quite correctly, my great-grandmother was definitely
called Emily.
Tip: it's
usually best not to enter a birthplace when you're searching the census because
they were so often written down incorrectly, or mistranscribed.
And a surprisingly large number of people simply didn't know where they were
born - you might well know more about where your ancestor was born than he did!
When I click View
Record I get the following page, which shows all the members of his
household:
This is great - on a single page I've got all the
information I need to be able to enter my great-grandfather and his family at
LostCousins! I usually print the page for easy reference, but it isn't
essential.
Now open another tab in your browser (or another
browser window), log-in to your LostCousins account, and click My Ancestors in the menu that runs down
the left hand side of the screen:
Tip: if you
haven't entered any relatives on your My Ancestors page the 'How to use this
page' advice is displayed by default; once you start entering information it
will be hidden, but you can make it visible again by clicking at the top
right.
To enter your first relative click at the top of
the page (as you'll see shortly, there's a quicker and easier way to add
someone to an existing household):
The instructions on the form are there to help you,
and answer most of the questions you might have; they vary depending on the
census. Always start by checking that the correct census is selected - if not,
click the arrow and choose the right one from the dropdown menu, ie:
The form might look a bit daunting the first time, but remember what I said about the printout from
Ancestry - it contains ALL of the information you need. Start by entering the
census references - these are important because they identify the precise page
on the census (out of over a million pages) where the household can be found:
I've highlighted the census references just in case
you didn't spot them. You'll also find them on the Source tab. .
The good news is that you only need to enter these
references once for each household - and whilst households can be split over
two census pages, for simplicity we use the references for the head of
household to cover everyone.
Next enter your relative's surname, first name, middle
names or initials (if shown on the census), and age:
Note that on this part of
the form you don't need to worry about entering capital letters - however you
type a name it will end up with the first letter, and only the first letter,
capitalised. This saves you time and ensures consistency.
Next choose the appropriate
relationship - this is important. Someone from whom you are directly descended
is a direct ancestor - this includes
your parents, their parents (your grandparents), their parents (your
great-grandparents), and so on as far back as you've been able to research.
Tip: you can download a blank Ancestor Chart from the
LostCousins site - it's got spaces for 5 generations of your direct ancestors,
all the way back to your 32 great-great-great grandparents. The Ancestor Chart
shows a number for each which defines their position on your tree - entering
the Ancestor (or Ahnentafel) Number in the box provided is a very good idea
(although it isn't compulsory).
Most of the people on your
family tree - and most of the people you'll be entering on your My Ancestors page - are blood relatives - so called because they
share some of your ancestors (and some of your DNA).
Not everyone on your tree
shares your ancestors - there will be some who are only connected to you by marriage, and there could also be some
who are related by adoption (legal or otherwise - remember that in England & Wales
adoption was only legally regulated from 1927).
Note: it's
also possible to enter people who aren't on your tree, but why you might want
to do that is beyond the scope of this article. However
it's worth mentioning now that you shouldn't enter your spouse's relatives or a
friend's relatives (because the LostCousins system won't work properly);
instead open a separate LostCousins account for the other person, even if
you're the one doing the research on their behalf (you can use your own email
address if you wish).
That's all the information that needs to be entered.
But if you wish you can also complete the optional part of the form - this
might include corrections or information such as a married woman's maiden name.
Whether you add this optional information is up to you - it's primarily for
your own use - but I do recommend that if your relative's surname is shown wrongly you enter the correct spelling and that you also
enter maiden names where known. Information you enter in the optional part of
the form isn't automatically capitalised.
Finally click to save
the information you've entered - here's an example of what you'll see next:
Now that you've entered the
first person in the household, usually the head of household, the next step is
to enter the other members. Remember that I said earlier that this would be
easy - I can simply click the symbol
at the end of the line to add another member of John Calver's household:
All the information on the form has been filled in
automatically - all I need to enter for my great-grandmother Emily is her
forename, her age, and her relationship (she's also a direct ancestor, or
course).
So whilst it might have taken you 30 seconds to enter
the first person in a household, the others could take 10 seconds or less -
typically an entire household will take just 1 or 2 minutes:
Once you've finished
entering your first household click to start on the next - it really IS that easy!
The more relatives you enter the more cousins you're likely to find - not just
immediately, but over the course of your membership - so if you have time,
enter ALL the relatives you can find on the 1881 Census.
Tip: whilst you're entering relatives only the current
household is shown - this makes the process much faster, especially for those
members who have thousands (!) of entries
The most exciting part is when you search for 'lost cousins', which you can do at any time by clicking the button. Each time you press the button EVERY entry on your My Ancestors page - not just the most recent - is compared against the millions of entries made by other members, yet you'll find out in a matter of a few seconds what new matches have been found!
More tips
·
If you don't want to print out the page at Ancestry which
shows the household you're planning to enter another option is to open a second
browser window (rather than having two tabs in the same browser window) - this
enables you to see the page at Ancestry whilst you're entering the data on your
My Ancestors page. Or use a second
device such as a tablet or a smartphone.
·
Perhaps surprisingly, the relatives most likely to link you
to your 'lost cousins' aren't your direct ancestors or the members of their
households, but the members of their extended families. Nevertheless it makes
sense to start by entering the
households of your direct ancestors - just don't stop there!
·
More of your cousins have entered relatives from the 1881
Census rather than 1841 or 1911; if you're looking to connect with new cousins
it's best to defer entering anyone from 1841 or 1911 until you've entered everyone
you can find in 1881. That said, a good way rto find more relatives in 1881 is
to start in 1841, then trace each branch and twig through to 1881.
·
Relatives in a household are shown in the order of entry so,
if it's important to you that they appear on your My Ancestors page in the same order as on the census, then that's
the order in which you should enter them. However, it won't affect your chances
of finding cousins because the site matches individual relatives, not
households.
·
Households are shown on your My Ancestors page in the
order of the census references; if there are two households on the same census page
they will appear as a single household. Again, because we match individual
relatives, not households, this won’t affect your chances of finding ‘lost
cousins’, but if you want to separate them there is an article in this newsletter
which shows how to do it.