Newsletter – 5th January 2021
Findmypast
confirm release of 1921 Census
Access to adoption records in Northern
Ireland EXCLUSIVE
My Contact page gets an upgrade NEW
Ravers trash 16th century Essex church
COVID rule-breakers 'have blood on their hands'
Make the most of lockdown: LostCousins offer extended FREE
Win a hand-drawn portrait of your ancestor
Who should be on your My Ancestors page?
Is this the biggest family on the census?
The LostCousins newsletter is usually published 2 or 3 times a
month. To access the previous issue (dated 26th December) 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!
Findmypast confirm release of 1921 Census
In her New Year message,
Tamsin Todd, the CEO of Findmypast has confirmed that the 1921 Census for England
& Wales will be released in early 2022, as expected – though she didn't give a precise date.
The 1921 Census will most
probably be the last England & Wales census to be released during my
lifetime – the 1931 Census was destroyed in World War 2, and the 1941 Census didn’t take place (thankfully we have the 1939 Register
instead). By law the 1951 Census cannot be released
before 2052 – a very long time to wait for anyone who is trying to uncover family
secrets from that period.
I'd love to think that I'll still be around in
2052 to see myself in the 1951 Census – but though more and more people are living
to 100 the odds must be against, and at times like these I'll just be grateful
to make it to my next birthday!
Note: I'm lucky to have been born just before
a census – someone who was born just after a decennial census would have to live
until they were 110 to see their own entry in the next one.
Access
to adoption records in Northern Ireland EXCLUSIVE
Two years after Frances
Lake joined LostCousins in 2006 she founded the Descendants of Deceased Adopted
Persons Group, about which I've written several times over
the past decade. At my request Frances kindly drafted the following article to
bring readers up to date about the situation in Northern Ireland:
Thank you for your continued interest in the work of the Descendants of
Deceased Adopted Persons Group. Some of the longer-term subscribers to your
newsletter may remember that I started DAP in 2008, as a means of finding out
how many other people, like me, were affected by an anomaly in the Adoption
Act, that prevented descendants from accessing information about their deceased
adoptive relatives (in my case, my father).
At that time, I could not have foretold how important this group would
become in leading a campaign for change and how relieved and excited I was when
Parliament finally laid down the Amendment to the Adoption Regulations in 2015.
This meant that after years of campaigning; including taking the matter to the
Family High Court in London and being helped by some very
important people, both in Parliament and the adoption world, that the
GRO was at last able to start accepting applications for access to birth
records from intermediary agencies, acting on behalf of relatives.
However, disappointingly, it turned out that the amendment to the Act
only applied to adoptions that had taken place in England and Wales and so
there was a need for someone to start a campaign for change in the legislation
of Scotland and Northern Ireland.
At last, I can offer a glimmer of hope to relatives in Northern
Ireland.
In August 2020, I was contacted through the DAP website by David Junkin.
He was angry that he could not access his deceased father’s adoption records, and complained that the law in Northern Ireland was
outdated and behind the times. He thought there would be lots of other people
in the same boat, but they needed a voice. I told David about the DAP campaign
and said I was not prepared to take on Northern Ireland myself, but would be
prepared to mentor him. I gave him some ideas to get started and he said that
he would push himself and hopefully he could start something to help make a
change. He felt very strongly that it was time Stormont got a wake-up call.
David contacted Mr Jim Allister, MLA (Member of the Legislative
Assembly). Mr Allister wrote to the Department of Health on behalf of David and
had a reply from Mr Robin Swann, The Minister of Health, which referenced
Section 98 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 and the amendments which had
been implemented in England and Wales. He then went on to say that work was
ongoing to finalise an Adoption and Children Bill to modernise the legislative
framework for adoption in Northern Ireland. He further said that it was his
intention to introduce the Bill into the NI Assembly in the current mandate. Mr
Allister, explained to David that if this was delivered, as promised, it should
happen before Spring 2022, hopefully sooner.
