Newsletter
- 13th January 2016
Less
than 36 hours to save 50% at Findmypast ENDS
THURSDAY 14TH
Competition
attracts nearly 1000 entrants!
Have you
solved the Daly case?
Northamptonshire
parish registers online NEW
Review:
Family History Nuts & Bolts
Woman
finds long-lost family just in time
The Business of Genetic Ancestry
A
most unusual marriage ceremony
The LostCousins newsletter is usually published
fortnightly. To access the previous newsletter (dated 31st December)
click here, for an index to articles from 2009-10
click here, for a list of articles from 2011
click here and for a list of articles from
2012-14 click here.
However I strongly recommend that you do what I do, and use the
customised Google search below (it only searches these newsletters, so you
won't get spurious results):
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!
Less than 36 hours to
save 50% at Findmypast ENDS
THURSDAY
New subscribers can save 50% on a World
subscription to Findmypast - but the offer ends at midnight (London time) on
Thursday 14th January, so you've got to be really quick if you don't want to
miss out!
You can subscribe through any of
Findmypast's worldwide sites - just pick the appropriate link from the list
below:
With a World subscription you'll have
virtually unlimited access to almost
all of Findmypast's billions of historical records and newspaper articles, plus
the modern Electoral Register for the UK. The only exception is the
recently-launched 1939 Register (which can only be accessed using credits).
Tip:
you'll only be supporting LostCousins if you use one of the links above to
purchase your subscription.
Competition attracts
nearly 1000 entrants!
This year's Christmas Competition
attracted nearly one thousand entrants, who between them added over 37,000
entries to their My Ancestors pages -
resulting in numerous matches with new cousins and much excited correspondence
over the holiday period.
Although everyone taking part had
ancestors from the British Isles, only half of the 15 prizes were won by
members living in the UK: 5 winners live in Australia, and 2 prizes were won by
members in the USA. All of the winners have been notified.
How were the winners chosen? I used the
Random Number Generator at RANDOM.ORG to
pick 15 of the tens of thousands of relatives who had been entered by members
during the period of the competition, and the prizes were allocated in order.
One of the prizewinners joined during the first month
that LostCousins was in existence (May 2004), whilst another joined after the
competition had started.
Not surprisingly several prizes went to
members who had entered large numbers of relatives, but one prizewinner
had only entered one relative!
When we're researching our tree it's
often necessary to put in a lot of effort in order to get results - but
sometimes what we're lacking is inspiration. So I was heartened to receive this
email from Susan:
"Whilst trying to find elusive cousins to enter
into your Christmas competition, I came across a little nugget of information,
so I felt I had to contact you to say thank you for giving me inspiration. I
have in my possession a photograph of a young man, taken in the early 1900's which has "John Davies cousin" on the back.
Well this being in Wales, I didn't think I would ever find out who he was, but
in my searches I came across a Davies family which I am positive is the right
one. So a BIG thank you from me, and please carry on
with your good work, it is much appreciated..."
John sent me another example - in this
case a serendipitous discovery resulted in his winning a prize in the
competition and finding a new cousin:
"I followed a hint in my wife's Ancestry tree
which led me to the will of her 4 x great grandfather, who died in 1829. In
this will he named his two (deceased) sons, their 6 children (his
grandchildren), as well as his daughter and her husband, whom he nominated as
his executor.
"This is what is called a goldmine. I had previously
only known of the one son who was my wife's 3 x g grandfather,
and his one daughter who was my wife's 2 x g grandmother.
"As a result, in addition to the above mentioned, I
found a whole string of other descendants in all the various branches, matched
them up in 1841, 1881 and 1911 censuses and all in between, cranked them into
Lost Cousins, thereby winning a prize, and, - even more wonderful, two of them
have matched!"
Have you solved the Daly
case?
In the last issue I set my New Year
Challenge - to argue convincingly for the guilt or innocence of Arthur Daly,
who was acquitted of murder by a jury in the early days of WW2. If you missed
it the first time you can read all about it here.
The submissions so far are fairly evenly
balanced between guilt and innocence - but I suspect there's something everyone
has missed. Will you be the one to find the missing clue? Perhaps one day this
story will be turned into a TV drama - it has all the right ingredients!
