Newsletter
- 1st October 2017
Worldwide
savings at Findmypast ENDS SUNDAY
Will
you qualify for a free LostCousins upgrade?
Derbyshire
parish registers online at Ancestry NEW
Warwickshire
parish records online at Findmypast NEW
MASTERCLASS:
Tracking down pre-1837 baptisms and marriages
Couple
married for 75 years: follow-up
The LostCousins newsletter is usually
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September) click here; to find earlier articles use the
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Worldwide savings at
Findmypast ENDS SUNDAY
Earlier this month I arranged an
exclusive discount deal with Findmypast, but it only applied at their UK site.
Now I know why - they were planning an international offer!
But you'll have to be quick - whereas my
exclusive offer ran for nearly a fortnight, you've only about a week to take
advantage of this one (it ends at midnight, London Time, on Sunday 8th October).
You'll also have to be careful to use my link (below) if you want to support
LostCousins and qualify for a free LostCousins upgrade.
So what's on offer? Findmypast are giving a handy 10%
discount on all NEW 12 month subscriptions at their
UK, Ireland, and Australian sites, and on NEW 12 month Premium subscriptions at
their US site. And, since Findmypast offer a generous 15% discount to
subscribers who renew, you can look forward to paying even less in 12months'
time (assuming there are no price changes).
Note: the Australian site incorrectly shows the
expiry date as 8th September, rather than 8th October, but the offer still works provided
you are not logged-in to Findmypast when you click the link above.
All World subscriptions are the same,
providing unlimited access to the entire Findmypast collection, which includes
over 8 billion historical records and articles, including many which aren't
available elsewhere, such as the 1939 Register for England & Wales, the
British Newspaper Archive, and parish registers that no other site has.
Will you qualify for a
free LostCousins upgrade?
If you take
up Findmypast's offer I'll give you a free LostCousins subscription worth up to
£12.50 for supporting LostCousins - just make sure that:
(1) you haven't installed ad-blocking software;
(2) tracking is enabled in your
browser (it will be unless someone has changed the setting); and
(3) when you click the link you can see the words 'content=LostCousins' on the
browser command line when you arrive at the Findmypast site (it might be off
the screen, but if so just place the cursor on the command line and move to the
right until you see it)
Why is
this important? Your LostCousins subscription will be funded by the commission
that Findmypast pay us - get it wrong and we'll all lose out!
To claim
your free subscription just forward to me the email receipt that Findmypast
will send you (you can use any of the LostCousins email addresses, including
the one I wrote from to tell you about this newsletter). Please make a note of
the precise time of your purchase in case the email doesn't
arrive - I must have that time to confirm your entitlement. Your LostCousins
subscription will run from the date of your Findmypast purchase unless you
already have a subscription, in which case I'll extend it by 12 months.
Feel free
to circulate a link to this newsletter to anyone you think might be interested.
Derbyshire parish registers
online NEW
Ancestry have just added the registers
for most parishes in Derbyshire, with millions of baptisms, marriages, and
burials - you can search the records here.
Although I don't have any ancestors from
Derbyshire - to the best of my knowledge - I'll be analysing the records for people
called Calver, since many people think that the surname originated there.
(There's a village called Calver close to Eyam, the
parish that was devastated by plague.)
Warwickshire parish records
online at Findmypast NEW
Until recently Ancestry had exclusive
rights to publish parish registers for Warwickshire - now Findmypast have
uploaded millions of Warwickshire records, most of them backed by images of the
relevant register entries.
Will this be the start of a new phase of
competition between the two big sites, I wonder? Although searching is free at
both sites, at Ancestry you have to pay to see any
useful information.
You can search Findmypast's Warwickshire
records if you follow this link.
MASTERCLASS:
Tracking down pre-1837 baptisms and marriages
Researching
ancestors who lived in England & Wales is usually fairly
straightforward until we get back to 1841, the date of the first census,
and 1837, the year that civil registration began. But then it becomes much
tougher, for a number of inter-related reasons. In
this masterclass I'm going to first talk through the problems, and
then explain how you can overcome them.