For descendants and other relatives of adopted persons in NI, who want
access to birth records, this is good news, but the schedule of events is not
specific. Therefore, may I suggest that anyone affected by this Bill, should support and join David in his trail blazing efforts by
writing to their own MLAs* telling them how important it is to you personally
and urging them to make sure that the Department of Health does not let this
change to the Adoption Legislation slip between the cracks, especially as they
are currently distracted by Covid and Brexit. Pin
them down and make sure that it does not get forgotten.
For further information you can contact David (davidjunkin@googlemail.com) and
join us on the Facebook group for Descendants of Deceased Adopted Persons.
Good luck everyone.
Frances Lake
Founder & Co-ordinator: Descendants of Deceased Adopted Persons Group
*Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) scrutinise the work of
Ministers and hold Departments to account.
Having fought myself
for the release of the 1939 Register, and also for online
access to BMD registers I know only to well how much
time and effort Frances and David have had to invest in their campaigns.
My Contact page gets an upgrade NEW
One of the most useful
pages at the LostCousins site doesn't appear in the
menu – and in a moment I'll explain why. But first of all,
here's a screenshot that shows an example from my own LostCousins account (I've
hidden the name of my living relative to maintain confidentiality):
There is a My Contact page for each person you've
been matched with, and that's why this page doesn’t appear in the website menu –
instead you access it by clicking on your contact's name (or initials) on your My Cousins page.
At the top there's a
box where you can record Notes; if you've tested your DNA with Ancestry you'll be familiar with their Notes feature, and I
use both in a similar way. Then there's a list of all the shared relatives,
showing how you and the other member are related to each of those relatives -
in this case the other person has entered the Ancestors Numbers for their
direct ancestors, so by referring to the Ancestor
Chart I can tell where those shared relatives fit in their tree.
If your My Ancestors page is anything like mine, there are
hundreds or thousands of entries, and the same names often occur in multiple
households and in different generations. To help you identify the individuals listed
the census references are given, allowing you to quickly find the relevant household
on your My
Ancestors page.
Tip: do this using the search in your browser - copy the references
using Ctrl-C, go to My Ancestors, click Ctrl-F to open up
the search box, then move the mouse to the box and press Ctrl-V to paste the
references.
The first entry is
from the 1841 Census, the second from the 1881 Census - but there isn't room on the My Contact page to give the name
of the census. So over the holiday period I got to
work and added the arrows you can see at the beginning of each line - move the
mouse pointer over one of those arrows and you'll see a short message; click
the arrow and it will search the census (in a similar way to the arrows on your
My Ancestors page).
Note: for the US censuses clicking the arrow will take you to the
search form for the relevant census; for other censuses it will carry out a
search automatically, as it does on your My Ancestors page (where it's primary use is checking that you have entered the
correct census references).
Ravers trash 16th century
Essex church
Most people are
behaving responsibly at this difficult time – but there are some who frankly don’t give a damn. I was shocked to read this week
about an illegal New Year's Eve party in a 16th century Grade II* listed church
under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. Not only were the organisers
and the attendees trespassing, they were in breach of
COVID-19 regulations – and they managed to do all sorts of damage to this historic
building, which is just 30 miles away from where I live, and only 4 miles from
where I went to school.
Not surprisingly,
given how generous most people are, a fundraising appeal to pay for repairs quickly
surpassed its target, but you can't unspread an infection – and this was just one of three
large illegal parties in the area on the same night. Words fail me….
COVID rule-breakers 'have
blood on their hands'
The incidents mentioned
happened despite a desperate plea
from an intensive care doctor which was published at the BBC News site on New Year's
Eve – it makes the warnings in my last newsletter sound pretty tame by
comparison, but then he's on the front line, risking his life every day to save
others. Sadly events have proven him to be correct.
