Newsletter
- 26 February 2012
LostCousins members scoop top prizes!
Irish court records now online
More merchant seamen records at
findmypast
Bill saves $250 on his Ancestry
subscription!
Old FamilySearch link bounces back
Hertfordshire registers to be digitised
Pictures from an exhibition
Doing things the old way....
The simple way to check or update an
entry
Titanic stories
Interviewing older relatives - useful guidelines
Wearable camera jogs failing memories
How to get the most from this newsletter
Finding the answers through DNA
Can you succeed where MI5 failed?
Peter's Tips
The LostCousins newsletter is usually
published fortnightly. To access the previous newsletter (dated 12 February
2012) please click here.
Whenever possible links are
included to the websites or articles mentioned in the newsletter (they are
highlighted in blue or purple and underlined,
so you can't miss them).For you convenience, when you click on a link a new
browser window or tab will open (so that you don’t lose your place in the
newsletter) - if nothing seems to happen then you need to enable pop-ups in
your browser.
To go to the main LostCousins
website click the logo at the top of this newsletter. If you're not already a
member, do join - it's free, and you'll get an email to alert you whenever
there's a new edition of this newsletter available!
LostCousins members scoop top prizes!
Last year I encouraged members to enter
the Federation of Family History Societies competition, which invited entrants
to write an essay of up to 1000 words about the most interesting person in
their family tree.
I'm delighted to announce that at the
Awards Ceremony yesterday at Who Do You Think You
Are? Live the 1st prize was presented to LostCousins member Tony Martin,
whose tale of the relative who inspired the character of Eliza Doolittle was
published for the very first time in this newsletter (click here if you'd
like to read it again).
But that's not all - the 2nd prize also
went to a LostCousins member, Chris Pavett!
I've always believed that LostCousins
members were a cut above the average - they're certainly more experienced than
the people you'll meet on other sites - but it's good to have this independent
confirmation. Apart from the glittering prizes showered on them by the FFHS Tony
and Chris have also received prizes from me of a 3-year subscription and a 2-year
subscription to LostCousins - and I'm sure that all of you will wish to join me
in congratulating them on their fantastic achievements.
Irish court records now online
For a long time researchers with Irish
ancestors have struggled to find 19th century records online, but now findmypast Ireland has made available 1.2
million Irish Petty Sessions records from
the period 1850-1910 (the original records are held at the National Archives of
Ireland). Most records have comprehensive details of the case including the
name of the complainant, the name of the defendant, the names of witnesses, the
cause of complaint, and details of the judgement, including the fine or
sentence handed down. You'll find more detailed information on the records if
you follow this link.
A further 15 million cases are to be
added during 2012, and these court records build on the firm base provided by
the 3.5 million prison records already
available at findmypast Ireland.
More merchant seamen records at
findmypast
In conjunction with the National
Archives, findmypast.co.uk has added a
further 359,000 records to their collection of records for merchant seamen. The
latest batch covers the period 1835-57 and
whilst the information given in individual records varies, it can include name,
age, place of birth, physical description, ship names and dates of voyages.
Findmypast already has records covering
the period 1918-41. Wondering whether
some of the relatives you can't find on the census may have been at sea? Why not carry out a free
search and see whether there are any names that you recognise - where
available the year and place of birth are shown, even in the free search
results!
Another nautical collection recently
added is the Thames Watermen and Lightermen records, which run from the 17th century to
the 20th.
Bill saves $250 on his Ancestry
subscription!
Following my article in the last
newsletter Bill in Australia decided not to renew his Worldwide
subscription through Ancestry.com.au, but to
subscribe through Ancestry.co.uk
instead - net saving $250, or enough to pay his LostCousins subscription for
the next 16 years! Instead of paying $449.95 he paid just £135.13 (which is just
under $200 at the current exchange rate). Even the Special Introductory Price
for new subscribers of $299.88 represents a 50% premium compared to the UK
price.
How on earth does Ancestry manage to
charge some members more than twice as much for the same subscription? By
giving it slightly different names in different territories, and pricing it in
different currencies (the latter is understandable, but the former is
questionable).
Tip: a few members have asked where they could
find out about exchange rates - I recommend XE.com,
a free site that will convert any sum from one currency to another instantly.
Always allow 2-3% extra for the commission that your bank adds on.
