Newsletter – 21st November 2025
Doncaster parish registers go online NEW
Finding births and marriages using the death indexes
Did your relatives live in Merthyr?
Black Friday savings at TheGenealogist ENDS SOON
Save 20% on Family Historian ENDS 30TH NOV
DNA identifies murdered 13th century duke
Black Friday savings at Ancestry
New subscribers save 30% or more at Findmypast
The LostCousins newsletter is usually published 2 or 3 times a month. To access the previous issue (dated 14th 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):
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Doncaster parish registers go online NEW
Ancestry have added around 2.5 million parish register entries for Doncaster and the surrounding area – a quick tally suggests that over 80 parishes are included:
Doncaster, Yorkshire, England, Church of England Marriages, 1754-1950
Doncaster, Yorkshire, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1925
Doncaster, Yorkshire, England, Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813-2000
Doncaster Archives was the first record office I ever visited. Just before Christmas 1993 I had purchased a large collection of family correspondence at an auction in London, and in the summer of 1994 my wife and I headed to Yorkshire to see what we could find out about the family. The letters we’d bought were all addressed to Mary Stables Wright, who had married William Aldam, a rich landowner, investor, and sometime Member of Parliament. In the archives they had William Aldam’s diaries, we had the letters he wrote to his wife when he was away on business – it was a marriage made in heaven.
My wife and I retained our own surnames when we married, but in some countries this would be discouraged, or even illegal. For example, in Japan the law requires married couples to use the same surname, and whilst the husband could take the wife’s surname, in most cases it’s the other way round.
One enterprising Japanese couple have come up with a solution, albeit one that wouldn’t appeal to everyone. They marry before the birth of each child (because this makes the paperwork more straightforward), and divorce afterwards. So far they have divorced three times – more times than Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, another couple who retained their own surnames when they married.
You might say that this makes a mockery of the law – but on the other hand, bad laws deserve to be mocked, don’t you think?
Finding births and marriages using the death indexes
How can you possibly find births and marriages in the death indexes? Am I talking about entries that have been misfiled? Read on, and you may be surprised by what you learn....
From 1st April 1969 the England & Wales death indexes include the precise date of birth of the individual, information that doesn't appear in the birth indexes for any period. I don't know anyone who can afford to buy birth certificates for all of their relatives from collateral lines, so to discover the exact date of birth from the death indexes is a real bonus.
Note: birthdates are not shown in the GRO’s own death indexes – you have to use Ancestry, Findmypast, FreeBMD etc.
Of course, unless the name is a very rare one you have to bear in mind the possibility that the death index entry you've found is the wrong one, but there are some simple checks you can carry out. First make sure that the date of birth tallies with the birth index entry – allowing for the fact that births are typically registered up to 42 days after the event - then check whether the place of death makes sense given the other information you have for this branch of your tree.
The process I've just described is simplest for male relatives, because they usually don't change their name when they marry. But what about female relatives - how can the death indexes help you find out more about them?
The first thing I do is assume that they didn't marry, and check whether I can find a death entry in their maiden surname. If I do, and the information fits with whatever else I know, then it seems probable that they didn't marry. But most of the time they did marry, and this is when it gets more interesting....
Much of the time it isn't possible to be certain that you've found the correct marriage, and one of the reasons for this is that even though by the late 19th century most people had at least two forenames, the marriage indexes for many periods only show the first forename in full, providing only initials in place of middle names. (This is one of the reasons I generally recommend searching the GRO BMD indexes at Findmypast - the site copes with the different formats far more effectively than Ancestry.)
Sometimes you'll be able to narrow down the list of possible marriages geographically, though this can be dangerous in view of the extent to which people moved around in the 20th century – whether looking for work, going to university, or joining the forces. On the other hand, since it's the bride whose name we know, it's worth remembering that marriages are often paid for by the bride's parents, so you'll usually find that the marriage took place at a location that's fairly close to "home".
Whether you've narrowed down the list of possibles to just one entry or a handful, it's time to go back to the death indexes. Assuming that your female relative didn't remarry or divorce her death is likely to be registered in her husband's surname - so the next step is to look for possible deaths and compare the date of birth (for deaths up to March 1969 you'll need to calculate this from the age at death) with your relative's birth date. You won't always find a death that fits in with one of the marriages – divorce, remarriage, emigration, and longevity all conspire against researchers – but much of the time you will.