This evening the UK
Prime Minister reiterated that his aim was for everyone in the 4 most
vulnerable groups to be vaccinated by the middle of February, though given the
limited supply of vaccines and the logistical problems I'd
be surprised if that target is met.
I'm in group 4, because I'm over 70 – so could
receive my first jab in February. But will receiving the vaccine change the way
I behave in the short-term? I suspect not, because until the level of infection
in the community reduces drastically the virus will still be a very considerable
threat – the latest survey shows that 1 person in 50 in the community currently has the virus, and of those up
to half won’t know that they are infected and
infectious.
I know that some
people reading this will already have had their first shot of vaccine – I'd be interested to know what difference, if any, it has
made to your behaviour?
Make the most of lockdown: LostCousins
offer extended FREE
I don’t think any regular
reader of this newsletter was surprised to hear this week's announcements of
new lockdowns in the UK. One member has suggested that the advice I've been offering
has saved lives: that's something we can never know, I
just hope it has made it a little easier for readers to make difficult decisions.
Whilst the National Health Service hasn't yet
reached the parlous state of the hospitals in Los Angeles, where ambulance
crews have been told not to transport patients with little chance of survival
(according to the New
York Post and other media sources), the number of COVID-19 patients in hospital
has exceeded anything seen in the first wave. Thankfully
we still have the Nightingale Hospitals in reserve.
I don't need to tell you that researching our family
history from home is not only safer for our physical health, it's
also a boon for our mental well-being – so I'm going to extend the offer which
was due to expire tomorrow (6th January) until Monday 18th January. This will
allow all members to initiate online contact with new cousins at a time when we
are deprived of physical contact.
Tip: so long as you initiate contact before the end of the offer period
it won't matter if your new cousin doesn’t reply until
after the offer has ended. When you click the Search button on your My
Ancestors page any new contacts you find will be listed near the top of your My
Cousins page – simply click the Make Contact button to start the process (you don't need to write a message – that's done automatically).
If you're a LostCousins subscriber you won't
benefit from this directly, but you will most certainly benefit:
firstly, because your chances of finding 'lost cousins' will be enhanced, and secondly
because on the Subscribers Only page you'll find a special offer code
that you can give to any family historian who isn’t already a LostCousins
member.
Tip: whether you’re a
subscriber or not, remember that you can use the Refer a Friend and Refer a
Relative options on your My Referrals page to invite others to join. It's particularly advantageous for relatives, because you
can get them off to flying start by sending them a copy of the relatives on
your My Ancestors page that they share.
Win a hand-drawn
portrait of your ancestor
I've got a fantastic
addition to the range of prizes on offer in my New Year Competition – LostCousins
member Alex Halliday is a professional portrait artist who draws wonderfully
life-like pencil sketches from photographs (see the example on the right), and
she has donated an A5 size sketch as a competition prize.
If you have a treasured photo of your ancestor
that you would like to revamp, Alex will produce a carefully drawn A5 pencil
portrait especially for you (this service would normally cost £60). See Alex's website for more details of the services
she offers – for example, if you win you might choose to upgrade your portrait
with a frame hand-crafted by her husband Michael in his workshop.
If I won this prize I'd
struggle to decide which of my ancestors to choose – however, after much
deliberation I'd probably go for John Bright, my great-grandfather. But who would
you choose if you won?
Remember, every direct ancestor and blood relative
you enter between 10th December and 31st January will count as an entry in the
competition, and relatives from the 1881 Census will count double. Everyone has
a chance to win one of the fantastic prizes on offer – even if you only enter
one relative – but the more relatives you're able to
add, the greater your chances of winning.
Please note that if you are researching on behalf
of someone else, whether it's your spouse, another relative, or a friend – you
can claim the prize yourself provided the account is registered under your
email address when the prizewinners are announced
(see this recent article
for more information). Of course, you can also pass the prize on if you prefer –
it’s entirely up to you.