Why we need to use different techniques
When
we're researching after 1837 we can refer to the GRO indexes, which (in theory
at least) list everyone who was born, or married, or died in England &
Wales. Once we get to 1841 we can refer to censuses which (again, in theory)
list everyone in the country on a certain night. Best of all, those indexes and
censuses are available online, so anybody anywhere can get access to them.
But
before 1837 we don't have either of those available to us - prior to the
introduction of civil registration parish registers are by far the best sources
of early information (and often the only surviving documents that name our ancestors).
Most people were baptised, most of those who have descendants alive today got
married, and the one thing you can be sure of is that they eventually died, in
which case they'll almost certainly have been buried somewhere.
However,
even though the vast majority of baptism, marriage,
and burial registers have survived, the registers are scattered across the
nation. In most cases the original registers are held by the county record
office, which means you cannot go to any one record office - not even the
National Archives - and expect to find all the baptisms for (say) 1797. Indeed,
even if you visit the repository of the registers you're seeking the chances
are you'll only be able to view them on microfilm.
Many
registers have been transcribed, often by volunteers, and in some cases the
transcriptions have been made available online. However
you can't just go to one website and search through every parish register that
has ever been transcribed, because some transcriptions are available at one
site, some at another - and even if you have the time to visit them all, many
of the transcriptions are only available at subscription sites, so you may not
be able to access them. Furthermore, some of the transcriptions are only
available on CD ROM or on microfiche - usually through family history societies
- and many registers have NEVER been transcribed
Faced
with such a different situation some researchers just give up - research
pre-1837 is so different that they are scared to even try. Some try, but fail -
either because they don't fully understand how best to make use of the
available resources, or because they don't realise just how much is available
to them.
Because
of the way that records are scattered across the country, across the Internet,
and across different media, it's tempting to adopt an unfocused "where
shall I try next" approach. Now, I'm not a professional genealogist, but
one thing I do know is that professional genealogists always search logically
and methodically, and above all they record where they have
searched and what they have searched for. I can't count the
number of times members have written to me saying they've searched everywhere for
a certain baptism, yet when pressed they can't tell me which parishes they've
searched, which periods the searches covered, or even - in some cases -
precisely what surnames and spellings they looked for.
Start by gathering the evidence
First
collect all the evidence that indicates - no matter how obliquely - where and
when your ancestor is likely to have been born. Sources of information will
often include early censuses, marriage certificates, and death certificates -
all of which can be helpful, but can also be misleading.
Many
people didn't know where they were born, so often the birthplace they gave when
the enumerator came round is the place - or one of the
places - where they grew up. Some people didn't know how old they were - they
might have known when they were born, but that isn't the
question on the census form. It asks for their age, and not everyone was capable of subtracting one year from another,
particularly if the years were in different centuries.
Remember
too, that it was the householder who was responsible for completing the form
(or supplying the information to the enumerator) - the ages and birthplaces of
adopted children, stepchildren, servants and visitors are particularly unlikely
to be correct.
Search the IGI
Your
next step will often be to search the International
Genealogical Index at FamilySearch; the IGI probably has more parish
register entries than any other website, and yet it's free! Now and again I'm
lucky enough to find someone who looks as if they may be my ancestor, and has
a sufficiently rare name that there are unlikely to have been two of them
around in the same place at the same time. However, not many names are that
rare - indeed, many of the surnames we now think of as rare were once quite
common in certain parts of the country.
There
are two types of entries in the IGI - those that are described as Community
Indexed and those that are Community Contributed. The
former are extremely reliable, but the latter are very
variable - for example, there are many entries which are clearly not taken from
parish registers and are often simply conjecture. I suggest you start your
search with the Community Indexed entries; if you do extend
your search to the Community Contributed entries be sure to
check your findings against the parish registers before incorporating them into
your research.