Ancestry currently charges more in
Australia than anywhere else, but there are also useful savings to be made if
you currently have either a World Explorer subscription at Ancestry.com or a
World Deluxe subscription to Ancestry.ca - indeed, having heard how little some
members have paid, it seems the savings are even bigger than I anticipated in
my previous article
(still, it's better to have a pleasant surprise than an unpleasant one, isn't
it!).
Ancestry may try to redirect you to the
site in your country, but as long as you use the links
I provide this shouldn't happen.
Tip:
once you have a Worldwide subscription you can log-in at any of the
Ancestry sites worldwide and get access to the same datasets - so switching
your subscription to the UK site doesn't mean you have change your research
habits. Thanks to Dianne in Canada for reminding me of this important point.
Old FamilySearch link bounces back
I'm delighted to say that following my
last newsletter FamilySearch reinstated the home page link from the new site to
the old one. However, OldFamilySearch.com,
the site I set up to fill the gap isn't going away - I'll be adding more
information, more links, and more articles just as soon as I have time.
Hertfordshire registers to be digitised
One of my great-great grandfathers came
from Hertfordshire, so I was delighted by yesterday's announcement at Who Do You Think You Are? Live that findmypast will be digitising the parish
registers and making them available online. In the early days of my research I
spent many, many days at Hertfordshire Archives poring over microfilmed
register pages, and whilst I know that I can't possibly have looked at all of
the 3.5 to 4 million records that findmypast are putting online, at the time it
certainly felt like it!
Findmypast aim to have the records
online during 2012 - so hopefully I'll soon be able to knock down some of the
'brick walls' in that part of my tree. Another major dataset due for release at
findmypast during 2012 is the Welsh parish registers - and I'm looking forward
to that release too, as they'll be very useful for dealing with the 'brick
walls' in my wife's tree. If you have Welsh ancestry and want to know more
you'll find the original announcement here.
I took a few photos while I was at Who Do You Think You Are? Live on Friday,
and thought that those of you who aren't able to be there might like to see
them (I've put them on a separate web page to avoid cluttering up the
newsletter): click here
to see them.
I couldn't resist including this picture,
however - it's the Missing Persons board from the Genes Reunited
stand. When I first started researching my family tree it was a real challenge
to find people researching the same ancestors, and that board reminds me of the
books at the Family Records Centre where visitors would note their surname
interests and contact details (not many email addresses in those days).
The other option at that time was the
surname interests lists maintained by family history societies, most of which
weren't online (or were only accessible by members).
Then came along came Genes Reunited in
2002, which offered a much more practical solution to the problem by putting
the information online and covering the whole country, rather than doing it county
by county. But even that wasn't a perfect solution, since you had to keep
repeating the same searches in case someone had posted new information since
you last checked. This problem was later partially solved with the introduction
of 'hot matches', though this also created new problems, since the matching
system was wrong most of the time, resulting in extra work and eventual
disappointment. Like many others, I'm sure, I wondered whether there might be a
better way? There was....
LostCousins launched in 2004 - providing
100% accurate automated matching and allowing a much higher degree of privacy
and confidentiality than any site before or since. It's still not a perfect
solution, because it requires members to spend a little time entering their
data from the 1881 Census - but remember that it's something that only needs to
be done once (from then on everything is automatic).
Isn't it worth an hour of your time to
find a new cousin?
The simple way to check or update an
entry
Want to amend an entry on your My Ancestors page? It couldn't be easier
- simply click on the person's name, make the changes, and click Confirm to save them. Don't make a
second entry then delete the first one - it takes a lot longer.
Want to add someone new to an existing
household? That's easy too - just click on the name of one of the other members
of the household (preferably one with the same surname), and most of the
information will be filled in automatically - usually you'll only need to enter
the forename(s) and age.
Tip:
although there are three ways that your My Ancestors
entries can be sorted, the Household option is by far the most useful. Simply
click the button next to Household at the top of the page.
Want to check whether the entries you've
made are correct? That's also very easy to do if they are from the 1881 or 1911
England & Wales census. Simply go to findmypast
and choose the census reference search (or
click here).
Note:
you don't need a subscription, if fact you don't even need to register or
log-in to check most of the data.
Choose the appropriate census from the
drop-down menu and enter the piece number in the first box. Then, if you're
checking a household from 1881 fill in the folio and page number boxes; for
1911 simply enter the schedule number in the final box - all the rest can be
left blank.
When you click Search you'll see a list of all the individuals on that census page
or schedule, and you can quickly an easily check that the names match your
entries. A common error is to enter middle names and initials that aren't shown
on the census form, so that's the main thing to look out for.
