Newsletter 27th
November 2020
Celebrate with the British Newspaper Archive SAVE 25%
When was the first
Black Friday?
Last chance to save
on Ancestry DNA ENDS MONDAY
Would you like to
work on the 2021 England & Wales census?
Scottish monumental inscriptions
go online
The LostCousins
newsletter is usually published 2 or 3 times a month. To access the previous issue
(dated 22nd November) 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
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Celebrate
with the British Newspaper Archive SAVE 25%
Ten years ago the British
Newspaper Archive was created to bring the British Library's enormous
collection of historic newspapers to the people - not just family historians,
but also local historians, social historians, and other researchers.
In 2010 the goal was to digitise 40 million pages over
the following 10 years and this month the British Newspaper Archive reached
that target. But they're not stopping, they're going to keep going, and that's
why its so useful to be able to restrict your searches to articles added after
a particular date and why I wish other websites would provide a similar
option for searches of their records.
You can access the same newspapers if you have a Findmypast
Pro or Ultimate subscription, but Findmypast doesnt provide
the same search capabilities. If searching British newspapers is an important part
of your research, it's worth paying a little more.
Right now you can save 25% on any British Newspaper
Archive subscription using the code SAVE25 but the reduction only
applies to your first payment, so if you can afford a 3 or 12 month
subscription the saving will be much higher, especially since the longer
subscriptions always work out much cheaper (12 months at the discounted rate costs
less than 5 months at the monthly rate). All subscriptions renew automatically
by default, but you can change this.
However you'll only be supporting LostCousins if you use the link below, or
the advert above (if you can see it):
British
Newspaper Archive SAVE 25% until 30th November with SAVE25
DON'T FORGET TO ENTER THE OFFER CODE - IT ISN'T AUTOMATIC!
When was the first Black Friday?
The term Black
Friday has been used many times over the years it is only relatively
recently that it has come to refer to the day after Thanksgiving, a uniquely
American celebration (though the first celebrants were English colonists).
One
of the earliest references I found was in The Ipswich Journal of 22nd
March 1788, where it is explained as referring to the day each year when the freemen
of [Great] Yarmouth were able to ask questions about items and balances in the
accounts of the corporation (the local council).
(Image © THE
BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Used by kind permission of
the British Newspaper Archive)
More
recently the term was used by Mrs Pankhurst, the suffragette, in a court case
reported in the 24th May 1912 issue of Votes for Women. But there are many
other ways in which the term has been used over the years, and whilst you might
find some of them by Googling, searching historic newspapers is likely to
provide wider, more historically-focused results.
Last chance to save on Ancestry DNA ENDS MONDAY
Irrespective
of which site you prefer to use when searching records, there's
only one provider of autosomal DNA tests that you should be considering.
Ancestry not only has the largest database by far, the only
way to get access to the database is to test with Ancestry most other
providers allow uploads of raw data from other companies.
But
that's not the only reason Ancestry is ahead of the
field they have an even larger collection of family trees, and ThruLines makes use of these trees to help you knock
down your 'brick walls'. If you have an Ancestry subscription you'll also
benefit from Common Ancestors, which combines multiple trees to show how
you are related to DNA matches in other words youre not dependent on recognising
the names in the tree of your match, which in some cases might only go back two
or three generations.
Of
course, Ancestry trees aren't always correct, but when
there's a DNA connection it increases the chances that the tree makes sense. Nevertheless there's still plenty for you to do but the
whole process is made so much easier by Ancestry doing what they're good at.
Currently
Ancestry have their lowest prices of 2020 in both the UK and Australia/New Zealand
but these Black Friday offers are due to end on Monday 30th November. Bear in
mind that there is no need to decide who will be testing before placing your
order - autosomal tests are suitable for both males and females but you
should aim to test people from the earliest surviving generations, even if they
are not in your direct line. For example, if your parents have passed away but they have surviving siblings, their DNA will
be far more useful than your own. And you should usually only consider testing your
offspring if you have spare cash and are trying to interest them in family
history.
Please
use my links so that you can support LostCousins when you make your purchase.
If you dont see the discounted price at first,
log-out from your Ancestry account and click the link a second time.