If
you don't find the entry you're seeking in the IGI it's usually because the
register that contains the entry hasn't been transcribed and included in the
index. Although FamilySearch has at some point microfilmed most of the
surviving parish registers, only about half have been transcribed and indexed -
so half the baptisms and marriages you're looking won't be in the database at
all.
Tip: hardly any burials for England & Wales are included in
the IGI.
How
can you find out which registers are included? The simplest
way is to refer to Steve Archer's site (which
covers Scotland and Ireland as well as England & Wales). As well as listing
the years of coverage by parish and by event the site also gives the relevant
batch numbers - searching by batch number is not only a great way to limit your
search to a specific parish, it's a great way to overcome transcription errors
or entries that have been recorded incorrectly by the clergyman who conducted
the service (when you omit the person's name you'll get a listing of all the
entries in the batch).
What
should you do if the parish you're interested in is included in the IGI, but
you still can't find the entry you're looking for despite searching through the
relevant batch (in case there has been a major transcription error)? This
suggests that the event didn't take place where you think it did, or when you
think it did - or didn't take place at all (not all children were baptised).
Find out which other parishes are nearby
There
are at least two ways to do this. One is to use a 'parish locator' (such as the
free ParLoc program) to get a list of
all the parishes around the town or village where you believe your ancestor to
have been born or married. In the country you might use a 5
mile radius, but in London that could give you a list of 100 or more
parishes - so a radius of 1 or 2 miles might be more appropriate.
Tip: the nearest parish church may have been in a different parish
- the size and shape of parishes varies enormously.
If
you haven't been able to find the baptism or marriage you're looking for in the
IGI this strongly suggests that it's recorded in a register that isn't included
in that index, so you should go back to Steve Archer's invaluable website to
find out which parishes aren't included in the IGI for the relevant period -
and they’re the ones that to focus your attention on.
However my preferred solution is to use the
maps at FamilySearch -
these are wonderful but only cover England & Wales.
At
the old FamilySearch site you were limited to the IGI,
which hadn't been added to for many years - but the new FamilySearch site has a
wealth of other records. For example, there are 69 million baptisms in the
dataset described as England, Births and Christenings, 1538-1975,
and 16 million marriages under England, Marriages,1538-1973.
Many of these entries are also found in the IGI, but some are different. I
believe these records sets are based on the Vital Record Index which was
previously distributed on CD ROM.
Tip: many of the FamilySearch records will also be found at Ancestry
and/or Findmypast; similarly Findmypast have provided
FamilySearch with indexed census transcriptions. Being able to search the same
records at multiple websites can be useful, but be careful not to pay for
records that you could get for nothing elsewhere!
Although
you can search all of the transcribed parish register
entries with a single search from the FamilySearch home page, you won't find
any records that are only present as unindexed images. It's therefore essential
that you're aware of the unindexed images at the FamilySearch
site that may be of relevance to your research.
To
find out which records FamilySearch has for a particular
country, click on the map that you'll find here.
The
list of records is divided into two sections, transcribed records and untranscribed images. A
camera icon indicates which of the transcribed record sets have images
associated with them, but this doesn't necessarily mean you'll be able to view
those images, as some are only available within an LDS Family History Centre.
Tip: an often overlooked feature of the
new FamilySearch site is the 'wiki', which provides information about
individual parishes, often including details
of online sources of register transcriptions (follow this link to see an example).
Another
free site with a large collection of transcriptions is FreeREG - at the time of writing it has almost 20 million
baptisms, over 6 million marriages, and over 14 million burials in its
database. However, they're not evenly spread across the country: some counties
are very well catered for (Norfolk in particular), but others less so
- however it's fairly easy to see what is and isn't
there. Other volunteer-led projects include the Online Parish Clerk sites: they
don't exist for every county, but the counties with by far the best coverage
are Cornwall, with over 2.2 million entries last
time I checked, and Lancashire with nearly 8 million records.