If you happen to know your relative's precise date of birth and they died after March 1969 there's another way to pin down the death entry - which is to specify the exact date of birth and leave the surname box blank. However, you can only carry out this particular search at Ancestry (or FreeBMD, though they haven’t transcribed all of the entries). Unless the forenames are very unusual you'll still have a list of possible deaths - so the final step is to compare that list against the list of possible marriages. If the same surname appears in both lists then you've hit the jackpot!
Tip: the 1939 Register is another great source of dates of birth; they’re not always correct, but where is a discrepancy it’s usually the year of birth that’s wrong, and that’s easy to check. You can also use the 1921 Census, which gives ages in years and months, to narrow down the window of possibility.
Over 360,000 marriage licence records from Worcestershire have gone online at Ancestry, supplementing the parish registers which were uploaded in 2022. You can search the new records here.
Did your relatives live in Merthyr?
My wife – who is 75% Welsh – found this PDF file of the deaths and burials reported in the Merthyr Express between 1888-1964. The file is on the website of the People’s Collection Wales, “a national digital archive that preserves and shares the diverse histories of Wales”.
Black Friday savings at TheGenealogist ENDS SOON
When you buy a discounted subscription to TheGenealogist you get a lifetime discount – in other words, you pay the same price every year for as long as you continue to subscribe. Which means that their Black Friday offer of a 12 month Diamond subscription for £114.95 (compared to the full price of £169.95) is even more generous than it appears.
But that’s not all: in your first year you’ll also get a ‘research pack’ including a 12 month subscription to the online magazine Discover your Ancestors, a compendium of the 2021 issues, 3 digital books, and a ticket to the Family History Show Online – all of which would cost £85.80 if you bought them separately.
TheGenealogist has the most complete collection of tithe maps and tithe records, giving you insight into where your ancestors lived at the start of the Victorian era – and it’s the only website that has the 1910 Land Valuations, known as ‘Lloyd George Domesday’, which do the same for the period just before the Great War. The coverage isn’t complete, but it’s rapidly increasing.
To take advantage of the Black Friday offer please follow this link.
Save 20% on Family
Historian ENDS 30TH NOV
Until the end of November you can save 20% on one of the best family tree programs around when you download it from the Family Historian store. Family Historian 7 normally costs £59.95, but when you enter the coupon code RLX20 the price comes down to just £47.96
You might think that’s still a lot of money when you can have an online tree for nothing – but I don’t, because I know how important it is to have a powerful family tree program running on my own computer, so that ALL of the information relating to my relatives can be stored in one place. True, it’s quick and easy to attach a record to an online tree, but what happens when you pause your subscription? Suddenly you discover that you can no longer access those records.
I don’t recommend specific tree programs, because everyone’s needs are different – so please DON’T ask me to advise you whether Family Historian is right for you. But there are two things you can do: one is to install the 30-day trial version (which you’ll find here), but bear in mind that the offer ends on 30th November. The other is to talk to existing users on the LostCousins Forum (and if you’re not a member yet, you may find an invitation waiting on your My Summary page at the main LostCousins site).
DNA identifies murdered 13th century duke
A skeleton originally discovered in 1915, during the excavation of a convent in Budapest, then lost during WW2, only resurfacing in 2018 in a wooden box in the Hungarian Museum of Natural History, has been identified as that of Béla of Macsó, a grandson of King Béla IV who was responsible for the establishment of the convent. The young duke, who was assassinated in 1272 in a dispute over the Hungarian throne, had been savagely attacked – the skeleton showed 9 injuries to the head and another 17 on other parts of the body.
The DNA evidence is considerably more convincing than the identification of King Richard III – the researchers were able to use analyses of autosomal DNA, Y-DNA and mtDNA to reach their conclusion. You may recall that in the case of Richard III the identification was based on his mtDNA, which matched that of two living descendants of his sister, Anne of York. However, the Y-DNA recovered from the remains discovered beneath a Leicester car park did NOT match that of 4 living descendants of John of Gaunt, though this could be explained by a false-paternity event somewhere in the 19 generations between Richard III and Henry Somerset, 5th Duke of Beaufort.
If you are technically-minded you can read a preprint of Murder in cold blood? Forensic and bioarchaeological identification of the skeletal remains of Béla, Duke of Macsó by following this link (the final paper is behind a paywall).
Black Friday savings at Ancestry
As I suspected Ancestry have cut the price of DNA tests further for Black Friday, and according to Ancestry the new prices are the lowest ever. For example, in the UK you’ll pay just £34 plus shipping, compared to the list price of £79 plus shipping – not exactly pocket money, but certainly not a fortune. So maybe order a couple of extra kits at these bargain prices - you'll also save on shipping.
