Newsletter - 29th March 2018

 

 

Ancestry.co.uk is free for Easter ENDS MONDAY

And so is LostCousins! ENDS TUESDAY

Save on subscriptions to Family Tree magazine ENDS 7TH APRIL

Swedish records now free online

Dutch records may be going offline

The oldest vaccination certificate I've seen

Fake news about birth registrations?

What makes the 1911 Census special

More unusual 1939 Register entries

Rhubarb in the Great War

Mum's tough love lesson proves controversial

Old Mother Hubbard?

The baby found under a blackberry bush

Do you want to receive these newsletters? IMPORTANT

Peter's Tips

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The LostCousins newsletter is usually published 2 or 3 times a month. To access the previous newsletter (dated 23rd March) click here; to find earlier articles use the customised Google search below (it searches ALL of the newsletters since February 2009, so you don't need to keep copies):

 

 

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!

 

 

Ancestry.co.uk is free for Easter ENDS MONDAY

From Good Friday (30th March) until Easter Monday (2nd April) Ancestry.co.uk are offering free access to their British, Irish, and British Commonwealth records. This is an excellent opportunity to fill in some of the gaps in your family tree, especially if you have ancestors who were baptised, married, or buried in Birmingham, Derbyshire, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Lancashire, Liverpool, most of London, Manchester Cathedral, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Somerset, Warwickshire, West Yorkshire, Wigan or Wiltshire, all parts of England for which Ancestry has exclusive rights to the parish registers.

 

Please bear in mind that this offer ONLY applies at Ancestry's UK site (but I don’t think you need to be in the UK). You won’t need to provide credit card or bank details, but you will be required to log-in or register (if you haven't used Ancestry before). To see a list of all the record sets that are included click here.

 

 

And so is LostCousins! ENDS TUESDAY

As announced in the last issue LostCousins will be free from Good Friday until Tuesday 3rd April, offering you the chance to connect with researchers who share your ancestors wherever they are in the world (a third of all the matches made are between cousins in different countries, and usually on different continents).

 

With free access to many of Ancestry's records (see above) it’s a great opportunity to trace your collateral lines, so that you can add more relatives from 1881 on your My Ancestors page? Connecting with documented cousins can not only offer the opportunity of knocking down 'brick walls', but also provide information about branches of your tree that were previously unknown to you - it can even help you analyse your DNA matches.      

 

Note: the saying "a stitch in time saves nine has never been more true" - completing your My Ancestors might take you an hour or two, but it could save you weeks, months, or even years of research.

 

 

Save on subscriptions to Family Tree magazine

For more than 30 years, more than twice as long as LostCousins has been in existence, Family Tree magazine has been supporting family historians from beginner to expert. I wouldn't describe myself as an expert, but I was certainly a beginner when I first picked up a copy!

 

Each issue includes practical ways to research your family tree that you'll find interesting and fun, but my favourite feature is the recently launched Family Tree Academy, which allows you to test your knowledge and acquire useful learning tools to improve your skills. Although still available as a paper magazine the digital edition includes bonus content and an interactive tablet version - and until 7th April, you can enjoy special discounts on all digital back issues and 20% off an Annual digital subscription! Follow this link to claim either of those offers, or if you would prefer a subscription to the paper edition click here.

 

 

 

 

Swedish records now free online

Since 1st February digitised records at the Swedish National Archives have been free online - you can find out more and search the records here.

 

Note: I don’t have any Swedish ancestry, so I haven’t used the records myself.

 

 

Dutch records may be going offline

I don't have any Dutch ancestors either (unless you count my Walloon ancestor, who by the mid-16th century had made his way to Kent), but if I was researching in the Netherlands the Dutch Genealogy website run by professional genealogist Yvette Hoitink would be one to keep an eye on. For example, in February she had some good news in her blog regarding new online records, but also some bad news - the forthcoming GDPR legislation is leading archives and councils to take family cards (gezinskaarten) for the period 1921-40 offline.

 

A key source for Dutch records is the WieWasWie ("who was who") website which is a collaboration between 22 archives - but if you don't speak Dutch you might find it easier to search the indexes at Ancestry:

 

Netherlands, Birth Index, 1787-1915

Netherlands, Baptism Index, 1569-1879

Netherlands, Marriage Index, 1570-1938

Netherlands, Civil Marriage Index, 1795-1950

Netherlands, Death Index, 1795-1965

Netherlands, Burial Index, 1546-1821

 

 

The oldest vaccination certificate I've seen

Following my article about vaccination certificates in the last issue Beryl in Australia sent me this scan of a certificate from 1863, the oldest I've ever seen:

 

 

Tip: if you didn't follow the link to my 2014 article about vaccination registers it's worth reminding yourself what is available.

 

 

Fake news about birth registrations?