Tip:
if you don't get any results, or if the results don't include your relatives,
then this suggests that one or more of the census references you have entered
is wrong.
If you want to see the ages of the
members of the household click View
in the Household Transcript column -
it usually doesn't matter which member of the household you pick, but it is
good practice to choose the head of household. At this point you will need to
log-in, and - if it's 1911 Census you're interested in - you'll also need to be
a findmypast subscriber.
Tip:
if necessary you can check your relatives' ages free by switching to the 1911
Census site, which shows both names and ages when you carry out a free search.
Choose the Full person search and click the Show advanced fields
button.
If you're an Ancestry user you may
discover that they don't always give the Schedule Number. In the case of
institutions the Schedule Number is usually 9999, and you can check this by
carrying out a free census reference search at findmypast.
In the last newsletter I asked whether
any members had family links with the Titanic, since the centenary of the
disaster is fast approaching. Mary in the US directed me to Encyclopedia
Titanica, a site that collects information about
all of the passengers and crew who were aboard that fateful April night.
Bill told me about his great uncle, John
Lovell, who was a 3rd class grill cook on the Titanic. Sadly his body was never
identified - one of many, I'm afraid. John was born in the workhouse, and whilst
he never married he supported his widowed sister Elizabeth, who had a young
son. After the disaster she claimed from the Titanic Fund, and was awarded 31
shillings a week, a sum roughly equivalent to John's wages of £6 10s a month
(plus 3 guineas to pay for false teeth).
Dave in Canada related an interesting
tale about his 2nd cousin twice removed Harry Bartram
Faunthorpe, who travelled with his wife Lizzie - or
rather, he travelled with Elizabeth Anne Wilkinson, who he passed off as his
wife. Whether they were planning to marry isn't known, but it seems that after
the disaster she reverted to her maiden name, though not before claiming the
money and jewellery that was found about Harry's person when his body was recovered.
Dave tells me that she also attempted to sue the White Star Line, owners of the
Titanic for $10,000 as compensation for the loss of her husband - though nobody
seems to know whether the suit was successful. I wonder whether she stayed in
the USA (she had an aunt in Philadelphia) or returned to Manchester, where her
family lived?
At the National Archives website I found
a podcast
focusing on the crew of the Titanic, and what it must have been like for the
families they left behind - you might find it interesting.
Interviewing older relatives - useful
guidelines
A
month ago LostCousins member William Turner reminded us how important it is to
talk to our relatives while they are still with us, and this prompted Catherine
Stewart, another member, to submit an article of her own - one which deals with
the important issue of interviewing techniques.
In family history, the oldest relatives
we have are a treasure chest of gold and jewels, but just like Long John
Silver, you can lose it all if you fail to follow the treasure map properly. Fortunately,
accessing the treasure trove of elderly relatives' family history knowledge is
actually quite easy, as long as you follow five basic principles: Patience is the Virtue; 'what' you ask is never as important 'how' you ask; your silence is golden, sincerity and sensitivity are your watchwords, and plan it as a marathon, not a sprint!
When seeking the help of elderly
relatives, you can eliminate most issues by thinking
ahead. Think about your relative – are they active or infirm? Make an
appointment (no matter how silly this seems) at least a fortnight in advance
and be clear about why you are calling and then ALWAYS follow this up with a
letter (no text or email).
The letter should clearly state day,
date, time and venue; it should reiterate exactly why you are visiting.
Specifically ask him or her to 'write down any stories (not 'anecdotes') you remember being told when you were
young' and then, as a bullet-point list, (not paragraph), ask your relative to
'look out' any photographs, birth, marriage, or death certificates, baptism
certificates, obituaries, postcards, letters, medals, ration books, schoolbooks,
report cards, wills, deeds, knick-knacks, keepsakes, lockets, cufflinks, rings,
etc. Do NOT use terms that - whilst familiar to seasoned researchers - might
not be intelligible to others, for example 'genealogy', 'educational', 'BMD',
'ephemera', and 'memorabilia'. Be specific not vague: after all, your relative
may have 70, 80 or even 90 years of memories to sift through!
Make contact a couple of times
beforehand and, if you have to postpone the appointment, make a definite
rearrangement of date and time. If you think your relative will need a bit of
support, you might take someone with you - ideally someone in their age bracket
and if possible their sibling or relative. But remember, you have to note down
the information they are giving you, so having more than two people talking
away is going to be difficult to follow.
