Newsletter – 30th
August 2020
A weekend to remember NOW ENDS TUESDAY
Search Welsh probate records at Findmypast
Isle of Man newspapers to remain free
Not everyone can see what you see
Adoptees in New South Wales to get new
certificates
The most popular names of 2019
What's in a name? One
member's DNA journey
Sins as Red as Scarlet: a Devon Town in Turmoil
One member's hospital experience
The LostCousins
newsletter is usually published 2 or 3 times a month. To access the previous issue
(dated 23rd August) click here; to find earlier articles use the customised Google search between
this paragraph and the next (it searches ALL of the newsletters since February
2009, so you don't need to keep copies):
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!
A weekend to remember NOW ENDS TUESDAY
Until
midnight on Tuesday 1st September the LostCousins site is completely free,
which means that you can connect to the other researchers who share your
ancestors - whether or not you're supporting the
LostCousins project by paying a subscription. Of course, unless you're participating in the project – by entering relatives
on your My Ancestors page – your cousins won’t be able to find you, and
you won't be able to find them. A bit like life – what you get out of it depends
on what you put into it. Some people waste their lives, some people waste their
LostCousins membership – heigh ho!
Remember,
it's the 1881 censuses that are most likely to connect you to your 'lost
cousins'; remember too that because ALL of your living cousins are descended
from the branches of your tree, the way to find them is to enter relatives from
the branches. (Yes, I know it’s called My Ancestors
but I didn't think that calling it My Dead Cousins would be very
popular.)
Tip:
you may not have to add anyone new to your My Ancestors page – thousands of
people who receive this newsletter already have a New Contact waiting there!
Others may discover a new match simply by clicking the Search button.
You've been matched with another LostCousins member
and the two of you have signified that you're interested in corresponding. But
what happens next – should you write to them, or do you wait for them to write
to you? There's no fixed protocol, so just go ahead
and send a message. The only thing that can go wrong is if you both sit on your
hands waiting for the other member to start the ball rolling!
Tip:
always take into account how you and the other member
are connected – don’t expect them to know about people who are in your tree but
may not be in theirs. A good opening gambit is to say
"This is how I'm connected to the relatives we share, how about
you?". For an overview of how the two of you are connected view the My
Contact page for the relationship – this lists all of the people that you've
both entered, and indicates in very broad terms how each of you are related to
them. To view the My Contact page start on the My Cousins page and click the name
(or initials) of the person you’re connected to.
Search Welsh probate records at Findmypast
For
some time it has been possible to browse Findmypast's large
collection of Welsh probate records from 1544-1858, but now you can search all
700,000 records in seconds! Follow this link
to find out what your Welsh ancestors left behind.
Tip:
you don’t need a subscription to view the search
results, but you will need to log-in (or register if you haven't done so
previously).
Isle of Man newspapers to remain free
Over
400,000 pages from newspapers published in the Isle of Man 1792-1960 were made
free to view in April, as a temporary measure – but now Manx National Heritage
has announced that they are going to be free permanently. See this BBC News article
for further information.
The
John Brown shipyard on Clydebank was commissioned to build a new Royal Yacht on
4th February 1952, just two days before King George VI died and our present
Queen succeeded to the throne. Named Britannia in 1953, for 44 years until
1997 the ship was in the service of the sovereign, and a list has been compiled
of more than 3000 Officers and Royal Yachtsmen who served, including the LostCousins
member who created this useful resource. If one of your relatives on Britannia
you should find them in the list,
which gives rank and years of service.
Note:
the Navy List Research website
is a good source for information about naval officers, based on the Navy Lists.
Not
everyone can see what you see
I
have subscriptions to most of the main sites, and you may too – but remember
that the cousins you encounter may not be so fortunate. For example, whilst
everyone who takes the Ancestry DNA test currently benefits from ThruLines, those who don't have a
subscription don’t know about Common Ancestors.
