Newsletter
- 17th April 2016
Ireland
1916: Easter Rising records go online FREE UNTIL 27th APRIL
A brief
history of the struggle for independence
Irish
Quaker records at Findmypast
Getting
the most out of ScotlandsPeople - free Edinburgh talks
FFHS
renews partnership with Findmypast
Free
online genealogy course at FutureLearn
Royal
Navy pension records online
Findmypast.co.uk
20% saving ENDS TODAY
Lambeth
Archives unexpectedly closed
Adoption
and the challenges it presents
Can you
get a DNA test for £5?
Taking
a DNA test won't affect the cost of insurance - here's why
Humans
and Neanderthals - the Y and the wherefore
In
England you can call yourself anything you want - or can you?
The LostCousins newsletter is usually published
fortnightly. To access the previous newsletter (dated 11th April) click here; to find earlier articles use the
customised Google search below (it only searches these newsletters, so you
won't get spurious results):
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). If one of the links doesn't work this normally indicates that you're
using adblocking software - you need to make the
LostCousins site an exception (or else use a different browser, such as
Chrome).
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!
According to this article
in the Wall Street Journal, Permira - the London-based
private equity firm that took Ancestry private in 2012 has sold most of its
stake to an American private equity firm called Silver Lake, and the Singapore
government. Permira is said to have tripled its
investment, although this doesn't necessarily reflect a tripling in the value of
Ancestry - no doubt some financial engineering was involved.
I'm indebted to Dick Eastman for
pointing out the WSJ article in his blog
(by the way, you'll find a picture of Dick - which I took - on the WDYTYA.live website).
Ireland 1916: Easter
Rising records go online FREE UNTIL 27th APRIL
It's almost 100 years exactly since the
Easter Rising in Dublin which led eventually to the founding of the Irish Free
State.
The
National Archives at Kew have 75,000 documents from this period, many of which
were originally intended to be kept secret until 2022 - see the image on the
right (which is Crown Copyright, and reproduced by courtesy of The National
Archives and Findmypast).
From today until 27th April these
records will be accessible completely free of charge at all four Findmypast
websites - you will need to register, if you haven't already, but you won't
need to provide credit card information or bank details.
You can access the records using any of
the following links:
After that date they will be included in
the Ireland, Britain, and World subscriptions.
According to the Findmypast press
release:
"More than 3,000 people were
injured or killed in a conflict which saw three civilians killed for every one
rebel. The records reveal the impact that the conflict had on men, women and
children across Ireland. There are eye-witness accounts, interviews with
civilians and reports of the trials of the leaders of the Rising and their
sentences of execution.
"The once classified records shine
new light on the subsequent period of Martial Law in Ireland which was declared
by the Lord Lieutenant in 1916, including the War of Independence, when the
British military assumed control of the executive, judiciary and legislative
arms of the entire country.. The contents of the collection provide a picture
of what life was like for ordinary citizens in Ireland during this turbulent
time.
"The 25,000 search and raid records
show the efforts of the military and police to discover arms, ammunition and
seditious material through thousands of raids as well as their search for
individuals associated with Sinn Féin, Irish Citizen
Army, Irish Volunteers and the Irish Republican Army. Members of the public
accessing the records on Findmypast will find the names of the thousands of
people who were detained and interned in prisons in Ireland, England and Wales
and tried by courts martial, including the names of prominent nationalists and
elected officials.
"Military correspondence between
the barracks in Dublin and the War Office in London grants new perspectives on
the motivations and fears of the British Army leadership. The movements and
actions of several key nationalist figures are also documented, including those
of James Connolly, Eamon De Valera, Thomas Ashe, Joseph MacDonagh,
Arthur Griffith, Padraig Pearse and Francis and
Hannah Sheehy Skeffington and Countess Markievicz."
Ancestry have also recently added records from the same era, but
they're currently not available free;
Ireland,
Intelligence Profiles, 1914-1922
Ireland,
Courts Martial Files, 1916-1922
A brief history of the
struggle for independence
I didn't learn much from history at
school - in fact, History O level was the only exam I've ever failed in my life
- and in any case we only studied the period up to 1914.
As a result my very limited knowledge of
the struggle for Irish independence was largely informed by living and working
in London in the 1970s and 1980s when IRA bombings were sadly not uncommon.
Like many people, I suspect, I gained the impression that it was mostly about
religion, but reading some of the documents, particular those in the file illustrated
about it's clear that economic factors were also behind the clamour for Home
Rule (you can read them here).
Indeed, some of the arguments used were
quite similar to the ones being used today by those who want the UK to leave
the EU - which is quite ironic given how popular EU membership is in modern day
Ireland.