Finally a reminder of the other wonderful prizes that you can win in this
year's competition:
12 month PRO subscription to Findmypast (worth £159.99)
Virtually unlimited access to over 8 billion
historical records from around the world, modern electoral registers for the
UK, and more than 300 million newspaper articles
12 month Diamond subscription to The Genealogist (worth £139.95)
Unlimited access to a wide range of records including
non-conformist records, exclusive tithe records and tithe maps, and a growing
collection of 'Lloyd George' Domesday records and maps which you won't find at any other site.
12 month unlimited subscription to British Newspaper Archive (worth £79.95)
Over 40 million pages from historic British and
Irish newspapers, with hundreds of thousands more pages added every month.
Optimised search features including the ability to search for articles added
after a particular date, so that you don't have to repeatedly
trawl through articles you've previously read or discarded.
12 month subscription to Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine (worth at
least £60)
A wealth of news, knowledge, and information from
the world of genealogy – plus some inside stories from the TV series.
Family Historian v7 (just out!)
Simon Orde, the programmer of this Great British
program has generously offered to donate a digital copy to the lucky winner.
But you don’t have to wait for the result of the
competition to find out what amazing features the program offers – you can
download a free trial version here.
Three autographed copies of The Asylum-Hiding
the Past
Nathan Dylan Goodwin will dedicate these copies
to the three lucky winners – two great stories in a single paperback, Hiding the Past introduced
us to Morton Farrier, The Asylum is a prequel to that first novel.
Autographed copies of The Marriage Certificate
and The Death Certificate
Stephen Molyneux will sign copies of the
paperbacks for the lucky winner. His debut genealogical mystery novel, The Marriage Certificate, is one of my
all-time favourites, and The
Death Certificate is a worthy follow-up.
Autographed copies of Ten Steps to a One-Place
Study and Sins as Red as Scarlet: a Devon Town in Turmoil
Author Janet Few will autograph copies of these popular
books for the winner.
We've never had such a wonderful range of prizes before – I'm really grateful
to all those who have donated prizes.
Who should be on your My Ancestors page?
The most important
page at the LostCousins is the My Ancestors page. But don't be fooled by the name – it's not just for direct
ancestors, and here's why……
If you're
my age or older the chances are that some or all of your grandparents were born
before 1881. Naturally you'll enter them if they were
on the census, but what's the chance of those entries leading to 'lost cousins'?
Pretty small as it happens, because anyone descended from your grandparents is a
1st cousin of yours, and you probably know all of your
1st cousins already.
What about your
great-grandparents? Their descendants are your 2nd cousins – so you'll probably know some of them, but not others. However they're not all going to be family historians like
you, and the chances are that the ones who are researching their ancestry have
already been in touch. So not much chance of finding 'lost cousins' there,
either.
Now, I'm not saying you shouldn't enter your direct ancestors – of
course you should. But they're just a stepping stone
on the journey – not the final destination. The key relatives to enter are the
ancestors of your 'lost cousins' – which means entering the relatives from the
branches of your tree, because ALL of your living
cousins are descended from the branches.
If I look at my own My Ancestors page there are 25 'direct ancestors' who I've been able to enter from the 1881 Census (several of
them died shortly after the census, so I'm possibly a little luckier than most).
But of course, it’s not the number of my ancestors that determines how many new
cousins I'm going to find, it's how many of their ancestors that I've entered – and the best guide to that is the number
of 'blood relatives' that I've found in 1881 and entered. That figure is much
higher, at 692, and whilst some of them won’t have any
living descendants, any one of them could potentially provide a connection to a
'lost cousin'.
The important thing to
remember is that even if all of my 'direct ancestors' had emigrated before the
census, most of those 'blood relatives' would have stayed in Britain, and they
and/or their descendants would have been recorded on the 1881 Census. In other words,
it’s not where your ancestors were in 1881 that
matters, but where their cousins were.
So remember, the page might be called My Ancestors, but it’s really a page where you enter
your cousins' ancestors – or your ancestors' cousins (it’s the same thing, of
course).