In
the late 19th and early 20th centuries the contents of some parish registers
were published as books, and your best chance of finding them is through sites
such as the Internet
Archive, another free site, where a search for (say) 'Kent parish
registers' brings up a long list of registers that have been printed in book
form and digitised for all to see (you'd pay to see some of these records as
subscription sites!). Another similar site is Google Books -
inevitably there is a big overlap between the two.
A
straightforward Google search is always worth trying, as quite a few
individuals have transcribed parish registers and posted the results on their
own websites, and some record offices have information that you can search free
online, for examples Hertfordshire has a range of records
including a marriage index, whilst Medway Archives have posted registers for
their part of Kent online (not transcribed, but at least they are at your
fingertips - and free).
Subscription and pay-per-view sites
An
increasing number of parish registers and/or register entries are becoming
available online at Ancestry and Findmypast. When I first wrote on this topic
in February 2010 - less than 8 years ago - there were NO register images
available at either site, but now you can search Birmingham, Derbyshire,
Dorset, Gloucestershire,
Lancashire, Liverpool, most of London, Manchester Cathedral, Norfolk,
Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, West Yorkshire, and Wigan at Ancestry, and Cheshire, Devon, Hertfordshire,
most of East Kent,
Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Plymouth & West Devon, Rutland, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire,
Westminster,
much of Yorkshire,
and most of Wales
at Findmypast.
Note
that there is little duplication - archives generally license their records on
an exclusive basis, at least for the first 5 or 10 years, which is why most
serious researchers end up subscribing to both of the two
big sites (though not necessarily at the same time). Many public libraries,
especially in England, have a subscription to Ancestry or Findmypast, sometimes
both - so it's worth checking what's available in your area.
Tip: many cities and metropolitan boroughs have a record office
which holds the registers for their area, so that, for example, the Lancashire
collection at Ancestry doesn't include records for every town that was
originally part of the county. However Findmypast's
Cheshire collection does include Stockport, and also Warrington - which is now
in Cheshire, but was previously part of Lancashire.
Although
there are no images, the National Burial Index at Findmypast has over 12
million entries from 37 counties across England & Wales, and around 90% of
the entries are pre-1837. Findmypast also has an extensive range of transcribed
parish records thanks to their relationships with the Society of Genealogists
and the Federation of Family History Societies.
Durham
Records Online has 3.5 million transcribed records from County
Durham and Northumberland. The Joiner Marriage Index has over 2.7 million
marriage records from nearly 5000 parishes in 35 counties.
Essex Record
Office offer online access to most of their parish register
collection - and whilst the subscription is quite steep at £85 a year (the
cheapest subscription is £10 for one day), for many people with Essex ancestors
it's the most practical solution; many Essex wills are also included. I live in
Essex, but it would cost me more to drive to Chelmsford and back than to buy a 24 hour subscription, not least because of the cost of
parking when I get there. On the other hand, a visit to ERO would allow me to
access a wide range of other records which aren't available online.
Society of Genealogists library
Many
of the largest collections of transcribed records held by the Society of
Genealogists are available online to members: these include Boyd's Marriage
Index, which has particularly good coverage in some of the counties (eg Suffolk and Essex) that
are least well represented in the IGI; for a PDF list of all the online collections click here. Many of the records, including Boyd's Marriage Index are
also available through Findmypast.
The
Society of Genealogists has many more records in its library, including an
amazing collection of records on CD ROMs and microfiche collected by family
history societies and other organisations. In August 2017 an enormous
collection of microfilms which were previously held by the LDS London Family
History Centre was added. Non-members can use the SoG
library on payment of a fee, which ranges from £5 for 2 hours to £18 for a full
day - more details are available here.