If you didn't take advantage of the
British Newspaper Archive offer in the last newsletter you can access the same
articles with a Findmypast Britain or World subscription (and if you did,
remember that your monthly subscription will renew automatically unless the
auto-renew box is unticked). It's really easy to search the newspaper articles
by name at Findmypast:
81 of the 87 results relate to Dr Arthur
Daly.
Northamptonshire
parish registers online NEW
Ancestry have made available online
parish registers from Northamptonshire - there are now over 7 million baptism,
marriage and burial records in their collection, which extends from the
commencement of parish registers right up to 1912.
Northamptonshire,
England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1532-1812
Northamptonshire,
England, Marriages, 1754-1912
Northamptonshire,
England, Baptisms, 1813-1912
Northamptonshire,
England, Burials, 1813-1912
Northamptonshire,
England, Confirmations, 1870-1911
Review: Family History Nuts & Bolts
It's not often that I review the same
book twice - certainly not in the space of less than a year - but when the new
enlarged edition of Andrew Todd's superb Nuts
and Bolts came out I got hold of a copy immediately (and was flattered
to recognise two quotes from my February
2015 review in the blurb at the back of the book!).
Although the new edition is longer it's
still jam-packed with inspirational advice and useful information. For example,
do you know how the time between birth and baptism changed over the centuries?
Or that lots of people were buried in a different
parish from the one they lived in? (These are just two of the invaluable
snippets I gleaned from Chapter 7.)
One of the key reasons why I kept finding
myself nodding in agreement as I read the book is the way the that the author
continually emphasises the importance of researching the entire family, not
just the direct line - indeed, the sub-title of the book is
"Problem-Solving though Family Reconstitution Techniques". Anyone who
has successfully connected with 'lost cousins' will appreciate how important it
is to follow collateral lines.
Because online access to so many records
is so easy nowadays, many of us - me included, I'm ashamed to say - often try
to teleport from one direct ancestor to the next without taking the time to
build up a picture of the family (the way we used to do things). There's a lot
to be said for browsing through parish registers, whether on microfilm or
online - you'll spot all sorts of things that might otherwise be missed. In a
sense I'm fortunate that as a subscriber to Essex Ancestors I'm forced to do
things 'the old way' (because, whilst online, the Essex registers are largely
unindexed) - but if you need to be convinced of the merits of this approach
then Andrew Todd's book will surely do it!
The truth is, whilst we all have 'brick
walls' in our trees, very often they are of our own making: Family History Nuts and Bolts will
inspire you to look again and discover clues that you missed first time around.
Indeed, you'll probably find yourself reading this book more than once because
there's so much to take in.
Although Nuts
and Bolts now costs £8, at less than the cost of a single BMD
certificate it could be the best £8 you ever spend! If you have 'brick walls'
in your tree - and, let's face it, who doesn't - this
'back to basics' book is for you.
Note:
as several overseas members have reported difficulty ordering the book I have
obtained a small quantity which I will send anywhere in the world (once I have
received payment, of course).
Woman finds long-lost
family just in time for mother
In 2013 I headed an article
in this newsletter "Your cousins are dying to hear from you" in order
to emphasise the brutal truth that if we delay the search for our living
cousins we run the risk of leaving it too late.
I was reminded of that article when I
read this article
from the Huffington Post about a
mother who died of cancer just two months after being reunited with her
siblings. This was surely not the tragic ending that the newspaper headline
implies? I would argue that in the circumstances it was the best of all
possible endings, even though it must have been tough for her brothers to find
then lose their sister.
From time to time I'm contacted by
LostCousins members who have received the sad news that their illness is
terminal - how brave of them to write to me! I sympathise, of course, but what
I would really like to be able to do is wave a magic wand in order to connect
them with the other members who are their 'lost cousins' - before it's too
late.
So when I chide you for not completing
your My Ancestors page it's not just
because I hate to see you wasting a wonderful opportunity - it's also because
the next member to contact me with tragic news could easily be your 'lost cousin'.
