Newsletter
- 1st January 2013
New
Year resolutions for family historians
Good
news - findmypast offer extended
Free
credits offer also extended
Three
days left to save at Family Tree DNA
Was
Queen Victoria a good mother?
Earl
of Essex's legacy lives on
Preserving
your family's history
The LostCousins newsletter is
usually published fortnightly. To access the previous newsletter (dated 25
December 2012) please click here; for an index to articles
from 2009-10 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,
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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!
New Year resolutions
for family historians
Here's a list of resolutions that will
make a real difference - not just to your research but also to you and your
relatives.
Check your older research - does it
need updating or revising in the light of newly-published or newly-discovered
data?
When I started to research my family
tree in 2002 there was hardly any information available online, and I know that
most LostCousins members have been researching even longer than I have. I bet there
are parts of your tree where you could add lots of extra information now that
there are so many online resources.
Focus on different lines
We all tend to focus on particular family
lines - it's natural to follow our paternal ancestors and our mother's paternal
ancestors. This is understandable - after all, they're the surnames that we're
most familiar with - yet in terms of who we
are, not just genetically but in other ways, our other ancestors are just as important.
I suggest that in 2013 you research the 'forgotten' lines - you may be surprised
what you discover!
Tip: often this bias is reflected in
the entries on our My Ancestors page - we enter lots of relatives from one or
two lines, but few from others. Why not give all of our
cousins a fair chance to link up?
Handle some original documents
So much of our research is inert -
looking at transcriptions or onscreen images, peering at gloomy microfilm. For
once ask to see some original documents when you next visit an archive - even
if it's not immediately obvious how they might be relevant to your research. I
find that handling old documents helps to bring history to life - and I suspect
you will too!
Check your contacts list - and get in
touch with any relative you didn't communicate with in 2012
Finding cousins is the easy bit -
keeping in touch with them is more difficult. But they're not only useful
sources of information, they're our flesh
and blood, so we owe it to them - and to ourselves - to keep in touch.
Tip: it can be difficult keeping track
of so many relatives, especially when you've discovered them in a multitude of
different ways - and that's why I find it useful to use the My Cousins page to
keep track of everyone, including the relatives I've met on other sites (you
can even note when you last contacted each person). To add relatives you
already know to your My Cousins page either click the 'Connect to a member you
already know' link, or - if they're not already members - invite them to join
using the My Referrals page.
Remember that it is better to give than
to receive
At this time of year it's particularly
appropriate to remember that - especially where our own relatives are concerned
- we should be focusing more on giving, and less on taking. Ask not what
research, photographs, and certificates your cousin can give you, but what you
can give your cousin.
Think the impossible
So many of the 'brick walls' that we're
faced with seem impossible to scale, so why not try an experiment - after all,
you've got nothing to lose. Imagine for a moment that you have already found
the answer you're seeking - feels good, doesn't it? Now ask yourself how you
did it - I bet you'll come up with at least one new approach, and quite
possibly several ways of cracking the problem.
Learn a new technique
When we first start our research we're
forced to learn new ways of doing things, because we don't have any old ways of
doing them. But as seasoned researchers we tend to stick to what we know, often
shying away from learning new ways of doing things - especially if it means
accepting that the old ways aren't quite good enough. For you it might mean
going back over your research and noting the source of the information, even if
it is a secondary source (such as someone else's tree). There's nothing worse
than being unable to answer the question "Where did that information come
from?"
Visit your local archives
Even if your ancestors didn't live in
the same part of the country, visiting your local archives will enable you to
get a better feeling for the types of records that you generally won't find
online, from militia lists to rate books, creed registers to electoral rolls.
You might even decide to find out more about the area where you live - local
history and family history have a lot in common.
Join a family history society
Most family history societies have
transcriptions or microfiche copies of registers that are only available to
members (or are available at discounted prices), and quite a few offer a
research service, again only to members. You might even be able to contribute
to a society, by becoming a transcriber, a volunteer,
or an officer.
