Newsletter - 5th July 2018
Amazing offer for first-time Findmypast subscribers SAVE 30%
Get a free LostCousins subscription
Ancestry.co.uk offer free access THIS
WEEKEND ONLY
GRO
confirm extension of PDF pilot
Guest article: DNA really CAN help your research
Survivors of the Battle of Waterloo
The LostCousins newsletter is usually published
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Amazing
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If you've never been a
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month Pro subscription at their UK site, a 12 month Ultimate British
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their Australian and Irish sites. (Despite the differing names, all of those subscriptions provide the same unlimited access
to ALL of Findmypast's billions of historical records
and newspaper articles.)
It's almost unheard of for
Findmypast to offer a bigger discount to new subscribers than the 15% Loyalty
Discount they offer to existing subscribers - I can only assume that the
distractions caused by the unusually hot weather in the UK, combined with
Wimbledon and the World Cup, have left them no choice!
Although this promotion isn't
exclusive to LostCousins you'll only be supporting LostCousins when you use the links I've provided below
(please also ensure that in your browser's Privacy Settings the option to
"Send a 'Do Not Track' request with your browsing traffic" is turned
OFF (which is the default setting in all the browsers I've checked).
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If you've previously been a
Findmypast subscriber you won't be able to take advantage of the fantastic 30%
discount (though if it's a very, very long time since you subscribed it might
be worth trying anyway), but there are also offers to tempt returning
subscribers:
Findmypast.co.uk
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But before buying a
Findmypast subscription check out the next article……
Get a free LostCousins subscription
LostCousins can only benefit when you use a link that I've provided and your purchase is tracked as coming from the LostCousins site. So I'm once
again offering a free subscription to members who go out of their way to purchase
a 12 month Findmypast subscription using the links above and ensure that
your purchase is tracked - this means that the total savings you make can be nearly
£50 (if you qualify for a 30% discount, or £28 if you don't). But please read
the terms and conditions below so that you don't miss out - and check with me before
making your purchase if you're not sure whether your settings are correct.
To
claim your LostCousins subscription (which will run
from the date of purchase of your Findmypast subscription, unless you already
have a LostCousins subscription, in which case it
will be extended), please forward to me the email receipt that you receive from
Findmypast. Screenshots are NOT sufficient - I need to know the precise time of
your purchase (so write it down, in case the emailed receipt doesn't arrive).
You can use any of the LostCousins email addresses,
including the one I wrote from when telling you about this newsletter.
Terms & conditions:
your free LostCousins subscription will be funded by
the commission that Findmypast pay us; if for any reason we don't receive any
commission on your purchase then unfortunately you won't qualify, so it's up to
you to make sure that doesn't happen. For example, if you use an adblocker the
link may not work; if you have disabled tracking in your browser or Internet
Security software the link will appear to work, but Findmypast will ignore it,
so won't pay us any commission (this is the most common problem - if you’re not
sure ask for my advice before making your purchase, afterwards is too
late!). Commission isn't paid on renewals, and may not
be paid on upgrades.
Ancestry.co.uk
offer free access THIS
WEEKEND ONLY
This weekend (from Friday 6th
to Monday 9th July) you can access Ancestry's UK and Ireland records free at
Ancestry.co.uk (but not at other Ancestry sites around the world). If
you follow this link
you can see a list of all the record sets that are included in the offer.
Tip: make sure that you save records to your own
computer rather than simply attaching them to your tree - otherwise you won't be
able to view them after the weekend.
Jane spotted this marriage
entry in the register for St Leonard, Shoreditch - it's a parish where several of
my ancestors married, but not under these circumstances….
All rights reserved. Used by kind
permission of Ancestry and the London Metropolitan Archives
This is not an error - Ann
Winfield, the bride, really was 47 years older than Henry Thomas Pym, the groom
(that's almost twice the age difference between Emmanuel Macron and his wife).
The note at the bottom reads "Every means which could be lawfully used
were had recourse to in the endeavour to stop this marriage" - it’s signed
by Frederic Cox, the curate who performed the wedding ceremony, but clearly didn't
approve of it.