Do your pre-preparation. A4 pad and pen
is ideal. A laptop can intimidate and distract your relative; however, a camera
phone can be a handy aid. You could also take a Dictaphone, but you should
explain to your relative what you are doing then put it out of sight, so it
doesn't put them off.
Family history isn't just about the sort
of things that can be found in official records. To really understand someone's
life it's helpful to know about their hobbies, favourite foods (and dislikes or
allergies), health and physical characteristics, skills and ineptitudes. I find
that Rudyard Kipling's '6 honest serving men' – who,
what, where, when, why and how - cannot be beaten for covering all the bases.
When you arrive, you must be organised
but also relaxed - remember you are there to interview not to interrogate.
Once you've got your 'starting cuppa', ask them to show you anything they've
been able to find out and jotted down. These will focus your relative's mind.
How you ask your questions is crucial in
two ways. First, wording: 'Birthdate', 'siblings',
''occupation', 'denomination' will cause your relative's brain to concentrate
on the construction of the question instead of what you want, the content.
E.g., 'Have you any siblings? What is your birth date/occupation?' versus 'Have
you got any brothers and sisters? When's your birthday? What was your job?'
Second: context. We're all egocentric;
We to remember events in the context of how they impacted on 'me', rather than
other people, so you get the 97 year old who can clearly remember stubbing his
big toe at six, but isn't sure when his brother had his arm amputated in a farm
machinery accident. As far as possible relate all of your questions to your
relative: How old were you... Where were
you... What did you do... Did you use Brylcreem, Did you
like liquorice?
If you've done your preparation
correctly, you will have memorised or have to hand a timeline of key dates
which you can use to help you fix your relative's memories 'in time'. So, for
example, 'you were six in 1926 when the General Strike was on, do you remember
it?' 'Oh yes, no rubbish was collected, everything stopped'. Had your older
sister Bette got married by then or did it stop her wedding?'
The strongest memory triggers are not
sight and hearing but smell and taste - if you can take with you a bag of
'proper' old fashioned mint humbugs or carry a hankie with Olbas
oil because your great-granddad always smelled of it your relative's memories
will receive powerful stimuli. Getting your relative to reminisce about Charles
Boyer or Joyce Grenfell may unlock relevant personal
memories. The conversation may meander and double back, but you can always
bring
it back on course.
Having asked a question, LISTEN! Silence
doesn't mean that your relative didn't understand the question - it usually
means they are accessing their memory banks. Do not interrupt as this will
break their concentration - when they have finished you can go back over it.
For example, if you ask "Did you have any your brothers and sisters?"
and the response begins "There's our Jack, Bert, Betty..."
wait until your relative has finished speaking before trying to clarify with
questions like "Was he Jack or John".
Ask related supplementary questions. For
example, "Did he have a middle name?" might lead to the discovery
that Bert was really George Bertram. A
great question is: "Were you/your brother/sister named after anybody?",
or, "Why did your mum and dad name you.......?".
If you're lucky you'll find yourself being told information and stories about
ancestors several generations before your relative's. My grandmother's name
came from Megan Lloyd George, highlighting her father's politics.
Tie in the memorabilia they have and use
it with your non-standard' questions: if you get responses like "our Alice
could sing like an angel but, by heck, she'd got three left feet" then you
are doing your interview properly. It should be a voyage of discovery.
Lastly, stay but don't over-stay.
Ideally arrive shortly after lunch, and stay till tea-time/early evening, but
no longer. You want an enjoyable afternoon of reminiscing not 'mental
exhaustion'. Emphasise the long-term nature of your project and offer to pop
back now and then and keep them up to date. This opens the door for more visits
to clarify and find new information - it is unlikely they will remember
everything at the first attempt, no matter how alert and sharp they are.
That's it, except for one caveat which I
think is important enough to emphasise: sensitivity, not just by you, but shown
towards you.
I started to research my family history
aged 12 and my sincere enthusiasm combined with my age meant I was 'forgiven'
my unwitting tactlessness. I was vocally astonished that my great-grandmother
gave birth to four children (including twins) in just under
two years; I did not initially realise that 60 years later her reticence was
her grief – one twin died aged 6 weeks, the other of the same cause at 3
months; Nan was just 25 years old when she lost her children.