Ancestry.co.uk
(UK only) reduced from £79 to £49 (plus shipping) until 30th November
Ancestry.com.au
(Australia/NZ only) reduced from $129 to $85 (plus shipping) until 30th November
Shipping
works out cheaper when you buy multiple tests I always stock up at this time
of the year because that way I can afford to test more cousins over the
succeeding 12 months. Some of them end up as Christmas presents, of course
..
A
New York family who had been told their house was built by a bootlegger discovered
66 bottles of Prohibition-era whiskey hidden in the walls. In my experience
most discoveries during home renovation are unwanted and expensive to resolve
but these bottles could fetch up to $1000 each, according to this CNN article.
The
article reminded me of an incident almost 40 years ago (when I was a rich young
software publisher those were the days!). I'd just committed to buying a
house when the sellers admitted that the previous owner, a gentleman of dubious
character, had been found dead in the swimming pool, and that 10 years earlier the
police had searched the house unsuccessfully looking for ill-gotten gains. Fortunately there were no skeletons in the closet but nor
did I discover any hidden treasure.
When
you enter relatives from the British censuses on your My Ancestors page
you can quickly and easily check that the census references are correct by
clicking the grey arrow symbol. If you do this after entering the first person
in a household there will only be one entry to alter in the
event that you've made a mistake.
The
checking arrows can also be used to check the names and dates of birth that you've
entered, but please bear in mind that the search results shown are based on the
transcript, whereas in 1841 and 1911 you should use the handwritten census as
your source so if there's a minor discrepancy between your entry and the
search results it won't necessarily be you that has made a mistake.
Why
the difference in the way we use different censuses at LostCousins? My aim has
always been to use free census information so that cousins around the world can
connect irrespective of means and 7 of the 9 censuses we use are free online.
If only the indexed transcript is free, we use that. If neither the images nor
the transcripts are free, as in the case of the 1841 and 1911 censuses, we use
the images.
Of
course, you dont have to remember any of this the Add
Ancestor and Edit Ancestor forms show the relevant information for
each census.
Note:
you can check your entries using the arrows at any time, but obviously the sooner
you correct any errors, the better.
Would you like to work on the 2021 England & Wales
census?
There
are still lots of vacancies for census workers, and the good news is that in
many cases the work won't commence until mid-March at the earliest, so if you're
concerned about COVID-19 (as you should be) its likely that many of the most vulnerable
members of the population will already have been vaccinated.
When
I worked as an enumerator in 1971 it was a case of tramping the streets, but things
have changed quite a bit since then! For more details of the vacancies and the
duties involved please visit:
https://www.censusjobs.co.uk/search-for-a-job/
Please
note that applications for census area support roles close today (Friday 27th),
though might be extended if there are still vacancies in some areas. Closing
dates for other jobs are further away.
Personally
my thoughts for 2021 are less about vacancies, and more about vaccines and vacances
(if you'll excuse my French) - 2020 has been a very tough year for many of
us, and there are only so many 12-hour days I can manage. But I really enjoyed
working on the census half a century ago, so if you or any of your family are
able to get involved, it's a great opportunity to play a part in what might be
the last census of its kind apart from the admin and managerial posts there
are tens of thousands of jobs 'in the field'.
Scottish monumental inscriptions go online
Just
as I was finalising this newsletter I learned that Findmypast have added over a
million Scottish monumental incriptions please follow
this link
to find out more.
There
are all sorts of offers around, but are they bargains? Some certainly are this is
the laptop I bought earlier this year for £549, but you can get it for £50 less
(when they're back in stock). Even better judging from the 5* Computer Shopper
review - is the new Magicbook
Pro, which they reviewed at £850, but is currently £50 cheaper (and in
stock when I just checked).
I
have to say that if the Pro had been available earlier this year when my old
laptop was threatening to give up, I'd have been sorely tempted it makes such
a difference having a really fast computer (though even the one I did buy is
slightly faster than my overclocked, water-cooled tower PC).
Losing data is every computer user's nightmare, and the best solution is to have backups - ideally
multiple backups. This solution isn't going to be
suitable for everyone, but at nearly 40% off for Black Friday week it's cheaper than
many less capable alternatives. With a capacity equivalent to 800 Blu Ray discs, or
nearly 5000 DVDs - but much, much faster - it's just what I need.
I'll update this article if I spot any other
bargains that I think might be of interest, so check back occasionally (but
remember to refresh the page).
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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