I found a wealth of information about
the historic relationship between Britain and Ireland here
on the UK Parliament website - it's well worth reading
if, like me, your knowledge of the history of the conflict is limited.
Note:
I'm sure there are widely-differing views on many of the issues - I am not
endorsing what it says on the Parliament website, in Findmypast's press
release, or in the documents in the archives.
Irish Quaker records at Findmypast
Findmypast have released over 1.2
million records in the first phase of a project to put all surviving Irish
Quaker records online. There are now only 1600 Quakers in Ireland according to
the official Quakers in Ireland website, but at the time of the potato famine
in 1845-48 there were 3000 (out of a population of 8.5 million).
Most of the records in the collection
are congregational records, but there are also births, marriages, and burials;
there are also 16000 migration records, most of which record migration within
Ireland. You can search Findmypast's Quaker collection here.
Getting the most
out of ScotlandsPeople - free Edinburgh talks
Iain Ferguson (of the ScotlandsPeople
Centre) will give three presentations, including hints and tips, on how best to
search the records on the ScotlandsPeople search system. These free talks will
take place at New Register House, Edinburgh, and booking is required (see the
Events page on the National
Records of Scotland website).
The dates and times for the three talks
are as follows:
Friday 29 April 2016, 2-3pm
Friday 3 June 2016, 2-3pm
Friday 8 July 2016, 2-3pm
FFHS renews partnership
with Findmypast
The Federation of Family History
Societies and Findmypast last week announced a 10 year extension to their exclusive
partnership - they originally joined forces in 2007. Over 48 million records
from more than 100 family history societies are included.
At the show last week I spoke to Peter
Christian, one of the leading lights of GENUKI, about the changes that are
taking place at the site, which is one of the hidden gems of British genealogy.
I understand that the addresses of the pages won't be changing, so links will
continue to work - what will be changing is the way that content is managed. In
future it will be easier for contributors to change and add to their entries,
so we can expect to see more regular updates than we're used to.
Tip:
if I'm looking to find out about a particular parish or registration district I
find that Google search for 'placename GENUKI'
usually comes up trumps!
Free online genealogy
course at FutureLearn
Following the article on my last
newsletter I've received a lot of comments, overwhelmingly positive, from
members who signed up for the first presentation of this course, which is now
in week 5 out of 6.
It is still possible to sign up for the
current course, but perhaps more interesting is the link that asks for people interested
in the next presentation of the course to register their interest. Find out
more here, on the FutureLearn site.
Tip:
many of those who commented on the course also remarked on the favourable
comments about LostCousins that had been posted on the course forum. The more
members who join the more cousins we'll find - so thanks to all those who
mentioned LostCousins!
Royal Navy pension
records online
Just over a week ago Findmypast uploaded
more than 900,000 Royal Navy and Royal Marine pension records from 1704 to 1919
- you can search them here.
To the best of my knowledge I don't have
any direct ancestors who served in the Royal Navy, but I know that a couple of
their brothers joined up - however I couldn't find them in the records, so they
may not have qualified for pension. I did wonder whether some of my collateral
relatives who seem to have disappeared off the face of the earth might have
gone to sea, but there was insufficient information in the records I looked at
to determine whether it was my relative or someone with the same name.
I also noticed that whilst the records
purport to cover the period up to 1919, there were in fact no records at all after
1899, and precious few after 1870. It may be that Findmypast will be adding
more records at a later date.
Findmypast.co.uk 20%
saving ENDS TODAY
The offer in my last newsletter, which
offers a 20% saving on a new 12 month Britain or World subscription at
the Findmypast.co.uk site ends at
midnight tonight (Sunday 17th April). Although the offer doesn't apply to
existing subscribers, lapsed subscribers can take advantage of it - just click
the link above.
Anne Harvey is a very experienced family
historian, who joined LostCousins back in 2004 - but I first came across her as
a writer of feature articles in family history magazines. However you will also
have come across her name in this newsletter in January of last year, when I
wrote about her first novel - which I found extremely enjoyable (you'll find the
review here).
I was delighted when Anne agreed to
write an article for this newsletter based on one of the 'brick walls' that she
encountered during her own research. Perhaps it will inspire you to solve a
mystery in your own tree?
Sometimes breaking down brick walls involves as much
guesswork as detective work, as my own search for my grandfather demonstrates.....
When I first started investigating my family history
in 1987, I started with my maternal grandfather, William Morris, who’d been
killed at Gallipoli in 1915. A short article in our local journal reported that
William Morris was "Missing in Action, believed killed". His body was
never found but, via the War Graves Commission, I discovered that he is
commemorated on the Helles Memorial at Gallipoli.