Remember who you are may colour your
relative's answers and disclosures. As a teenager I was often told 'more than
intended' because of my enthusiasm and youth, but being female meant that some
less salubrious facts were not disclosed (it took me several years to discover
my great-great-grandfather died indirectly due to alcoholism). Your status as
the granddaughter of their favourite brother or the sister they'd never gotten
along with also has an impact.
You also need to factor this into your
dealings with other relatives. Often adult children, or a spouse, can take
umbrage because they believe that "if that were true I would have known'.
Sometimes how one person in the family remembers an event may not be how someone
else does, and you can get caught in the middle of their historic relationship
issues. I was given sensitive details of a marriage breakdown by a 95-year-old
relative whose 65 year old daughter (unaware of my source) irately declared it
'nonsense'; I had to fudge the issue of who'd told me, but when I checked back,
she was 6 years old, so I was safe in discarding her immature memories and
accepting those of her mother, who'd lived through it as an adult. It's easy to
forget that the adult you may be talking to today might only have been a young
child unable to grasp the full import of events taking place.
Wearable camera jogs failing memories
What a great idea! Microsoft have developed a wearable
camera to help people with Alzheimer's or other forms of short-term memory
loss to recall what they've been doing. It can be set to take pictures at
regular intervals, or when somebody approaches - or even when the wearer moves
from one room to another. It's not cheap at £299 plus VAT (although some will
be able to claim a VAT exemption), but when you consider that's no more than
the cost of 4 days' stay in a nursing home, it could turn out to be a
remarkably good investment. You'll find more details here.
How to get the most from this newsletter
Through corresponding with members I've
discovered that even the most regular readers of this newsletter don't always
know how to get the best from it. First and foremost, whilst you may find it
easier to read the newsletter on paper, when you do that you can't click on the
links - and if you don't you're missing out on an awful lot! So make sure that
you have the newsletter up on the screen as well.
Did you realise that you can control the
type size and the line length? Changing the line length is very, very easy -
all you need to do is change the size of the browser window (hold the mouse
pointer over the right-hand edge until it turns to a double-ended arrow, then
press the left mouse button). How you change the font size depends on which
browser you're using, but in the latest versions of Firefox, Internet Explorer,
and Chrome it’s simply a matter of holding down the Ctrl key and using the
scroll button on the mouse to zoom in or out.
Would you prefer it if
my newsletter was provided as a PDF file? There's a simple solution - use this free online converter.
Simply copy the address of my newsletter and paste it in the URL box, choose
your preferred paper size, then click Convert.
Finding the answers through DNA
When all else fails, sometimes DNA
testing provides the only chance of breaking down 'brick walls'. Of course, DNA
testing is used for all sorts of purposes - medical and criminal as well as
genealogical - but the one company whose name keeps coming to the fore is Family Tree DNA, who
were once again at Who Do You Think You
Are? Live. They claim that 90% of genealogists chose them, and certainly
from my discussions with people who know far more about this
topic then I do, that statement seems to be justified.
In recent years a lot of rubbish has
been talked about DNA testing: after all, the two main tests only provide
information about two of our lines - the ones that go up the edges of our
family tree. Calling them paternal and maternal tests can make it sound as if
they are comprehensive - after all, we only have one mother and one father -
but you have to look behind the marketing blurb at the reality of what the
tests can achieve.
However, there are much more intriguing
possibilities from the latest tests. Here’s a quote from the Family Tree DNA
website:
"Family
Finder uses autosomal DNA (inherited from both the mother and father, four grandparents, eight
great-grandparents, etc.) to provide you a breakdown of your ethnic percentages
and connect you with relatives descended from any of your ancestral lines
within approximately the last 5 generations."
Autosomal DNA comes from the 22 chromosomes that we inherit
from both our mother and our father, not just from the X and Y chromosomes. It
presents the intriguing possibility of finding people who are our 3rd or 4th
cousins no matter which ancestors we share, whereas conventional Y-DNA and mtDNA tests can only find relatives who direct male or
female line connects with ours (for the male line this is the equivalent of
only finding cousins who have the same surname as we do). If - like me - you
have one or more direct ancestors within the past 5 generations who were
illegitimate or adopted, then tests of this type could be the only way of
finding the vital clues that enable us to knock down those seemingly
impenetrable 'brick walls'.
Can you succeed where MI5 failed?
Documents recently released show that
MI5, the British intelligence agency, tried to trace Charlie Chaplin's birth,
but could find no evidence that it had ever been registered, even though by
1889 there was a large fine for failing to register a birth. You'll find more
details here on the BBC
website.