I was recently contacted by a LostCousins member who had made an amazing discovery on a forum - apparently the original legislation provided only 15 days for registration of a birth, and not the 42 days everyone assumed. I couldn't believe it - and yet there was a link to the legislation, which seemed to prove it (see section 22).

 

Only one problem - that wasn't the Act, it was the Bill. When the Bill came before the House of Lords all sorts of changes were proposed, and if you follow this link you will see that by the time the legislation was enacted the time limit for the registration of a birth had been set (in section XIX) at 42 days, as researchers have always believed.

 

My advice is to stick to the LostCousins forum, where information posted is carefully vetted and mistakes are corrected. Not everyone can join - you need to be taking part in the LostCousins project to connect cousins around the world and to have achieved a modest level of success. Hundreds of new invitations were issued recently, so why not check your My Summary page at the main LostCousins site to see whether you've been invited to join?

 

 

What makes the 1911 Census special

The great thing about the 1911 Census for England & Wales is being able to see the householder schedules, the census forms that the heads of household filled in. This means that we also get to see things that the householder wrote on the form which shouldn’t have been there at all. Sometimes these are amusing comments, sometimes they are political statements, such as those made by supporters of the campaign for women's suffrage.

 

The author Charles Reginald Haines clearly had a bee in his bonnet:

 

 

He wrote "I wish to record my protest against the Omission of Religion. Due to the pusillanimous subservience of the Government to the Nonconformist Minority in this country. Other countries include Religion in their census, and it is the most important datum of all to discover. It is also included in the Irish Census where the Anglican religion is in minority. (signed) C R Haines a member of the Anglican Church Catholic"

 

Interestingly when a religious census had been carried out in England & Wales in 1851, it was found that Anglicans were in the minority (based on both the number of attendees and the number of places of worship - you can see the statistics here). No doubt many of those who didn't attend church at all would have been classified as CofE, in some quarters but that's just the way things were done..

 

Who knows what was written on census schedules in earlier years? Sadly we will never know....

 

 

More unusual 1939 Register entries

From time to time people are recorded more than once in the same census, so it’s not surprising that the same thing sometimes happened when the 1939 Register was being compiled. But the instances that LostCousins member Jon discovered were particularly unusual in that neither entry was cancelled, suggesting that two ID cards and two ration books were issued in respect of Agnes Hucker, although whether she actually used both we can never be sure. Indeed she might not even have known that her daughter-in-law applied for an ID card in her name - it's certainly more likely that the second ration book was used in London, since if Agnes had tried to use two sets of coupons in Abertillery it's very likely that the duplication would have been noticed:

 

 

© Crown Copyright Images reproduced by courtesy of The National Archives, London, England and used with the permission of Findmypast

 

In the first example Agnes P Hucker is shown as staying with her daughter-in-law in London; in the second she's recorded with her husband in Abertillery. But even more unusual is something that Jon didn't spot - the Abertillery register is a photocopy.

 

Note: you might have wondered why didn’t Jon realise that the Abertillery register is a photocopy - it’s because he's completely blind. And by the way Agnes P Hucker isn't even one of his relatives, she is the relative of a friend who Jon is helping with his tree. It certainly gives the time-worn saying "the blind leading the blind" a new and more positive meaning, don't you think? 

 

Looking more closely at that register I spotted that there were some amendments in coloured ink, so clearly the photocopied register was actually used - and examining the dates of the various entries I concluded that the photocopy must have been substituted for the original register at some point between 1978 and 1984. I subsequently found a second Abertillery district with a photocopied register, so I decided to consult the world's leading 1939 Register expert - Audrey Collins at the National Archives - to enquire about the circumstances in which registers were replaced with photocopies.

 

It seems that after 30 or 40 years of constant use some of the registers were becoming tattered and torn - so they were photocopied before they deteriorated further, and the copies used from that point onwards. What happened to the originals? Nobody knows.

 

The crossed-out entry below is also interesting - it's not a duplicated entry, it’s an entry for a woman who simply didn't exist!

 

 

Mabel Brown was one of 5 false entries made by John Segal, who made use of all 5 ration books until he was eventually caught. Sadly there were many who callously exploited the war for their own ends, one man claiming to have lost his home 19 times in a three month period and receiving at least £500 on each occasion until he was eventually caught. You can read more about some of the spivs, fraudsters, and looters in this 2016 article from the BBC News website.

 

 

Rhubarb in the Great War

I'd always thought that allotments were a legacy of the Great War, at least in Britain, but I recently came across the Smallholdings and Allotments Act, 1908 which required  councils to provide allotments where sufficient suitable land was not already available as a result of private provision (you can read the full text of the original Act here). A valuable source of food during both World Wars - a plot of 10 poles (about 250 square metres) is said to be enough land to feed a family of four for a year - allotments remain part of the landscape. Indeed, in my village the parish council has negotiated for new allotments as part of the quid pro quo for a housing development.