Even better, if you don’t have a current Ancestry membership you’ll be offered the chance to buy a 3-month World membership for just £1! There are similar offers in other territories. Closing dates vary but are shown when you click the relevant link.
UK:
Save up to 55% on AncestryDNA®. Terms Apply.
AUS/NZ: Lowest Price Ever! Save up to 50% on AncestryDNA® Terms Apply
Canada:
Lowest price ever! Save up to 50% on AncestryDNA®!*Terms Apply
US:
Our lowest price ever. AncestryDNA® is $29! Ends Dec 31, 2025.
Tip: you may need to log-out from your Ancestry account before clicking the link.
New subscribers save 30% or more at Findmypast
Findmypast.co.uk have cut the price of their 12 month EVERYTHING subscription for NEW subscribers, who now pay £169.99 per annum – and for a limited period they can save an extra 30%, bringing the price down to just £118.99 in the first year. Monthly and quarterly subscriptions are also on offer, but as the discount only applies to the first monthly or quarterly payment the saving is relatively small.
Prices at other sites haven’t changed, but the discounts are larger – check the relevant link below:
Note: existing Findmypast subscribers in the UK will pay the same price on renewal as they would have done previously, ie £169.99 for a 12 month subscription.
Isn’t it strange how hearing an advertising jingle from our youth can bring back memories? The Classictvads.co.uk website has adverts from the 1950s onwards, many of which I remember, and you may too. I’ve previously mentioned the Headington website which lists classic TV adverts from 1955-1990; whilst it doesn’t have any of the adverts you’ll be able to find many of them at YouTube.
These days we have remote controls, so we can turn down the volume during advertising breaks – but in the old days it wasn’t so easy.
As I write there are 31 Kindle books in the Tracing Your Ancestors…. series on offer at Amazon.co.uk – use this link to see what’s available when you read this (don't forget to check the second page of search results).
With Black Friday almost upon us I thought it might be a good idea to feature some of most useful items I’ve bought over the last couple of years. Let’s face it, if it doesn’t do the job it doesn’t matter how cheap it is!
The household gadget I use most often (every day, in fact) is a Kärcher window vacuum – not for vacuuming windows, but for removing moisture from the bathroom tiles after showering. Not only does it greatly reduce the chance of mould appearing, it saves me money – if I left the walls damp it would be up to the central heating to evaporate the moisture, and that’s pretty costly. The Black Friday price at Amazon.co.uk for the Karcher WV1 is just £33.49, which is less than I paid – or you can buy the WV2 plus N (which comes with loads of extras) for £43.99
When our new cat arrived we bought a new catflap – access is controlled by a magnet, and though we’ve tried more sophisticated catflaps in the past, this seems to work best as far as our cats are concerned. I paid £32.91 earlier this year but you can currently get the Petsafe Deluxe Magnetic Cat Flap for just £25.29
We also bought a hooded litter tray – so much more private for the cat, and less smelly for us! Not bad for £20
Now that my eyes have stabilised it was time to buy some new reading glasses, and fortunately I have the same prescription for both eyes, so I could buy off-the-shelf glasses online. These are the ones I got – and at about £8 for 4 pairs they’re an absolute bargain.
My wife’s car has a start-stop battery, ie it’s designed to cope with the engine cutting out and restarting rather than idling and wasting fuel. These batteries are significantly more expensive to replace, so I invested in a Ctek charger designed specifically for start-stop batteries. I paid £78.95 for the CTEK 40-106 CT5 earlier this year, which was a big reduction on the RRP, but at the moment you can get it for even less.
I wear slippers most of the time, because I’m usually at home writing newsletters or corresponding with LostCousins members over email, so when I found some comfortable-looking slippers for under £10 a couple of years ago I decided to try them out, and I’ve stuck with them ever since, re-ordering twice. The latest pair cost me £7.99 and that’s also the current price – you’ll find them at Amazon.co.uk
Finally, last year I got fed up with banging my head in cupboards, so splashed out on a couple of LED light strips which are charged using USB. I paid around £15 for the pair, but the Black Friday price is just £13.62
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......
In the next issue I’ll be unveiling some of the prizes on offer in this year’s competition – but you don’t have to wait to enter, any direct ancestors and blood relatives you add to your My Ancestors page will count as competition entries. Last year there were more prizes than entrants, so many people got more than one prize!
Peter Calver
Founder, LostCousins
© Copyright 2025 Peter Calver
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