Newsletter – 10th
August 2024
Latest news from the General Register Office
Buckinghamshire vicar
fired by parishioners
Was your ancestor a
wheelwright?
Why a clutch of
Goslings were baptised in 1689
Can you collaborate
with a cousin who doesn’t share your DNA?
Who Do You Think You Are? celebrates 20th Birthday
Last chance to save
on Ancestry DNA ENDS THIS WEEKEND
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Latest
news from the General Register Office
Last month the GRO
added births and deaths for 2022 to their online indexes. Otherwise
the site hasn’t changed, but it seems there are some developments in the works –
earlier this week I was shown a prototype of a new ordering system, though
there was no hint of any new services.
Quite
by chance I also discovered a government report from 2016 entitled An
inspection of the General Register Office for England and Wales, with
particular emphasis on birth records – you’ll find a PDF version here.
Ironically it’s the sort of report I might have written
myself, since it was highly critical of the GRO’s failure to keep up with technology
– I suspect that the PDF trial which began in November 2016 was prompted, at
least in part, by the recommendations of the Independent Chief Inspector who
compiled the report.
Since
then things have change dramatically, though there are
lots of ways in which the website could be improved further – it probably doesn’t
help that it attempts to be all things to all customers. Personally
I’d like to see a more flexible search, even if it only applies to historical
records – but I know that a lot of you would like to have a new marriage index.
Note:
many of you will be aware the General Register Office is based in Southport, where
three innocent children were slaughtered last week, and many more were injured.
Southport is a large town with nearly 100,000 inhabitants, so the chances are
that none of the staff at the GRO were directly affected by the terrible
events, but the whole town is in mourning, so I would nevertheless suggest that
we all show forbearance in the event that one of our orders is delayed, or falls short of our expectations in any way.
Buckinghamshire vicar fired by parishioners
Parishioners
of St Leonard’s, near Wendover Woods in Buckinghamshire have voted 21-0 to ask
their vicar to step down – though it seems he is under no obligation to do so.
21 votes might not sound very many, but according to this article it’s far
more than attend the average service at St Leonard’s.
I
should mention that St Leonard’s is just one of 4 parishes for which the vicar
is responsible – and to the best of my knowledge none of the others have voiced
objections.
Was your ancestor a wheelwright?
Although
it’s often not possible to determine what an ancestor’s occupation was from parish
records prior to 1813, I do know that at least two of my direct ancestors (and several
other relatives) were wheelwrights. For thousands of years
it was an essential skill – not only were carts, chariots, and carriages fitted
with wooden wheels, so were some early motor cars!
I
would imagine that most people reading this have at least one wheelwright in
their tree – which makes it all the more surprising to
learn that there are now only about 25 wheelwrights working in the whole of the
UK (according to the Worshipful Company of Wheelwrights, which was incorporated
in 1670 in the reign of King Charles II).
I
came across this statistic when reading a BBC News article about a 15
year-old girl who is keen to train as wheelwright – she would become the only
female wheelwright in the country. I do hope that she is able to gain an
apprenticeship.
Why a clutch of Goslings were
baptised in 1689
My
6G grandfather John Gosling was baptised at the parish church of St Barnabas,
Great Tey, Essex on 21st June 1689. He married
Mary Harvy (sic) in the adjoining parish of Aldham on
30th April 1706, so on the face of it he could have been a mere 17
years old (or even 16) at the time of the wedding.
However,
the parish register shows that he wasn’t the only Gosling baptised in June 1689
– his sisters Sarah and Judith were baptised the same day. Unfortunately
there is nothing in the register to indicate how old any of them were, or when
they were born, but I have a feeling that there’s a reason why they were all
baptised then.
On
24th May 1689, three months after William of Orange and his wife
Mary succeeded to the English throne as William III and Mary II, the Toleration
Act of 1688 received Royal Assent. From that date protestant nonconformists
were allowed their own places of worship, subject to certain conditions (you
can read more about the Act here).