I
contact as many as possible of my cousins with Common Ancestors to let them know
how broadly we're related, with the promise of more to
come when they respond. Not everyone replies, but most do – though it might be
weeks, months or years later. One cousin of mine who replied after nearly 4 years told me that it’s
much more difficult when you're using a smartphone – I haven’t checked that out,
but whilst I wouldn’t consider using my smartphone to do serious genealogy, I
know that a few LostCousins members do.
Some
people give up if they don't get an immediate response
to their first message – I wouldn't dream of doing that, and nor should you!
Note:
at LostCousins you can ask me to chase up someone who doesn’t reply within 14
days – most do reply eventually, and in many cases they didn't see the original
email because it went into their spam folder (or disappeared into a block hole –
a particular problem for Hotmail users).
Adoptees in New South Wales to get new
certificates
Adopted
people in NSW will be able to have both their birth and adopted families
included on a birth certificate for the first time in the State’s history
following new reforms. The new certificate will be provided automatically to
newly-adopted children, although they'll continue to
receive a birth certificate that shows only their adoptive parents – this will
enable them to use whichever they choose. Those who were adopted before the
change in legislation will be able to apply for a new birth certificate - for
more information follow this link.
Around
this time of the year the Office for National Statistics releases the statistics
on the most popular baby names of the previous year (see next article). But
what were the popular names in medieval times, and how did they come up with
them?
This
amazing article
at the History Extra website will tell you all that and more – it also talks
about the introduction of surnames in the late Middle Ages.
Note: the link is working
intermittently, probably because of the Internet infrastructure problems that you will have read about in the
news. So keep trying - the article is well worth reading!
The most popular names of 2019
Oliver
and Olivia are the two most popular names for babies whose births were
registered in England & Wales in 2019, but as ever the list is influenced
by popular culture - or so I'm told (I've never heard of Dua
Lipa or Kylo Ren, and couldn’t even tell you whether they
identify as male, female, or whatever). This BBC article has selected
statistics and graphs, but for the full statistics visit this page
on the ONS website.
Olivia
also tops the list of girls names in Scotland, but the
most popular boy's name is Jack – which only just creeps into the England &
Wales top 10 at No.8
What's
in a name? One member's DNA journey
I hear many inspiring stories from members who have
made discoveries thanks to DNA testing, but when the story comes from someone
who I've corresponded with many times over the years it
always feels extra special. The remainder of this article – other than the note
at the end – has been written by the member, with slight changes to protect the
identity of those concerned.
I
had never had cause to doubt the legitimacy of my paternal line; the documentary
evidence appeared solid back to my great-great-great grandfather. Whilst I had noticed
that I only had one DNA match on my paternal grandfather's line (with a 2nd cousin)
whereas I had many matches that connected through my other three grandparents, I
initially put that down to my relatives not testing. However, as recommended by
Peter, I re-tested with Ancestry and got a vastly higher number of matches than
at all the other sites put together - it was clear that I had a group of about 20
connected matches who did not match any of my known cousins or other matches.
Who were they?
I
was able to develop the trees of this group and worked out that they all went back
to the same person (let's call him Harmer - it’s an equally common surname),
who was born in London in the late 1700s. And the strength of several of these matches
suggested that I was related to one of this person's grandchildren born around 1850-1870. My grandfather was born in London in 1884; could
his father be one of these people - and not the man whose name appeared on his birth
certificate (and who was the husband of my great-grandmother)?
Six
male Harmers looked to be prime candidates, so I developed their trees as far into
the present day as I was able, using BMDs, censuses, the 1939 Register and the 2002-2020
electoral register. I then wrote to several living descendants, one of whom responded
and agreed to take an autosomal DNA test at my expense. The result confirmed that
I was on the right lines, but still did not prove which of them might be my great-grandfather.
However, further investigation revealed that in the 1891 Census two of the Harmers
on my shortlist were living just round the corner from where my great-grandmother
had been living in the early 1880s (by contrast the other Harmers were on the other
side of the Thames). One had been born in 1851 and was married with a family; the
other (his brother) was born in 1858, single and died unmarried in 1896. The wife of the married brother had borne a child
in 1883, so I obtained a PDF copy of the birth record, which showed that the
family were living very close to my great grandparents
in the early 1880s.