Record offices and archives
When
you're within striking distance of the relevant record office there's no
substitute for visiting in person - but check first what's available online so
that you don't waste your time there looking up records you could just as
easily (or perhaps, more easily) have searched from the comfort of your own
home. When I was beginning my research I wasted a lot
of time searching parish registers that had already been indexed for the IGI -
I should, of course, have focused on the unindexed parishes.
Many
record offices and archives will do research on a paid basis - a typical charge
is £30 per hour, which sounds a lot but in my experience
is usually money well spent. However independent researchers usually charge
much less, and some record offices will provide a list (especially if
they don't offer a research service themselves).
Please bear in mind that the inclusion of a researcher on the list is not
necessarily an endorsement of that researcher, but local knowledge can be
invaluable.
The importance of the Register of Banns
One
of the key reasons we search for the marriages of our ancestors is to find out
the maiden names of our female ancestors (of course, if they gave birth after
1837 you'll usually find this information on the birth certificate). If the
couple lived in different parishes, which was not unusual, they had to decide
which one to marry in - and typically it would be the bride's parish that was
chosen. This creates a slight problem, because unless she survived until the
1851 Census we won't know where she was born (and even then, it wouldn't
necessarily be the parish where she was living at the time of her marriage).
Fortunately the banns register often comes to
our rescue. Most people married by banns, rather than by licence, and if the
couple lived in different parishes the banns would necessarily be read out in
both, and so would be recorded in the Banns register for both parishes.
However, there are not nearly as many banns registers available online as
marriage registers - you're more likely to have to have to pay a visit to the
record office.
Using the GRO's new online birth
indexes
In
November 2016 the General Register Office made available online indexes of
births and deaths which include additional information. In particular,
the mother's maiden name is now shown in respect of births from 1837
onwards, which not only makes it easier to locate the right birth entries, it
might enable you to knock down a 'brick wall' without purchasing the relevant
certificate(s).
Note: although this Masterclass relates to records from England
& Wales, many of the techniques described can also be applied to research
in Scotland, Ireland, and other countries.
Couple married for 75
years: follow-up
Many readers commented on the lovely story
of George & Jean Spears who died within a few hours of each other having
celebrated their 75th Wedding Anniversary a month before - and that was to be
expected.
What I didn't expect, however, was to
receive an email from a member in Canada who knew the couple well, and was
present when they met the Duchess of Cambridge. Indeed, the only reason that
the member concerned wasn't in the photograph of that encounter in the BBC
article is that it was taken over her shoulder!
If, like me, you watched Downton Abbey
from the beginning you will remember that the first episode was dominated by the
news that Patrick Crawley, heir-presumptive to the Earldom and the Downton
estate (and, it was hoped, the future husband of Lord Grantham's daughter Mary),
had perished on the Titanic.
Patrick was in line to inherit because
the Earl of Grantham had only daughters: in England male primogeniture determines
how titles are inherited, and when there is no male heir a title simply dies
out. For example, when the 9th Duke of Portland died in 1990 there were no
living male line descendants of Henry Bentinck, the 1st Duke - so the title
became extinct.
Note:
one Portland title did survive - Henry Bentinck was also the 2nd Earl of Portland,
a title he inherited in 1709 on the death of his father Hans William Bentinck. Henry
Noel Bentinck was a male line descendant of one of Hans' other sons, and became
the 11th Earl of Portland on the death of the 9th Duke in 1990. On his death in
1997 the title passed to his only son, Timothy Charles Robert Noel Bentinck, better
known to fellow LostCousins members as the actor Tim Bentinck, who plays David Archer
in the long-running radio series, and is a keen family historian.
When Queen Victoria came to the throne in
1837 she succeeded William IV as monarch of the United Kingdom, but she didn't become
the Queen of Hanover because there the royal succession was determined by Salic
Law, under which no female could succeed so long as there was a male relative. Instead
the kingdom was ruled by Ernest Augustus, the 5th son of George III, until his
death in 1851; without British protection Hanover was absorbed by Prussia in
1866.