Visit your nearest FamilySearch Centre
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints not only operates the FamilySearch
website, the biggest online repository of free genealogical information in the
world, it also provides FamilySearch Centres all over the world, where anyone -
not just Church members - can access both online and microfilm resources. For
example, members in Australia often feel disadvantaged, but with over 120
FamilySearch Centres across the country most of the population live within easy
reach of at least one. You will be amazed by how much information is available
free - click here to find your nearest Family History
Centre.
Try
some different websites
We all have our favourite websites, but
it's important to remember that whilst there's an overlap between the records
you'll find at different websites - most have the censuses and GRO indexes -
other records are often unique to a particular site.
For example, Ancestry
and findmypast
both have lots of military records from the National Archives but they don't
overlap. It's the same when it comes to passenger lists: Ancestry has the incoming
passenger lists, whilst findmypast has the outgoing
passenger lists (which on the whole are the more useful).
For some records from the National
Archives you'll have to look beyond the two big sites: The Genealogist
has non-conformist registers and pre-1858 PCC wills (which you can also search
at the TNA site).
Most public libraries in England (and
many in other countries) have subscriptions to Ancestry; a few have findmypast,
and a very small number offer both. By using resources at libraries (or at
records offices, family history societies, and FamilySearch centres) you can
greatly expand the range of records available to you at little or no cost!
Tip:
it’s not too late to claim the free credits that findmypast are offering to
LostCousins members - see the article below.
Good news - findmypast
offer extended
2013 starts off with some very good news
- findmypast.co.uk have agreed to extend the 10% discount offer that I arranged
before Christmas. If you haven't already told those of your friends and cousins
who are family historians, why not send them a link to this newsletter right
now?
Here's how you and your friends can save
up to £16 on a findmypast.co.uk subscription and get a free LostCousins
subscription worth up to £12.50 (total saving up to £28.50). The offer is open
to non-members, but you will need to register as a LostCousins member before
claiming your free subscription.
I recommend you read the instructions all
the way through before starting the
process, because there are some important bits at the end.
(1) Click here to go the findmypast.co.uk website (it will open in a new
tab or browser window), then either register or log-in (if you have registered
previously). If you aren't taken to the Subscribe page automatically, click Subscribe in the top right hand corner.
(2) Enter the exclusive offer code LCXMAS in the Promotional Code box, and
click Apply to display the discounted
offer prices.
(3) Choose the subscription that's best
for you, bearing in mind that 12 month subscriptions offer by far the best
value (because the second 6 months is almost half price).
The new World subscription includes Ireland, Australia
& New Zealand, and the USA (click
on the country name to see precisely which records are included).
If you're only interested in British records
then I'd strongly recommend the Full subscription rather than the Foundation
subscription, which only offers basic records and is therefore most suitable
for beginners. The wealth of additional datasets you get with a Full
subscription are well worth the small additional cost, especially when you
consider that a subscription to just one of them - the newspaper collection -
would cost £79.95 if purchased separately.
(4) If during the process you are logged
out for any reason, or if your credit card isn't accepted, you must start again
at step (1) to ensure that you qualify for your free LostCousins subscription.
(5) When you receive your email receipt
from findmypast forward a copy to me so that I can verify your entitlement (you
won't find my email address on the website, but it is in the email I sent
telling you about this newsletter). Your free LostCousins subscription will run
for 6 or 12 months and can include your spouse or partner as well - just make
sure that the two accounts are linked together before you write to me
(the Subscribe page at the
LostCousins site explains how to do this). If you already have a LostCousins
subscription I'll extend it.
Note:
these offers cannot be combined with any other offers or discounts or
backdated; if your findmypast subscription is renewed automatically you won't
qualify, but providing you follow the steps you may qualify for a free
LostCousins subscription when you upgrade, ie from
Foundation to Full, or from Full to World.
