Newsletter
- October 23, 2014
North American Edition
Free access to Ancestry.ca immigration
records ENDS TODAY
Is this the best newsletter for you?
US National Archives Virtual Genealogy
Fair
First Canadian WW1 files online
100 years ago: Empress of Ireland sinks
The
Lost Empress: a new genealogical
mystery novel
DNA: Eve's closest relative turns up in
Africa
Testing mtDNA
23andme offer different DNA tests in
different countries
Keep fit and live longer?
Download a free Ancestor Chart
LostCousins is free this month ENDS OCT 31
Stop Press
Free access to Ancestry.ca immigration
records ENDS TODAY
Until midnight tonight (Thursday) Ancestry.ca are offering FREE access to all their Canadian
immigration records; bear in mind that even if your ancestors ended up in the
USA, they might still have arrived at a Canadian port.
Note:
if you haven't already registered you'll need to do so before searching.
The Quebec passenger lists compiled
by volunteers from the Nanaimo Family History Society are always available free
online - and whilst they only cover the period July 31, 1903 to October 13,
1910 there are over 750,000 entries!
Is this the best newsletter for you?
This is the North American edition of
the LostCousins newsletter, which is published occasionally; however if you have
British or Irish ancestry you might prefer to receive the Worldwide edition,
which is published twice a month. To change your preferences simply log-in at
LostCousins, then visit your My Details
page.
You can read the latest Worldwide edition by clicking here.
US National Archives Virtual Genealogy
Fair
Between Tuesday October 28 and Thursday
October 30 the National Archives and Records Administration will hosting an online genealogy fair. It's completely free, and
no registration is required - you can watch the presentations live on YouTube.
You'll find the schedule here
(all times quoted are Eastern Time).
First Canadian WW1 files online
Library and Archives Canada are in the
process of digitizing 650,000 service files for members of the Canadian
Expeditionary Forces.
It had been hoped that files for
soldiers with surnames beginning with A thru D would be online by the end of
the summer, but so far only A and part of B are
online (you can search them here).
However, even if your relative's service file isn't online yet, you should
still find his Attestation paper (these have been online for some years).
All of these records are available free
at the LAC
website. Library and Archives Canada hope to complete the project by the
end of 2015.
100 years ago: Empress of Ireland sinks
On 29th May 1914, just a month before
the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand which precipitated the Great War,
the Royal Mail Ship Empress of Ireland sank in the St Lawrence
River, less than half a day after leaving Quebec City.
840 passengers lost their lives, more
than in the Titanic disaster two years earlier, and more than
when a German U-boat sunk the Lusitania a year later - and yet
until a month ago I'd never heard of the Empress of Ireland. You
can read about the tragedy here;
there's a list of the passenger and crew here
from which you can see who survived and who perished. I know that at least 13
of those who died were close relatives of LostCousins members - were any of
your relatives on the ship on that fateful voyage?
The
Lost Empress: a new genealogical
mystery novel
This forgotten disaster provides the
backdrop to Steve Robinson's 4th novel to feature professional genealogist
Jefferson Tayte. The Lost Empress is available at Amazon.com and Amazon.ca as a paperback book, or in Kindle
format (if you follow the links I've provided you'll find a list of all 4
books).
But now I have to make a confession - whilst
the book was released only 2 days ago I was privileged to receive an advance
copy for review, so I'm already more than halfway through..... and as usual, I can't wait to find out how it ends!
What are your favourite genealogical
novels, and why?
DNA: Eve's closest relative
turns up in Africa
Mitochondrial Eve is
the name given to the woman who is the direct female ancestor of every human
being alive today, men as well as women. Estimated to have lived in southern
Africa between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago, she wasn't the first human female
- despite the name - nor was she the only female alive at that time, but every
other line has been extinguished (remember that whilst mtDNA
is inherited by both males and females, it is only passed on by females).
A skeleton dating from around 315BC, and
found in South Africa in 2010, has been recently identified as belonging to a
previously unrecorded branch of the human family tree, one that is closer to mitochondrial
Eve than any other.
Testing mtDNA
Mitochondrial DNA is rarely capable of
proving that two people are related on a genealogical timescale, but it can
often prove that they're not. When the skeleton believed to be that of Richard
III was found under a Leicester car park DNA tests demonstrated that it could
be Richard, but not that it was.