The
timing of the baptisms could just have been a coincidence but for another
discovery – I found the burial of my 7G grandfather Nicholas Gosling in Quaker
records at Findmypast:
©
Crown Copyright Image reproduced by courtesy of The National Archives, London,
England and used by kind permission of Findmypast
Also,
on 20th June 1689 – the day before the baptisms in the parish church of Great Tey – there was a Quaker marriage between Jonathan Gosling of
Much Tey (ie Great Tey) and Judeth Gardner of Coggeshall. I don’t know how, or
even whether, I’m related to Jonathan Gosling, but I’d be surprised if there
isn’t a connection.
Quakers
don’t practice baptism, either for infants or adults – but in the days before
civil registration began in 1837 an entry in the baptism register of the parish
church was the only evidence of parentage that was legally-acceptable. I can
therefore understand why Nicholas and his wife Elizabeth might have chosen to present
their three children for baptism – although, as we’ll see in a moment, I know
that they had at least one other child……
One
of useful features of Quaker marriage records is the long list of witnesses at
the end – see this article
for more details. And searching through marriages celebrated in Essex from
1689-1721 I came across a marriage record that proved very informative indeed!
© Crown Copyright Image reproduced by
courtesy of The National Archives, London, England and used by kind permission
of Findmypast
I
don’t often reproduce such a long document, but if you’ve never seen a Quaker marriage
record before,you’ll find it
very instructive.
The
first clues were in the heading: “John Clark son of Solomon Clark of Ballington
of the County of Suffolk Wool Comber and Elizabeth Appleton Daughter of
Nicholas Gosling Carpenter of Tayne in the County of Essex widdow
of Thomas Appleton Deceased”.
Note:
further research revealed that 'Tayne' was, in fact, an old spelling of 'Tey', as you can see from this
transcription of a 1633 document held by the Essex Record Office.
I
now knew that Nicholas had at least one other daughter – Elizabeth, named after
her mother – and that he was a carpenter by trade, information that isn’t
recorded anywhere else. ‘Tayne’ is probably an error for ‘Rayne’, a village about
8 miles from Coggeshall, whilst Ballington clearly refers to Ballingdon in Suffolk (which is not much further away)
Amongst
the relations listed at the bottom right are my 7G grandfather Nicholas, and my
6G grandparents John & Mary Gosling. I suspect, but have not yet proved,
that Tapp was the married name of John’s sister, Judith – who was baptised on
that same day in 1689.
Another
uncertainty relates to the date – you will recall that in England prior to 1752
the year began on 25th March, not 1st January, which is why you’ll sometimes
see dates between 1st January and 25th March shown as (say) 1717/18.
Note:
records that have been transcribed sometimes show the old-style year and
sometimes the new-style year, but rarely can you discover which protocol has
been followed without further investigation. At some site you may find the same
entries transcribed twice with different years – confusing unless you know why!
In
Quaker records dates are particularly perplexing since they often omit the names
of the months, and instead refer to them according to their order in the
calendar. In the image above the date is recorded as the “tenth day of the
first month called March in the year according to the English account One thousand
seven Hundred & Eighteen” but it’s not clear whether the marriage took
place in the year 1717/18 or 1718/19. Nicholas didn’t die until September 1719,
so either is possible – and I haven’t found Thomas Appleton’s burial, which
might have settled the matter.
Note:
there’s a guide to the Quaker calendar here.
Coincidentally,
as I was writing this article my wife was having afternoon tea with a friend in Great
Tey. It’s a small world!
Two
of the key strategies in the DNA
Masterclass involve searching the trees of your matches. At Ancestry you
can not only search for surnames, but also for birthplaces.
In
the Masterclass I recommend creating a list of all your ancestral surnames and
regularly searching the trees of your DNA matches for each one (it’s important to
repeat the search not only because of new matches, but also because some older
matches have added or updated their tree).
Note: one of the advantages
of searching the trees of your matches is that it passes over cousins who have
no tree at all, as well as most of the matches who have minimal trees.
When you search by surname it’s easy to find the
relevant people in your cousin’s tree – but it might not be immediately obvious
how you can find the people who were born in a particular parish or county. In
fact, this was something I struggled with myself until Crista Cowan, one of
Ancestry’s leading lights, reminded me about the map of Ancestor Birth Locations that is displayed beneath each match’s tree (the 5-generation tree,
not the extended tree or the full tree).