 

What surprised me even more was the discovery that during World War 1 the public were apparently told that rhubarb leaves could be used a substitute for spinach or cabbage. Even I, a non-gardener - know that despite their beautiful shiny green appearance rhubarb leaves are potentially deadly poisonous, on account of the high level of oxalic acid (the stems also contain some oxalic acid, but the amount is too small to be harmful).

 

The article on the right, taken from the Jarrow Express of 18th May 1917, but published in many other local newspapers, refers to the death of a man, and the serious illness of his family, following the consumption of rhubarb leaves. Indeed the article avers that "modern medical opinion is fast coming to the conclusion that the stalks of the leaves are equally to be condemned."

 

Fortunately the rhubard-hating (or, perhaps, simply cautious) doctors didn't get their way, and looking out through the window I can see our rhubarb patch, which delivered a disappointingly meagre crop last year, but hopefully will do much better this spring and summer following the splitting of the half-dozen large crowns into 20 smaller plants.

 

© Newspaper article used by kind permission of Findmypast; the owner of the rights is not known

 

 

Mum's tough love lesson proves controversial

I suppose it's inevitable that being from the older generation (to put it politely) I often feel that youngsters have it easy these days, so I have some sympathy with the Georgia, US mother who decided to teach her 13 year-old son a lesson, as reported in this BBC News article. (In case you’re wondering after reading the article, the age of consent in Georgia was raised from 14 to 16 in 1995, having been only 10 until 1918.)

 

I certainly never felt spoiled by my parents when I was growing up, though I don’t suppose any child does - and working class families in the 1950s certainly didn't have a lot of money. In fact, in those days almost all families were well below today's poverty line - we had no washing machine, no fridge, no central heating, and I'm not sure that microwaves and tumble dryers had even been invented. Certainly there were no home computers, and no mobile phones - though we did have a home phone (on a party line), an inside toilet and a bathroom, so were more fortunate than many.

 

 

Old Mother Hubbard?

The nursery rhyme Old Mother Hubbard was first printed in 1805 but it is thought to have an older origin - it sprang to mind when I encountered a letter in the British Medical  Journal of 5th May 1917 which referred to a woman who was aged 49 years, 7 months, and 9 days when giving birth to her youngest child - as the letter was headed "The Oldest Age of Parturition" I think it's reasonable to assume that the journal considered it to be the oldest proven example.

 

However, the birth announcements on the right, which are from the Royal Cornwall Gazette of 2nd January 1819 include one relating to the birth of twins to a Mrs Saunders, who was in her 59th year, and had borne no children for 35 years. (Although the print is unclear it is definitely a '9' not a '0'.)

 

Personally I'm rather sceptical about the tale of Mrs Saunders - can anyone come up with something approaching proof that the newspaper report is, or isn't, correct? As Ancestry have most of the London parish registers online and they're free this weekend I'd suggest that as the best place to start.

 

Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED - used by permission of Findmypast

 

 

The baby found under a blackberry bush

Many of you will have already read this story on the BBC site, but if not I thoroughly recommend it.

 

 

Do you want to receive these newsletters? IMPORTANT

With new data protection regulations coming into force in May I have been reviewing the emails that I send to members.

 

At the moment I send an email announcing each issue of the newsletter to every member who has both asked to receive them and logged into their LostCousins account in the past three years. Those who last logged-in more than three years ago (which will include many of those reading this article) receive emails about some of the newsletters, but not all of them.

 

In the near future I will be making further cutbacks. Those members who are not taking part in my project to connect cousins across the world will not receive all of the newsletter emails - they'll receive some and not others. The only exception will be those who have a LostCousins subscription - though why anyone would buy a subscription but not search for their cousins beats me!

 

Tip: you don’t need to pay a subscription to take part in the LostCousins project - you only need to be a LostCousins member, and as this newsletter only goes out to LostCousins members EVERYONE on the mailing list is already a member.

 

Anyone who doesn't want to receive these newsletters should amend their My Details page (look for the Privacy Settings section, near the bottom of the page).

 

 

Peter's Tips

UK postage rates have gone up yet again, and whilst the increase is only just over 3% that's a lot more than the interest on savings accounts. It's too late now to buy 1st and 2nd class stamps at the old price, but you can still save money by buying stamps on eBay - just make sure that you're buying genuine unused stamps, not forgeries or stamps that have been through the post before.

 

I tend to buy mixed lots of old commemorative stamps, partly because the discount is higher, and partly because using a large number of brightly-coloured stamps increases the chance that my letters are going to be opened immediately, rather than put on one side or thrown into the recycling bin. For example, this lot is being sold at a 27% discount, with free standard shipping (here's a larger lot from the same seller). But here's an example of a lot that I wouldn't touch with a bargepole!

 

 

Stop Press

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......

 

I hope you find lots of new cousins this weekend - it’s a great opportunity.

 

Description: Description: peter_signature

 

Peter Calver

Founder, LostCousins

 

© Copyright 2018 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?