Newsletter – 5th
August 2020
Ancestry – the world's biggest genealogy company – has been
sold BREAKING NEWS
Save 25% on Ancestry
DNA tests ENDS SUNDAY
Study provides
insight into transatlantic slave trade
Americans and
Canadians marry in no man's land
Be smart – follow the
tips in my DNA Masterclass
The LostCousins
newsletter is usually published 2 or 3 times a month. To access the previous issue
(dated 29th July) click here; to find earlier articles use the customised Google search between
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2009, so you don't need to keep copies):
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Ancestry – the world's biggest genealogy company – has been
sold BREAKING NEWS
As
I was finalising this newsletter the news came in that a majority stake in
Ancestry, the world's largest genealogy company, has been acquired by Blackstone
for its private equity fund. You may recall that a couple of years ago Ancestry
was looking to refloat on the stockmarket,
after several years under the control of various private equity companies.
At
this stage there's no reason to think that this change
in ownership will affect Ancestry customers any more than previous transactions
have done. No doubt more information will become available in the coming weeks
and months.
Save 25% on Ancestry DNA tests ENDS SUNDAY
Although
Ancestry wasn't the company I first tested with, way back in 2012, I'm very
glad that I bit the bullet and paid to retest with them in 2017 - in a matter
of weeks I made more discoveries than I had in the previous 5 years, and the
good news has just kept coming. I've subsequently paid
for several other family members to test with Ancestry in order to take
advantage of the enormous database of existing users (over 18 million according
to an announcement last month).
However,
it’s not just the size of the database that makes Ancestry DNA special – it’s the
way that Ancestry combine it with their enormous collection of family trees to
provide valuable insights through their ThruLines
and Common Ancestors features. Both make use of multiple trees,
including private trees, which means that they're doing much of the spadework – leaving users
like you and me to focus on the things that we do best.
Until
midnight on Sunday 9th August family historians in the UK can save 25% on
Ancestry DNA tests, bringing the price down from £79 to £59 (plus shipping –
which is £10 for the first kit, £5 for subsequent kits). Before you quibble about
the cost of shipping, I should point out that the price includes RETURN
shipping, which means that you can just drop the package in the post box rather
than having to go into the post office (something which I try to avoid at the
best of times, and now certainly isn’t the best of times).
Please
use the link below so that you can support LostCousins when you make your
purchase (you may find that you need to log-out from your Ancestry account
before clicking the link). If I am notified of offers in other territories I'll update this article with further links.
Ancestry.co.uk
(UK ONLY) - ENDS SUNDAY 9TH AUGUST
Study provides insight into transatlantic slave trade
It's horrifying what human beings have done to
other human beings at various times in history, and in some cases the effects
live on. 23andMe recently published into the consequences of the transatlantic
slave trade as evidenced by the DNA of descendants of those who survived. There's
an article in this week's New Scientist, but if you're not a subscriber there are summaries of the findings here and here.
Americans and Canadians marry in no man's land
The
land border between the USA and Canada is closed because of the pandemic, which
creates problems for couple who live on opposite sides. This CBC article
explains how true love found a way round the restrictions, thanks to a park
that is shared between the two nations.
Be smart – follow the tips in my DNA
Masterclass
Hardly
any of the people who write to me for advice about DNA are following the advice
in my Masterclass. Or to put it another way, if you follow the simple advice in
the Masterclass you won't get confused or overwhelmed by the wealth of matches,
so it’s very unlikely you'll need to ask for my help.
You
don’t need to wait for your DNA results to start following the advice – so follow
this link
and check out the Masterclass today!
You've
probably come across the proverb "Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day.
Teach a man how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime". Well,
that's the principle behind my Masterclasses – the aim is to provide you with
the tools to carry out your own research, because ultimately
you’re the best person to do it!
There was a wonderful response to the Masterclass on Finding
Birth certificates in the last newsletter – many readers wrote to tell
me that they gained new insight into their own challenges, whilst others who
had succeeded in finding elusive birth records wrote to concur with the advice
set out in the Masterclass.
Tip: there are 9 Masterclasses in all, as well
as a special edition newsletter dedicated to the 1939 Register. If you’re a LostCousins supporter you'll find links on the
Subscribers Only page, but anyone can access the Masterclasses by using the
Search near the top of any newsletter (including this one).
Although
I'm fast approaching my 70th birthday I suddenly don’t feel old – I've just read
this story
about a 96 year-old in Italy who has graduated in philosophy with first-class
honours. Following on from the article in the last issue about the lady who was
retiring at 100, it's all quite encouraging – provided
I can avoid catching that blasted infection!
How
do you cope when people come too close and there's no
way of escaping? The best answer I've come up with so
far is to carry a loaded water pistol, though I haven't put it into practice
(yet). We're going to be living with COVID-19 for a
good time to come, so what would you suggest as an alternative?
So
far only one brave reader has written to tell me that she has caught COVID-19
and survived – well done!
This is where any major updates and corrections will be
highlighted - if you think you've spotted an error first reload the newsletter
(press Ctrl-F5) then
check again before writing to me, in case someone else has beaten you to
it......
Peter Calver
Founder, LostCousins
© Copyright 2020 Peter Calver
Please do NOT copy or republish any part of this newsletter
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