When we talk about people being related
'on a genealogical timescale' it means we could potentially find documentary
evidence of the relationship. However mtDNA mutates
relatively slowly - and this means that even if your entire mitochondrial
genome is an exact match with that of another individual there's only a 95%
chance that the shared matrilineal ancestor is within the last 22 generations
(600-700 years).
In practice most people who have tested
their mtDNA haven't tested the entire genome, and
this makes mtDNA results even less useful. If you
have an exact match on HVR1 there's only a 50% chance that the common
matrilineal ancestor is within the last 52 generations, or about 1500 years! It's
not surprising that Family Tree
DNA have stopped offering basic mtDNA tests, and now only offer mtDNA
Plus tests at $69, or full sequence tests for $199.
23andme offer different DNA tests in
different countries
In the USA 23andme
offer a $99 autosomal DNA test for $99 - but if you live in Canada you'll have
to buy their $199 test which also offers health-related information.
In Europe most family historians choose Family
Tree DNA, even though they're a Texas-based company, because their price of
$99 for a Family Finder test is very competitive. This means that whilst Family
Tree DNA have a smaller database it's more widely spread - which also makes
their test attractive to North Americans with European roots.
Nobody likes getting old - but as the
saying goes, "it's better than the alternative"; now it seems that
exercising can help to extend our lives.
Recent research
at Columbia University in New York suggests that maintaining muscle mass as we
get older might enable us to live longer. Apart from the obvious practical
reasons - people with weaker bodies are more likely to fall - it appears that
muscle also acts as the body's store for amino acids, which are the building
blocks of protein. This means that the less muscle you have, the fewer reserves
there are for your body to call upon in times of crisis.
Exercise also has a useful side effect -
it helps us to lose weight. Cutting down our food intake is another option -
but this article
published on the BBC website two weeks ago suggests that there's a third way.
Apparently reheated pasta is significantly harder for the body to digest than
freshly cooked pasta (so maybe those chilled meals in the supermarket are
healthier than they appear?).
But wouldn't it be even easier if they
could invent an anti-ageing pill? Goodness me, it seems they already have! According
to an article in New Scientist earlier
this month several medicines that are already being prescribed for other
treatments have the side-effect of extending lifespan!
Last chance to book your place in the sun?
If you have British or Irish ancestry you
might be interested in the Genealogy in
the Sunshine course I'm running in Portugal in March 2015. The inaugural
course, in March 2014 was highly successful, and next year we'll be able to accommodate
more attendees.
Although next year's Genealogy in the Sunshine is still 5
months away, most of the places have already been taken - which is hardly
surprising when you consider that you get a chance to hone your genealogical
skills and acquire a suntan at the same time!
You'll find more details about the
course here.
Portugal might seem a long distance, but there a quite a few Canadians who have
already booked their places (most of them also came this March), and there will
also be delegates from the USA and Australia.
Download a free Ancestor Chart
If you know anyone who's just starting
to research their family tree, why not give them a printout of the Ancestor
Chart which you can download from the LostCousins site? It's a great way to get
them started....
LostCousins is free this month ENDS OCT 31
Until the end of October you can connect
with living cousins through the US 1880 and Canada 1881 censuses even if you
haven't bought a LostCousins subscription. It's a great opportunity to search
for other researchers who share your ancestors.
Tip:
if you've for gotten how LostCousins works, I suggest reading the page for new
members - click Read
this first
This is where I'll post any last minute
additions.
Thanks for taking the time to read the
newsletter - I hope you find it useful. And if so, why not encourage the family
historians you're in touch with to join LostCousins?
Peter Calver
Founder, LostCousins
© Copyright 2014 Peter Calver
You
MAY link to this newsletter or email a link to your friends and relatives
without asking for permission in advance. I have included bookmarks so you can
link to a specific article: right-click on the relevant entry in the table of
contents at the beginning of this newsletter to copy the link.
Please
DO NOT re-publish any part of this newsletter, other
than the list of contents at the beginning, without permission - either on your
own website, in an email, on paper, or in any other format. It is better for
all concerned to provide a link as suggested above, not least because articles
are often updated.