From a fragile army document, I knew he’d previously
spent some time serving with the Lancashire Fusiliers. Presumably, with the
onset of war in 1914, he’d been recalled, even though, at the age of 39 and
with five children, he shouldn’t have had to serve. From this, I calculated
that he’d been born around December 1876 in Hull, Yorkshire. Yet I could find
no record of a birth for him, despite checking three years either side of 1876.
Without that and his mother’s maiden name, I was stuck.
I knew that his father was a Welshman called Jonathan Morris.
At that time, there were no censuses online, meaning hours spent trawling
census records for Horwich, Lancashire, in record
offices. Eventually, I found the family in the 1891 census; Jonathan Morris,
born Abergele, 1845; Hannah Maria, born Whydmore (sic),
Norfolk 1844; William, born Hull, Yorkshire, aged 14. Whydmore
turned out to be Wymondham, pronounced Wyndham, Norfolk. Presumably,
a problem with accents for the enumerator. There were no siblings for
William who might have provided a vital birth certificate to give me Hannah
Maria’s maiden name. Neither could I find a marriage registration for Hannah
Maria and Jonathan.
Over the years, as more information became available,
I returned to the problem. When the 1881 census came online, I could search at
home. After doing a variety of searches, I ended up with a hundred or so
entries for Jonathan or John. One of them leapt out at me; a John Morris, born Abergele in 1845, living in Wymondham, Norfolk. Clicking on
the ‘household links’, to my delight, I discovered my grandfather, William,
born Hull, 1876. Except that his surname was Palmer! Hannah Maria was simply
listed as Maria Palmer, married.
There were two William Palmers registered in Hull in
the relevant period but a quick check with the local register office showed
that neither of the mothers were an Hannah/Maria. The 1871 census, found Maria
Palmer lodging with two brothers, again in Wymondham, but there was no sign of
a husband.
In the meantime, I compiled a list of all girls named
Hannah/Maria born around 1844 in Wymondham, using the 1851 census. There were
about 15 of them and I spent the next couple of years trying to eliminate them,
either marrying them off or burying them. Eventually, I was left with about six
of them with no clue to what had become of them. There the problem stalled for
another year or so.
Then, William Morris’ photo appeared in a Photo
Detective series in a now-defunct family history magazine, together with a
brief summary of my search. As a result, someone contacted me to say she’d
found a marriage of an Anna Maria Buttolph to a James
Palmer in 1869 in a parish adjoining Wymondham. I remembered that Anna Maria Buttolph was one of the girls from the 1851 census I’d been
unable to find information about. The marriage certificate showed that Anna
Maria’s father was a John Buttolph, living at The
Lizard, Wymondham, as shown on the 1851 census.
Jonathan Morris was a widower by the 1911 census but
when had Anna Maria died? I searched the death registrations between 1891 and 1911
and eventually found an entry in the December quarter of 1891 in the Forehoe registration district, which included Wymondham. A
death certificate proved beyond doubt that Anna Maria Buttolph
was my great-grandmother for the informant was John Morris, residing at the Horwich address in the 1891 census. I can only assume that
she was visiting her family and had died suddenly.
I’ve never been able to find a marriage for a Palmer
to a Morris anywhere in the country so can only assume that they were never able
to marry, presumably because James Palmer was still alive.
So was my grandfather the child of Jonathan Morris?
I’d like to think so because William claimed him as next of kin during his army
service and, to my late mother, he was always ‘Grandad.’
© Anne Harvey 2016
I'm very much looking forward to reading
Anne's second novel (Bittersweet Flight), which came out on
March 29th. I'll be reviewing it in a future newsletter, but if you enjoyed the
first book as much as I did I don't suppose you'll wait!
I would never advise a family historian
to buy anything other than a Windows computer - most of those who switch are
persuaded to do so by their children or grandchildren who seem to think it will
make life easier. True, the Mac Book Air is light and has a good battery life -
but there Windows laptops that are just as good, if not better.
When you switch from Windows to Mac
you're often writing off all the software you've bought previously, and in some
cases this could also mean losing the data you've created. You've also got to
learn a new operating system - and whilst the Mac OS might be simpler than
Windows for someone new to computers, it's hard to see how someone already
familiar with Windows is going to find switching easier.
On top of this there are relatively few
Mac programs for family historians - and hardly any programs exist in both
formats, which makes switching difficult. It is possible to run Windows on modern
Mac computers, but it costs extra, runs slower, and is more complicated - and
in any case, it seems that not all Windows software will work when you go down
this route.