Tip: a good strategy is to start with everyone you know about in 1841
(whether or not you've found them on that census),
then track each branch and twig through to 1881, making use of the ten-yearly
censuses and the new GRO birth indexes which show the mother's maiden name from
1837.
Is this the biggest family
on the census?
The average size of a private household in the
1881 Census is between 4 and 5 inhabitants, and as there
are 25 lines on a page, there are 6 households on typical census page.
Peckham Park Road in Camberwell must once have
had larger than average houses – they've all been replaced
with modern blocks of flats – but the family at No.74 in 1881 was impressively
large, as you can see from this scan:
© Crown Copyright Image courtesy of
The National Archives, London, England. Reproduced with the permission of
Findmypast
I've come across larger households – some with 20 or more servants – but what
makes this entry special is that all 19 of them are related, and they appear to
be living as one multi-generational household.
According to Emily, the LostCousins member who
brought it to my attention, the family comprises William Cumber and his wife
Elizabeth, their four adult children William, Alfred, Elizabeth and Emily and
their respective spouses and children, plus William’s sister-in-law Matilda.
What also stood out for me is the order in which
the members of the extended family are listed – it’s more
common to see households grouped into families.
Have you ever come across an example of a larger
family living as one household? If so, please don’t write
to me, instead post details on the LostCousins Forum.
Note: almost everyone reading this can join the
forum in theory – but if you've been particularly slow
to complete your My Ancestors page you might in practice need to spend half an
hour adding more relatives from the 1881 Census in order to qualify. When you do
qualify you'll find a link and coupon code on your My
Summary page.
If you haven't already
bought Hiding the Past and live in the UK you've got one last chance to
pick it up the Kindle version for the bargain price of 99p – the offer ends on
6th January. Please follow this link to
support LostCousins when you buy this or any other item from Amazon.co.uk
Also currently discounted are The Christmas
Carol by MJ Lee, which I reviewed here,
and Dickens and Christmas which I reviewed in the last
issue.
If you’re staying at
home you don’t need a mobile phone, do you? Well, actually
there are a couple of very good reasons why it makes sense to have a
mobile phone. One is that making calls on a mobile is usually considerably
cheaper than making calls on a landline - I know it sounds ridiculous, but it's the reason why I gave up making calls on my landline
years ago.
The other reason to have a mobile is to provide a
backup in the event that your landline goes down, you
have a power cut, or you're in a part of your house or garden where the WiFi signal doesn't reach. And whilst it's
not necessarily going to save you money, it might save your life.
For £6 a month I can cover both options: I can make
unlimited phone calls within the UK and send unlimited text messages, plus I
have 500mb of data if I need it in an emergency. If you want to know more, follow
this link
to the GiffGaff site – you'll get a £5 credit when
you activate your SIM (and I might benefit too). And by the way, there is no
commitment – it's a month by month deal.
Before Christmas I mentioned that I'd made my own crystallised peel, and though it was too
late for the Christmas cakes and puddings that I made, it was ideal for my
homemade fat-free mincemeat. I used this recipe
but substituted apple juice for cider, and dried apple for fresh – it was absolutely fabulous!
But the problem with mince pies is that most of
the calories are in the pastry - for example, a single Tesco Finest mince pie works
out at 250 calories. I solved that problem by using filo pastry – which I'd never used before, but it turned out to be incredibly
easy to work with compared to puff pastry. There were only 770 calories in the pack and I made 35 mince tarts and parcels, so it was a
brilliant solution for those of us who love mince pies but have to watch our
waistlines. Most of us, I suspect.
This month I'm going back
to a recipe I got many years ago from a good friend in the US, now sadly suffering
from dementia. If it works out well I'll provide details
in a future newsletter.
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......
All the best for 2021 – it can't be as bad as 2020, surely?
Peter Calver
Founder, LostCousins
© Copyright 2021 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.