Free credits offer
also extended
Whether or not you are a findmypast
subscriber you can claim 50 credits, worth over £5, when you click here and use the offer code LCXMASFREE (note that although you'll
need to log-in or register, you won't be asked to provide your credit card
details).
Tip:
if you have friends or relatives who need a nudge to get them interested in
family history, why not send them a link to this newsletter (http://lostcousins.com/newsletters/newyear13news.htm)
so that they can take advantage of the offer? It might be just the incentive
they need to get started.
Incidentally, there's nothing to stop
you claiming your free credits AND getting a discount on a findmypast
subscription - but you'll have to be quick because these offers will be ending
soon.
Three days left
to save at Family Tree DNA
The end of year sale at Family Tree DNA
has been extended for 3 days, and now ends on 3rd January.
Not long ago you could have paid £200 or
more for a Y-DNA 12 marker test (even now Oxford Ancestors charge £199 for a
15-marker test). But if you're quick you can order a 37-marker test for $119
plus postage (about £80 in all).
And if your surname happens to be
CALVER, please join the Surname Project I've recently started! Of course, there
are thousands of other surname projects, most of which have been in existence
much longer than mine.
Tip:
although I've focused on the Y-DNA test, which is the most useful of all DNA
tests, almost all of Family Tree DNA's tests are on sale at substantially
discounted prices.
I've had lots of entries for the
Birthday Book challenge in my last newsletter, but most of the entrants have
assumed that because there are two people with the same surname, the book must
have belonged to one of them.
The pages reproduced here in
my last newsletter were a random sample - perhaps the new pages that follow
will cause entrants to have a rethink?
One very astute entrant mentioned a certain Victor Francis Gaby in her
entry - she'll be particularly interested to see the entry on April 8. I wonder
how long it will take other entrants to make the connection?
The March 26 entry is also an intriguing one - I'll be interested to know
what YOU make of it? I've also included the entry from February 29 - that
surely can't be too difficult to pin down, since you know the year of birth
must be divisible by 4.
Remember, the challenge is to figure out who owned the book (and there
seems to have been at least two owners) and explain how the people in the book
were linked. If the puzzle still hasn't been solved by the time my next
newsletter is published I'll include some more pages - but I'm fairly confident
that one of you will come up with a convincing solution before then!
If that challenge from the early 20th
century isn't enough to keep the midnight oil burning, maybe this puzzle from
the early 19th century will!
After the story in
my last newsletter about William Jennens, the Suffolk
miser who may have been the inspiration behind two of Charles Dickens
best-known novels, I received an email from LostCousins member Richard, who
came across another intriguing miser while researching the history of a 250
year-old Suffolk company.
"Tom the Cadger", otherwise
Thomas Drisdell, was a scalemaker
working for a firm in Clerkenwell. It was only after
he died in the workhouse in 1823 that it was discovered that, despite his
demeanour, he was exceedingly rich - according to a contemporary newspaper
report his assets were valued at £1700, which is over £1 million in today's
money. He left the whole of his estate to his illegitimate daughter, Mary Ann
Thompson, who was only about 13 years of age - but who was her mother, what
happened to Mary, and what happened to her money? I'd be very interested to
know what you're able to come up with, and I'm sure Richard would be too! You can
read the newspaper article in full if you follow this link.
Interestingly Charles Dickens was about
the same age as Mary, and I believe her would have been living nearby at the
time. Might the story have inspired one or more of his novels?
Was Queen Victoria
a good mother?
An article on the BBC
website presents a picture of Queen Victoria that was new to me - it seems she
had an uncontrollable desire to micro-manage the lives of her children.
A three-part series about Queen Victoria
and her children begins tonight, at 9pm on BBC2. If you miss the programme you
can catch up on BBC iPlayer (provided you live in the
UK).
Earl of Essex's legacy
lives on
The earldom of Essex was created many
times. For 35 years, from 1566-1601 (when he became the last person to be
beheaded in the Tower of London), the title was held by Robert Devereux - a
favourite of Queen Elizabeth. However, an earlier holder fell out of favour
with the then monarch far more quickly.