My wife and I recently bought identical ex-demo
HP laptops which are incredibly fast (just 7 seconds from pressing to the power
button to the sign-in screen), come with Windows 10, and have full HD
resolution touch screens. Yet we both paid under £400 (mine was under £350
because I took advantage of an eBay offer).
Of course, I wouldn't try to persuade a
Mac user to switch to Windows - stick to the devil you know, is my advice!
Note:
if you're a similar age to me you may recall that "Have you got a light,
Mac?" (response "No, but I've got a brown overcoat") comes from
a 1967 Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band track by the
incomparable Viv Stanshall, who like me grew up in
Essex - if you're feeling nostalgic you'll find it on YouTube here.
Lambeth Archives
unexpectedly closed
Lambeth Archives has been closed since
Friday 8th April - staff only learned about the closure when they arrived for
work. There is a brief notice on the website:
Until more information becomes available
we can only speculate on the nature of the 'security issues'.
Adoption and the
challenges it presents
Frances Lake, a LostCousins member for
many years, has kindly contributed this article describing her experience:
I recently read the article on Contacting
Living Relatives and the follow up.
As some of your readers may know, I was active in the
campaign to get the law changed last year to allow descendants access to the
birth records of their adopted deceased relatives and I am pleased to report
that it is now possible for prescribed relatives to access such information
through the use of an intermediary agent.
Some people, quite reasonably, ask why it is necessary
to use an intermediary agent. They say, for example, I only want access to the
original birth certificate, I don't want to contact living relatives - but the
desire to take your research to the next level is very strong. That is why, in
the drafting of the change to the Adoption Act, a lot of thought went into the
matter of privacy and finally it became clear that Government would only grant
access to original birth information if the relative seeking access was
counselled by an intermediary. The reason for this is that the intermediary
agent must be certain that the relative is going to behave in a responsible
manner on receipt of the information. If, in the process, living relatives are
discovered, the agent has the skills to contact people in a discreet way and
negotiate contact.
I felt the
sadness of the writer of the article in the Lost Cousins newsletter, who was
aware that a living person had 'priceless information' but would not share it.
He is correct, some people are still, even in these enlightened days,
uncomfortable discussing personal matters like illegitimacy and poverty and,
hard thought it may be, I believe we have to respect their right to privacy,
but don't give up, try getting someone else in the family to approach the
person with the information you want, they may be more comfortable talking to someone
else. Or consider engaging an
intermediary agent.
It was gratifying that the writer obtained some
pleasure out of sharing his knowledge so widely with his cousins and it was a
job well done, but, like many of us, he has found that there are always gaps in
our knowledge and that is what drives us on.
I am pleased to report that since the change in
Adoption law and regulations, I have received feedback from many descendants
who have written to tell me that they have had happy reunions with lost relatives,
but, sadly, there are also some not so happy stories - not everyone wants
contact and, for example, my own father's adoption court file was supposed to
have been lodged with the London Metropolitan Archives, but when the time came
to access it, they could not find it. Maybe it will turn up one day.
Frances Lake
Founder and Co-ordinator:
Descendants of
Deceased Adopted Persons Group
Can you get a DNA test for
£5?
The price of DNA tests has dropped
dramatically, but I was amazed last week to discover an article on the BBC News site
which suggested that it was possible to get a test for under £5. Since the date
of the article was 1st April my first thought was that it was a joke, but a
Google search turned up newspaper articles with similar information and earlier
dates which were clearly referring to the same test.
However as I investigated further I discovered
that although the test kit cost a mere £4.99 in a supermarket, you had to pay
another £99 to get the results - so it wasn't quite the outrageous bargain it
seemed.
Note:
the article was updated after I complained to the BBC on 12th April, so what
you'll see now isn't what I originally saw.
But there's another problem when you
take a DNA test provided by a company other than one of the big three firms
that I've written about in my series of DNA articles - the tests simply aren't
compatible. For example, the autosomal DNA tests that are offered by the
genealogical testing companies analyse in the region of 600,000 SNPs (single
nucleotide polymorphisms) from across the genome - they're looking at
individual bases out of the 3 billion or so pairs.
By contrast the tests offered by
companies that specialise in paternity testing and forensic testing use a much
smaller number of markers called STRs (short tandem repeats). These have the
advantage that they are more easily analysed when the samples are degraded or
mixed, but because the number of markers tested is so small (perhaps as few as
24 or even fewer) and the results aren't stored in publicly-accessible
databases, they're of extremely limited value to genealogists.
Here are links to last year's series of
DNA articles - if you're ever tempted to order a DNA test from a company not
mentioned in those articles please get in touch first, as you're likely to be
making an expensive mistake!