A few years ago
I was privileged to attend a tea party at Abbey Farmhouse, the home of Lord
& Lady Braybrooke, whose family have owned the
Audley End estate for many generations. Abbey Farmhouse is almost opposite the
main gate of Audley End House, which was built 400 years ago on the site of
Walden Abbey so that the Earl of Suffolk - who was Lord Treasurer to King James
- could entertain his employer.
Coincidentally, the very first time I
visited the beautiful part of Essex where LostCousins is based was 50 years
earlier, when my late parents - having recently acquired their first car - joined
the tourists looking over Audley End House. I suspect they would have been
amazed to know that half a century later I would be taking tea with the family.
You're probably wondering what joins
these stories together…. well, in June this year the 10th Baron Braybrooke died at the age of 85, having fathered 8
daughters but no sons. As a consequence the title passed
to his 5th cousin under the rules of male primogeniture, whilst the estate -
which had been run by his daughter Amanda for many years - passed to Louise
Newman, the grand-daughter of the 7th Baron, who had declared in his will that
if any Lord Braybrooke failed to produce a male heir,
the estate should revert to his line.
Julian Fellowes, the creator of Downton Abbey, criticised the outdated inheritance
practices that had led to such a situation - though admitting that changing the
rules wouldn’t be easy. Nevertheless, in 2015 the laws governing the succession
to the British throne were changed (with effect from 28th October 2011, long
before the birth of Prince George) so that sons would no
longer take precedence over daughters.
Dali wasn't Dadi
Three months ago I wrote
about plans to exhume the remains of the artist Salvador Dali in order to
determine whether he was the father of Maria Pilar Abel Martínez, a tarot card
reader who was born in Girona, Spain. It turns out that Dali wasn't, in fact,
her father - so I wonder whether she will now consider testing with Ancestry or
Family Tree DNA in the hope of finding out who her father really was?
DNA testing has become popular amongst
adoptees (and those conceived as a result of sperm
donation) as a way of tracing their genetic parent(s), but it's not something
anyone should embark upon without serious consideration.
If you're an adoptee you might think
that the worst possible outcome is that you're rejected for a second time by
your birth parent(s), but the real tragedy, I suspect, would be to ruin
someone's life by turning up out of the blue.
Thanks to everyone who wrote in
following the article
in the last newsletter. Several members commented how useful it had been for
older or less able members of their family to watch funerals online using a
similar system to the one I described, but Christine went a step further, organising
everything herself so that a relative on the other side of the Atlantic could be
a virtual attendee at her mother's funeral.
It got me wondering why such a system
should be limited to funerals? Surely there are many relatives who are unable
to attend a wedding or christening, but would prefer to follow the ceremony in
real time, rather than simply seeing a video after the event?
I love the taste of tap water, so I
rarely buy bottled water in the UK - the exception is when I fly, when I
usually take advantage of the Daily
Telegraph offer (a free 750ml bottle of water when you buy a newspaper at
the airport).
On that basis I suppose I could argue
that all of the bottled water I buy is shipped by air:
but other than the main ingredient this is the only thing it has in common with
Svalbardi, water which comes from icebergs that are
thousands of years old, and sells at over £60 for a 750ml bottle!
I guess there are people out there with
more money than sense (though I doubt any of them read this newsletter!). I
shall stick to giving tips for people like me!
Update: 12th October - the extended
PDF trial has started at the GRO - it will run for a minimum of 3 months, so there's no
need to rush!
Peter Calver
Founder, LostCousins
© Copyright 2017 Peter
Calver
Please do NOT copy or
republish any part of this newsletter without permission - which is only
granted in the most exceptional circumstances. However,
you MAY link to this newsletter or any article in it without asking for
permission - though why not invite other family historians to join LostCousins
instead, since standard membership (which includes the newsletter), is FREE?