Note:
I'd like to thank Debbie Kennett, DNA guru and LostCousins member, for alerting
me to the Hufflington Post article via Google Plus.
Coincidentally you can hear Debbie talking in the radio programme I'm going to
write about next....
The Business of Genetic Ancestry
There's a lot to learn about DNA
testing, but for me the real challenge is to avoid your judgment being
contaminated by the less than admirable marketing practices of some of the
testing companies. Even the firms I recommend can exaggerate the ability of
their tests to divine our deep ancestry, but it's the companies you won't read
about in my newsletter who are the real culprits.
In June last year BBC Radio 4 broadcast
a very interesting programme called The
Business of Genetic Ancestry, which exposed some of the more questionable
practices - and you can hear it on BBC iPlayer wherever you are in the world
(just follow this link).
Tip:
to re-read my recent series of DNA article, which emphasise what these tests
can and can't do, simply type "Understanding DNA" (including the
quotes) into the search box near the top of this newsletter.
A most unusual marriage
ceremony
I've seen some interesting marriage register
entries in my time, but this one takes the biscuit!
From records in the custody of the Borthwick Institute for Archives, University of York;
reproduced by kind permission of Findmypast
Not only does everyone who took part in
the marriage ceremony - the groom, the bride, the witnesses, even the vicar -
have the same surname, they all shared a grandfather. Joseph and William
Beckett, the witnesses, were brothers of the groom - as was the vicar - whilst
the bride was their 1st cousin.
Talk about keeping it in the family! Do
you have any similar entries in your tree? (Many thanks to LostCousins member Ian for allowing
me to share this story with you.)
LostCousins member Jacqueline sent me
this wonderful story about how, with the help of Jayne Shrimpton (the photo
expert), she was able to correctly identify a photograph.
My second cousin Ann has gone through her attic yet
again and found more priceless images of the Cox family which never made it to
my own branch or those of my other second cousins.
As a result, I have found out where my great
grandfather and his sisters went to school in Islington in the mid 1880s and when my great aunts and uncles celebrated
“rites of passage” such as putting on long trousers, putting their hair up,
dropping their hems and taking to wearing corsets, probably as they started
work, and where they were living or working at the time.
Some of them had their 21st pictures taken. 3 were
absolutely appallingly preserved images on Cartes de Visite, two different ones of a youngish man, my great
grandfather, Henry Pilbeam Cox born in 1848, in a
bowler hat holding a small child in a sailor suit, and an even worse, dreadful,
one of an unknown very young man in long trousers and apparently fly-away tie
and schoolish-type cap, but I knew they were taken by
J H Dixon of King Street Maidenhead some time in the
1890s. The only one possible candidate for such a small
child, if definitely a boy, taken the 1890s was Sidney, born in 1887.
The candidates in the family for a boy of about 15
years of age were rather limited, but could be my own great grandfather or one
of his 3 older brothers born between 1876 and 1883, so I was keen to know
which. Harry, born in 1876, died in July 1900 in Pretoria of dysentery, and
Charlie born in 1879
died of diabetes in 1905 so the date of the original image was
relevant to them.
I emailed Jayne Shrimpton about whether she could do
her basic, cheapest, dating analysis of such dreadful images and she said, not
unreasonably, that she'd have to see them first. The first surprise came when
she replied that she could indeed date them reasonably closely, and the bigger
surprise was that their condition was so dreadful partly because they were
copies. I asked her to go ahead and also, pushing my luck a bit, whether the
child in the sailor suit could be only a boy, because that information could
help with the assignment of a name.
Regarding the man with the toddler, Jayne said of my
third and worst photograph:
"I don’t have studio details for I H Dixon of
Maidenhead, although the card mount looks broadly 1890s or perhaps early 1900s:
the website www.cartedevisite.co.uk can provide dates......Studying the image,
the photograph can be dated broadly from the man’s appearance in bowler hat,
jacket with high lapels and winged collar to late-1880s to late-1890s, probably
c.1887-97. The child in sailor collar is almost certainly a boy and he looks to
be aged about two years old. Therefore I agree that he must be Sidney, born in
1887."