Understanding DNA #1: your genetic
inheritance
Understanding DNA #2: mtDNA myths
Understanding DNA #3: the truth
behind DNA tests
Understanding DNA #4: how DNA is inherited
Understanding DNA #5: choosing the right test
Understanding DNA #6: choosing the
right company
Understanding DNA #6: choosing the
right company (continued)
Taking a DNA test won't
affect the cost of insurance - here's why
I recently received an email from a member
suggesting that some family historians might be worried that taking a DNA test
would push up the cost of medical insurance.
It's a realistic concern - but the good
news is that almost all of the DNA tests offered to genealogists have no medical
relevance, because they test different parts of the genome. There is one
company - 23andMe -which in some countries offers a dual-purpose test, but the
cost is so high that few family historians are likely to even consider it.
Humans and Neanderthals
- the Y and the wherefore
This week's New Scientist has an article which briefly reports some interesting
research which shows that although most humans have inherited some Neanderthal
DNA (typically 1%-4%) there are no remnants of the Neanderthal Y-chromosome in
modern human males (you can also read about the research in this BBC article).
The scientists came up with some
complicated theories why this might be the case, but I look at this more simplistically
- perhaps human woman simply didn't fancy Neanderthal men?
In England you can
call yourself anything you want - or can you?
I've always thought that in England we
could choose whatever name we like - and there some people who have really
weird names.
In 2009 a BBC News article revealed that
there are people called Justin Case, Paige Turner, and Bard Dwyer, whilst an
earlier article in
2005 questioned whether there were really children called Ikea. My research
shows that in fact there were 6 babies named Ikea between 1996-2004,
as well 4 called Aldi, and 2 called Asda - though you have to go back over a
century to find someone named Tesco or Sainsbury.
But when Laura Matthews from Essex
wanted to change her middle name from a Elizabeth to a
somewhat less than conventional Skywalker, the Passport Office refused to
accept it, on the basis that it was an infringement of a trademark. Yet there
are over 100 people whose first name is Nike - though admittedly she was a goddess
before she became a running shoe - and there are about 10 boys whose forenames
are Luke Skywalker (perhaps one day they too will have trouble getting a
passport?).
There was some great news this week from
GiffGaff, the mobile phone network that my wife and I use, and which I've
recommended on a number of occasions in this newsletter - from 28th April the
cost of calls we make and receive while in other EU countries is going to
reduce dramatically, from 15p to just 4p a minute for outgoing calls and from
4p to a mere 0.5p a minute for incoming calls. Sending a text will be just
1.5p, and mobile data 4p per megabyte (which means collecting emails and simple
surfing will be easily affordable).
Whilst many people whinge about the EU,
this is one of those occasions where ordinary people like you and me are going
to benefit - all providers have been forced to reduce their roaming charges. I
should mention, however, that the super-cheap GiffGaff rates in the second
column are only for people who have a current Goodybag
- anyone on pay-as-you-go will have to pay the same rates for outgoing calls,
texts, and data as they would in the UK.
Because I don't make a lot of calls, some
months I'd save money with pay-as-you-go, but I prefer to pay a little more for
peace of mind - Goodybags start at £5 a month, and
there's absolutely no commitment to renew (although there is an option to renew
automatically, if that's what you prefer). I no longer use my home phone for
outgoing calls because it's cheaper to use my mobile - how things have changed!
To switch to GiffGaff you'll need an
unlocked phone (although you should be OK if it's locked to O2, as GiffGaff
runs on the O2 network). Unlocking phones is cheaper and easier than ever
before, provided you're out of contract, but I always buy unlocked phones for
maximum flexibility.
Tip:
I don't usually buy new phones - I buy second-hand or reconditioned phones at a
fraction of the original price. For example, my current phone - a Samsung
Galaxy 4 Note in perfect condition - cost not much more than £200, against more
than £600 when it was first launched in late 2014.
If you're tempted to switch to GiffGaff please
follow this link
- you'll be able to order a free SIM and we'll both get £5 extra credit
when you top-up for the first time.
This is where any last minute updates
and corrections will be highlighted - if you think you've spotted an error
(sadly I'm not infallible), reload the newsletter (press Ctrl-F5) then check here before writing to me, in case
someone else has beaten you to it......
That's all for this issue - I'll be back
soon with more news from the wonderful world of family history..
Peter Calver
Founder, LostCousins
© Copyright 2016 Peter Calver
Please
do not copy any part of this newsletter without permission. However, you MAY
link to this newsletter or email a link to your friends and relatives without
asking for permission in advance - though why not invite them to join
LostCousins instead as standard membership, which includes this newsletter, is
FREE?