At
the top left of the map you’ll see the words Filter
by tree – this allows you to see ancestral birth locations in both trees,
in your tree, or in your cousin’s tree. Since you got to this point by
searching your cousin’s tree it’s important to choose that filter.
By
default the map shows the whole world – so you’ll need
to zoom in considerably to see towns and villages, eg:
Click
on the pink and blue markers to see the name of the ancestor and their birthplace;
a green icon with a number indicates multiple ancestors born in the same area.
Can you collaborate with a cousin who doesn’t
share your DNA?
If
you’ve taken a DNA test you’ll have upwards of 10,000 matches with cousins,
most of whom will be 5th cousins or more distant. However, just because someone
is a cousin of yours doesn’t guarantee that you’ll have inherited the same
segments of DNA from your common ancestors – in fact, once you get beyond 4th
cousins the odds are that you won’t. Indeed, you might not share DNA with all
of your 3rd cousins!
Note:
the fact that you don’t share any DNA with a particular cousin doesn’t mean
that you haven’t inherited any DNA from the ancestors that you share – that’s
possible, but unless the common ancestors are 10 or more generations back it’s
unlikely. What IS likely is that you’ve both inherited DNA from the common
ancestors, but that the segments don’t overlap. See this newsletter article
from 2021 for an easy to understand, practical example using two packs of
playing cards.
When
you have a DNA match with another Ancestry user you can view the matches that
you share. But if your DNA doesn’t match you can’t do that – indeed, Ancestry
won’t even tell you whether the other person has tested. So does this mean that
there is no point collaborating with your cousin?
The
first thing to bear in mind is that genealogists generally don’t take DNA tests
because they want to find cousins – they take the test because they want to
knock down ‘brick walls’. Cousins are a means to an end: because you’re up
against the same ‘brick wall’ you’ll both gain from co-operating and
collaborating. In terms of conventional research this might mean exchanging
ideas and hypothesises, or ensuring that you’re not
unwittingly duplicating each other’s research.
Note:
there’s nothing wrong with double-checking, but if it means that some records
don’t get checked at all, or that some plausible theories never get tested,
it’s counter-productive.
However,
it’s not nearly so obvious how cousins who don’t share the same DNA can
collaborate on DNA – after all, the first thing we usually
do is to look at shared matches, and as mentioned above, Ancestry only report
shared matches for genetic cousins.
My
brother and I share roughly half of our DNA – so it’s likely that my brother’s
closest matches are also going to show up in my list. However, the vast
majority of our matches are distant matches – and the more distant they are,
the less likely it is that they’ll appear in both our lists. That sounds like
bad news, but actually it’s good news – because it
means I’ve got more matches to work with.
Now
let’s suppose that you have a 4th cousin who shares one of your ‘brick walls’. Since
you don’t share any DNA with them, the chances are that whilst you’ll both have
matches with other cousins who share the same ‘brick wall’, there will be
little or no overlap between the lists. In other words, by pooling your
resources you’ll have access to twice as many clues – you just need to work
together, which means sharing your DNA matches.
Working
together could mean that you’re both equally involved – or it could mean that
one of you takes the lead. It’s really up to you, but
bear in mind that other people are more likely to agree to collaborate if you
offer to do most of the work.
Who Do You Think You Are?
celebrates 20th Birthday
Earlier
this year it was the 20th Birthday of LostCousins – now another venerable
institution is about to reach the same landmark.
The
very first episode of Who Do You Think You Are? which aired on 12th
October 2004 featured comedian and ornithologist Bill Oddie – since then there
have been 160 more episodes, and there is a new series starting shortly. I’m sure
we all have our favourite episodes, but you might be interested in the 20 great
moments compiled by Who Do You Think You Are? magazine – you’ll find
them here.
Talking
of the magazine, if you’re in the UK you can still get 6 issues for just £9.99
in the offer I arranged earlier this year – please follow this link
so that you can support LostCousins. There are also discounts for overseas readers
– click the link to see what’s available in your home country.
One
of the more controversial stories of the Paris Olympics has been the row over
the eligibility of two boxers who compete against females but seem to benefit
from certain male traits.
It’s
an incredibly complex topic, as well as a controversial one, so I was relieved to
find this BBC article
which explains in simple terms how chromosomal anomalies and hormonal
imbalances in the womb can affect gender.