It
didn't tell me whether the unmarried brother was living
with him then, as he certainly was in 1891, but I felt sure that one of these two
Harmers must be my genetic great-grandfather. It would certainly explain why my
great-grandparents split up soon after the birth of my grandfather (my great grandmother
subsequently married someone else). But I wanted absolute confirmation that my paternal
line was to be found within the Harmer family tree. Fortunately, I had found some
male descendants who bore the Harmer surname, and one of them not only responded
to my letter, but agreed to take a Y-DNA test (again
at my expense). The result showed that we had an exact Y-DNA match - clear proof
that I descended from a Harmer; I now realised that the autosomal match with my
2nd cousin must have been due to the DNA my grandfather inherited from this mother
(so in fact she wasn't a 2nd cousin, but a half 2nd cousin).
I
may have lost one great-grandfather but I found
another one, and in the process I had learned some useful lessons. These included:
I
now have a whole new family line to research - and get to know. And I shall see
if I can solve the question of which of the 2 Harmer brothers was my great
grandfather; I reckon the unmarried one is the favourite, although it will not
be easy to prove it as he had no children (apart perhaps from my grandfather)
and so no living descendants.
Note:
although this story involved the member's surname line, you can employ similar
techniques in other parts of your tree – the Y-DNA test wasn't
an essential part of the process, by the way.
Sins as Red as Scarlet: a Devon Town in Turmoil
I
haven't had time to read Janet Few's new novel (and
in truth historical fiction is not really my thing), but if her previous
novel (which I did read and enjoy) is anything to go by it will be very
popular with fans of the genre. Out now in paperback and as a Kindle book:
Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com Amazon.ca Amazon.com.au
More
to my taste is Janet's Ten Steps to a One-Place Study which I reviewed here.
One member's hospital experience
On
Tuesday I'm off to get my pneumonia jab – it’s a
one-shot vaccine that should reduce my chance of getting pneumonia by 90%. However
LostCousins member Bob was one of the unlucky 10%, and as he was initially
diagnosed with suspected COVID-19 he decided to write about his experiences in
a series of article in the LostCousins Forum – if you’re a member of the forum you
can read about them here.
I've still only heard from one LostCousins member
who has contracted COVID-19 (and recovered). I hope this indicates that, like
me, you're taking care to avoid unnecessary risks.
Note:
if you're entitled to join the LostCousins Forum you'll find a link and a code
on your My Summary page.
Case
numbers are rising in Europe, but is it something we should be worrying about?
This article
looks at three countries that have seen rising cases – make up your own mind!
The
good news is that the pandemic has got most of us doing positive things that we
wouldn’t have considered doing before, like taking exercise or – in my case –
watching The Repair Shop and Gardeners' World At the same time businesses and other
organisations are being forced to rethink the way they work, in some cases
making changes they should have made years ago. If you follow this link you'll find one of a
series of half-hour opera programmes on YouTube – all the way from New Zealand.
In
America – where else – a young woman was discovered alive in a body bag just
before she was about to be embalmed (you can read the story here).
Once
again I've been busy jam-making this week – I started
with 10 pounds of Damson jam, made with Merryweather
damsons which are larger and more plum-like, so easier to stone. This was
swiftly followed by 5 pounds of Shepherd's Bullace, the first of many batches,
I suspect – and then an experimental batch of 3 pounds of 'Plum & Raisin', again
using Merryweather damsons, but with just 400g of
sugar to 1100g of stoned fruit. We tried some last night with roast chicken –
it was an interesting change from cranberry sauce.
I've also been experimenting with dried damsons,
though our oven won't allow me to dry them out completely, so I'm going to
freeze them once I've dried them as much as I can. I've
already got a large stash of unstoned raw damsons in
the freezer – in 1kg rectangular yoghurt pots each holding 600g of fruit – but the
stoned, dried damsons take up a fraction of the space.
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'll be back in September – in
the meantime keep searching for those 'lost cousins' of yours!
Peter Calver
Founder, LostCousins
© Copyright 2020 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? To
link to a specific article right-click on the article name in the contents list
at the top of the newsletter.