Thomas Cromwell, the son of a blacksmith
who had risen to become one of the most powerful men in England, was created
Earl of Essex by Henry VIII on 18th April 1540. However, on 10th June - less
than 8 weeks later - he was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London.
Stripped of his titles he was executed at Tower Hill on 28th July 1540 (though
he might be said to have got his revenge when his great-great-great nephew
Oliver Cromwell signed the warrant for the execution of King Charles I in 1649).
Thomas Cromwell is the subject of two
Booker Prize winning novels
by Hilary Mantel - but these aren't the books which most interest family
historians. In 1535 Thomas Cromwell was appointed Vicar General by Henry VIII,
and in 1538 he ordered that every parish should keep a register of baptisms,
marriages, and burials.
Without parish registers researching our
family trees would be far more difficult than it already is - so we have reason
to be thankful to this particular Earl of Essex.
Note:
you'll find a brief history of parish registers on the Joiner
Marriage Index website.
Preserving your family's history
Many of us have inherited photographs,
books, documents, and all manner of ephemera from our ancestors, and whilst
we're grateful that they have survived as long as they have, we're often not
sure how to preserve them for the benefit of future generations.
I was therefore delighted to find a very
comprehensive PDF guide on the website of the Staffordshire Record Office - you
can download it here.
I mentioned recently that grapefruit can
interfere with some medications, and shortly afterwards my wife pointed out
this article
about a man who had to be hospitalised after eating too many Brussel Sprouts. I only hope that this warning has not
reached you too late....
Regular readers will know that I'm a big
fan of Amazon
- and that they don't just sell books. This year I've bought dozens of things,
ranging from a non-stick milkpan and the best salad
spinner I've ever seen, to a Kindle
for 85-year old my mother-in-law - and even if I don't buy from Amazon in the
end, I always look for reviews on the Amazon site because they tend to be the
most reliable user reviews around. However, books are what they do best, so I
thought you might be interested in their Editors'
Picks of 2012.
Christmas is a time for over-eating and
over-spending but I think I've managed pretty well this year, certainly on the
latter count. For example, on New Year's Eve I cooked a slap-up meal for four
people - and whilst it may look expensive it most certainly wasn't:
Baked Asparagus with Parmesan Cheese
-:-
Whole Dover Sole with New Potatoes, Sugar-Snap Peas,
and Fine Green Beans
-:-
English and Continental cheeses served with Fruit and
Nut Bread
-:-
Plums baked with Honey, Cinnamon, and Orange;
home-made Vanilla Ice Cream and Meringues
Sounds pretty extravagant, doesn't it -
yet almost all the ingredients were bought from the reductions shelves at my
local supermarket, saving as much as 80%. The total cost was £17, or £4.25 per head - about halfway between the cost of a
Big Mac and breakfast at a Little Chef - even though the portions were very
generous.
Anyway, the point of this is not to impress
you with how canny (some might say miserly) I've been, but to encourage you to find out what time your favourite supermarket makes its
final reductions. In my case it's 7.30pm (except Sunday), but it's almost
certainly going to be different where you live.
Finally, I received an offer I most
definitely could refuse from Ancestry
today - a mere 25% off a Premium subscription. As UK readers of this newsletter
know very well, it's possible to get a free 6 month Premium subscription by
buying Family
Tree Maker 2011 Platinum - which currently costs just £19.99 from Amazon.co.uk,
or a free 6 month World subscription by buying Family
Tree Maker 2011 World, which
cost £32.99 when I last checked.
Those offers aren't available outside
the UK, but overseas readers can still make big savings - if you live in the
US, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand click here.
This where any late
updates will be posted, so it's worth checking back after a few days.
I hope you've found this newsletter
interesting and that you'll make use of your membership of my site to link with
the cousins you don't yet know (your 'lost cousins').
All that remains now is for me to wish
you all the best for 2013!
Peter Calver
Founder, LostCousins
© Copyright 2013 Peter Calver
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