Last chance to save on Ancestry DNA ENDS THIS WEEKEND
As
the Olympics end, so do Ancestry’s DNA offers. So now’s the time to make up your mind – in the words of the
old song, “don’t dilly dally on the way”.
There
are three ways genealogists can go wrong with DNA – one is not to use it at all,
which is like boxing with one hand tied behind your back. The second is to test
the wrong person – always choose someone from the earliest surviving generation.
And finally – choose the right test, the one that Ancestry sell (and not an ‘Ancestry’
test sold by another firm).
As
I’ve probably mentioned before, DNA is – like genealogy – more of a marathon
than a sprint, and for those of you have never tested it must be rather like
the pole vaulter’s leap of faith. The good news is
that you don’t have to understand DNA in order to
make use of it – so long as you can remember that DNA can only be passed from
parent to child, and follow the simple steps in my DNA
Masterclass you can’t go wrong.
A
good way to familiarise yourself with DNA is to hold back the urge to make
discoveries, and instead use your matches to confirm the records-based research
in your tree. It’s something anyone can do, and the feeling of satisfaction you’ll
get when you prove that you got it right all those years ago is worth a small
amount of effort.
A
few people will discover that their DNA matches don’t correspond with the tree
that they’ve built using records. You might, for example, find that there is
nobody connected to you via one of your grandparents.
Traumatic
though it might be to make an unwelcome discovery, just consider how much worse it would
be if you never knew? It doesn’t bear thinking about – researching someone else’s
ancestors believing them to be our own is the genealogist’s worst nightmare!
To
take advantages of Ancestry’s offers and – with luck – help to support the
LostCousins site, please use the relevant link below:
Tip:
in the UK I can save on delivery costs by buying multiple kits in the same
order – you may find that it’s the same where you are. Remember that you don’t
need to specify who will be testing – I always like to have a spare kit in reserve.
My wife had a special
birthday recently, and I found her a rather special gardening book. Some people
might turn their noses up at a second-hand book, but my wife was absolutely
delighted to receive a volume that was nearly 200 years older than she was! It
wasn’t cheap, but I bought it from Oxfam, so my money has gone to a good cause.
(You can download a free PDF version here)
Much
easier to find, and certainly more affordable, is a book that Siân bought for
herself from the Gardening Express website, the source of many of the trees,
shrubs, and roses that are growing in our garden. For a mere £5.95 this large
format, beautifully-illustrated book will look beautiful on your coffee table,
but The Illustrated
Gardener's Guide to Growing Fuchsias is much more useful than that!
Siân
delved straight into the book, and although it was published in 2011 (so it doesn’t
contain details of the fuchsias bred since then) she tells me that it is
excellent for advice about how to choose, group, and site fuchsias by location,
hardiness, size, and effect. And if you have been tempted to propagate your
own, keep them over winter, or grow fuchsias into standard trees, pyramids,
hedges, or other features, this book could save you a fortune and bring years
of pleasure.
The
only downside is the delivery charge of £6.99 but if you’re also ordering plants you’ll only pay one delivery charge. You’ll find their
Special Deals page here,
but Siân also asked me to mention their End of Season Clearance – only
19 items when I looked just now, but the prices are incredible!
I
was recently asked to explain what LostCousins does, and I thought it was worth
repeating this short explanation:
The
inspiration for LostCousins was that the further we get back, the more ancestral
lines there are to research (because the number doubles with ever generation),
and the more difficult it is to research our ancestors (because there are fewer
records and they tend to be less-detailed and less-accurate).
Connecting
with experienced researchers who share our ancestral lines enables the exchange
of past research, but it also offers the prospect of collaboration.
Collaboration
often involves an exchange of ideas about how a particular 'brick wall' might
be knocked down, but might extend to a sharing out of research
tasks to avoid duplication of effort and reduce the chance of leaving gaps.
For
example, a common problem is that everyone focuses their attention on the
records that are online, and easily-accessible, but
nobody visits the relevant record office (or an LDS family history centre) to
look at records that aren't online.
If
you’re not already taking part in the LostCousins project to connect
experienced family historians around the world who are researching the same
ancestors, perhaps now is the time to start?
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 2024 Peter Calver
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