Wouldn't it be a great achievement if a
LostCousins member was able to succeed where MI5 failed? You might even find my
Masterclass article
on finding elusive births useful!
When is a bargain not a bargain?
Surprisingly often! Wandering round the show yesterday I noticed the Ancestry
were selling Family
Tree Maker 2012 Platinum for the 'show offer' price of £39.95, yet last
time I checked Amazon
were selling it for £38.99 with free shipping (and until recently it was even
cheaper). Mind you, even at that price it was still cheaper to buy two copies,
each offering 6 month's free Premium subscription, than to take advantage of
one of Ancestry's other show offers - 20% off a 12 month Premium subscription.
Similarly, there have been many
occasions when I've noticed large packs of fruit or other food in the
supermarket marked as 'better value' or 'best value' when in reality a smaller
pack was cheaper because it was on special offer. Another trick is to make the
Value range look less appetizing, as a way of encouraging shoppers to trade-up,
and it's not just done with tawdry packaging - a few weeks ago I was buying 1kg
packs of 'soft citrus' in Tesco for just 92p, whereas smaller packs labelled as
satsumas or tangerines were selling for double the
price, though the quality was no better. (It reminds me of the way Ancestry use
different names for the same subscription in order to charge different prices
for the same thing - see the article above.)
It's Sunday morning as I write this, and
I've just enjoyed a delicious breakfast! You can't beat freshly-squeezed orange
juice for breakfast - or can you? After many years of
squeezing oranges I one day remembered how in my soccer-playing youth we used
to be handed orange quarters at half-time (and jolly good they were, too). Ever since we've been quartering oranges - far quicker, easier, and
healthier than squeezing them.
Talking of breakfast, when it comes to
porridge (or porage) I insist on using jumbo oats
(there are several brands - you may need to buy Organic, but it is well worth
paying the extra, believe me!). I never use the recipe on the pack - one cup or
mug of oats to three of water or milk is so much quicker and easier. Confession:
I frugally use water rather than milk, then indulge
myself by adding soft dark brown sugar and cream when it's in the bowl. Mmmmm!
When you're buying a major item such as a
fridge, a washing machine, or a vacuum cleaner - you want it to last for years,
so there's no point buying a cheap model that's going to fall apart. That's why
for most of the past 50 years I've been a reader of Which? magazine, published by the Consumer's
Association - and why you should take up their offer of a trial issue for just £1 (subscribers to
the magazine also get access to the reviews online, so you don't have to keep
the copies that come through the post once you've read them). Which? also has
a separate free service called Which? Switch for people who want to
cut their gas and electricity bills - I use it every time the prices change to
make sure that I'm still with the cheapest supplier. Have you checked recently?
You don't need to be a Which? subscriber to
take advantage of the Which? Switch service.
I was surprised to see that The
Oldie had a stand at Who Do You Think You
Are? Live. Why? Because a couple of years ago one of their columnists made
disparaging comments about family historians. Mind you, they make disparaging
comments about just about everything - it's that sort of magazine! I've been a
subscriber for many years, but would probably have started earlier had they
been running as good an offer as the one that's on now: 3 issues for just £3.
Click here to find out more.....
Are you researching your spouse's
ancestry? Or are you both family historians? I'm constantly surprised how few
members take advantage of the discounted LostCousins subscription for husband
and wife. A joint subscription, covering two accounts, costs £12.50 - just
£2.50 more than a single subscription - but you'll only be offered this option
if you have linked the accounts together. Even if you're not intending to
subscribe now, it's a good idea to link your accounts together now - simply
copy your partner's membership number (shown on their My Summary page) and enter it in the appropriate box on your My Details page.
Finally, a useful tip
for Ancestry
subscribers. Did you know that if
you cancel your subscription (to avoid it being renewed automatically) the
cancellation doesn't take effect until your existing subscription runs out? In
fact, I often cancel the same day I take out a subscription - after all, since
they don't offer any form of Loyalty Discount, why should I commit myself to
renewing?
Stop Press
This where any last
minute amendments will be recorded or highlighted.
Please keep sending in your news and
tips - many of the articles in this newsletter result from suggestions from
readers like you!
Peter Calver
Founder, LostCousins
© Copyright 2012 Peter Calver
You
may link to this newsletter, but please email me first if you would like to
re-publish any part of it.