But the shock came when Jayne turned to the next
image:
"Judging from the extremely poor image quality
and the faded vignette effect, this is definitely a copy of a much earlier photograph,
this copy being commissioned from J H Dixon, by ancestors living in Maidenhead.
"Turning to the image, we see a much earlier
photograph of a lad dressed in the fashions of the 1860s, as evidenced
especially by his peaked cap and horizontal necktie. This means that the boy,
who looks to be aged about 12-16 years old, or thereabouts, cannot conceivably
be Harry Cox (b.1876), but is probably an ancestor from the previous
generation. This copy photo (perhaps dating from the 1890s/early 1900s) was probably
made soon after his death, intended as a ‘memorial portrait’."
Well, my great grandfather, Henry Pilbeam
Cox, was the second of 3 brothers, sons of Alfred Cox born c 1824-5, a
telegraphic instrument maker, originally trained by his father, Henry Cox,
clockmaker of Nottingham, and Akfred's wife Charlotte
Bryant. Their first son was Alfred who
was born in 1846, then came Henry in 1848 in Hoxton and then Lost Cousin's
member Audrey Scott's great grandfather, George in 1853. The date of the image
from the 1860s probably ruled out George but the lad could possibly have been
Henry, or Alfred who was seen last in the 1861 census as a “telegraph
instrument maker's boy.” Neither I nor 2nd cousin Audrey knew what happened to
him after 1861. There are at RG11/169/70/42 and RG12/ 1045/23/42 census returns of
a possible candidate in an Alfred Cox
born about 1847, who was a surgical instrument maker, which is a possible
likely career change, but this Alfred was born in Kensington, and I was never
convinced by him, although others with public trees online were happy enough to
own him.
Some years ago (shamefaced confession: I did not
record the source) I found a reference to the burial on 28th February 1867 of
one Alfred Cox aged 20 in Victoria Park Cemetery, Hackney (there was once a
website for this cemetery, now apparently no longer available for 1867) from St
Batholomew's Hospital.
I Googled St Bart's Archives and a very helpful
archivist found the admission and discharge record for me. There was an address
in Hoxton and an occupation – Telegraphic Instrument Maker – Bingo! Poor Alfred
was ill for 3 months before dying from from a spinal
condition which antibiotics could probably deal with now; the first born son,
dead before he celebrated his 21st birthday. Alfred seems a suitable subject
for a memorial. This copy, if it is of Alfred, was clearly not "made soon
after his death" but was probably originally taken when he first went into
long trousers and perhaps began his apprenticeship. And if not, it is my own
great grandfather, photographed for the same "rite of passage."
Either way, it is the earliest image I have seen for a member of our Cox family
and without Jayne's analysis and remark that it was probably a copy of an 1860s image made as a memorial, I'd never have suspected
the early original date for what I knew to be a photograph from roughly 1890.
The young man's face does not look sufficiently like
Henry to convince me that this is the earliest image of my great grandfather,
so I think that Alfred Cox has been rediscovered.
New usually means better and cheaper,
especially when it comes to technology, so when I received an email from BT
recently telling me about their latest call-blocking telephone, the BT6600, I
naturally wanted to find out whether it was better than the BT8500,
which has done a wonderful job of intercepting unwanted calls - I haven't been
interrupted by a single spam call since plugging it in last summer.
I was surprised to learn that despite
being the latest model in their call-blocking range, the BT6600 can only
"block up to 80% of nuisance or unwanted calls", rather than 100%.
Why bother - particularly since you can currently buy the BT8500 at a lower
price, even from BT (although it's even cheaper at Amazon)?
Oh, and the BT8500 has a coloured screen, which the new phones don't. So in
this case new doesn't mean better and cheaper, but worse and more expensive -
thank you BT!
Tip:
the main difference between the two is the 'Call Guardian' feature - the BT8500
has it, but the BT6600 doesn't. My advice is: never buy a landline phone that
doesn't have Call Guardian!
This is where any last minute updates
and corrections will be highlighted - if you think you've spotted an error
(sadly I'm not infallible), reload the newsletter (press Ctrl-F5) then check here before writing to me, in case
someone else has beaten you to it......
Peter Calver
Founder, LostCousins