In so-called 'May-December'
marriages it’s usually a case of a rich man marrying a younger woman, but I did
find one modern equivalent of note - the 2004 marriage of Oscar-winning actress
Celeste Holm to Frank Basile, an operatic baritone more than 45 years her
junior (you can read a Vanity Fair
article about the couple here
- it was published after Celeste Holm's death at the age of 95 in 2012). You
may remember Celeste Holm from High
Society and All About Eve - she
wasn't the leading lady in either, of course, but she sang Who Wants to be a Millionaire opposite another Frank (Sinatra), and
half a century later she found herself locked in a legal battle with her own
sons (from any earlier marriage), fighting to get hold of her own millions.
GRO confirm
extension of PDF pilot
As predicted in the last
issue the GRO have once again extended the pilot, this time with no fixed end
date:
"Further to our previous correspondence, when we
advised of the launch of the Extended PDF Pilot, please note that this service,
which had been extended to July 2018, has now been extended further to continue
to assess longer term demand. There is no planned end date for the pilot at
this time; further communications on the future of the PDF service will be
provided in due course."
In 1939 the Government
requisitioned the Smedley Hydro Hotel in Southport to use as a centre for
National Registration - and Ancestry have a wonderful 1940 photo of female
clerks working on the registers in the former ballroom of the hotel (you can
see it here).
At the time the location was top secret - the caption refers to "A famous
hotel, somewhere in the North of England'" - just one well-aimed
incendiary bomb could have devastated the War Effort.
Note: if you don’t have an Ancestry subscription, and
have missed out on the free weekend, you can see a similar but less detailed
photo here.
In 1991 the General Register
Office relocated from London to Southport, and has
been there ever since. In 1846 the future Napoleon III lived for a time in
lodgings off Lord Street, Southport, and some claim that he was so impressed by
Lord Street that, when Paris was reconstructed between 1854-70, Southport was
the inspiration for the tree-lined boulevards for which the city is rightly
famous.
You may recall me mentioning
recently that Ancestry are being sued by breach of patent by 23andMe. Ancestry
have now issued their riposte, which is to allege that the patent detailing a
way of comparing two sets of DNA to find common
ancestors covers natural phenomena that aren't eligible for patent protection.
I doubt anything will be decided in the near future -
cases like these can drag on for years.
Guest
article: DNA really CAN help your research
I get a lot of emails from members who have tested
their DNA and been amazed by the results - but Chris described her experience
in such great detail that I asked her to turn it into
an article so that others who are still undecided could better appreciate what
they're missing! Allow me to hand you over to Chris…..
I was initially sceptical as to how far DNA testing
could advance my already pretty large tree, but I have to admit to being a complete convert after my experience with Ancestry,
where I have a private online tree (I'd had little luck with FTDNA).
After spending over 20 years rigorously searching for
ancestors, my first job was to extend the branches of my tree into the 20th
century, locating their descendants, to give me the best chance of recognising
my new cousins’ surnames. With the aid of my Findmypast and Ancestry subscriptions
countless new names were added (along with hundreds more entries for my My Ancestors page at Lost Cousins!).
Immediately 2 previously unknown 3rd cousins appeared,
along with over 180 4th cousins, and many more distant cousins, and for some
matches Ancestry was able to automatically document our relationship and common
ancestors – a superb starting point.
A quick check revealed that I agreed with my 3rd
cousin’s research and I was able to put her mother in touch with a relative in
a family with whom she had lost touch on moving to New Zealand over 50 years
ago, as well as advancing my own tree. My first proven hit, so any matches in
common with this cousin would probably come from my paternal grandmother’s
line, which narrowed things down.
The other 3rd cousin had no online tree, but an
exchange of possible surnames of all 2x great grandparents (and 3x, just in
case) resulted in a positive match on my maternal grandfather’s side at 3rd
cousin level, as Ancestry predicted. Once again, quick success.
Not sure what to try next, I searched for my paternal
grandmother’s surname – a family of mariners who as a result
of greater than average mobility in the 18th and 19th centuries have
been difficult to trace and whilst I thought I probably had the right
ancestors, I couldn’t be certain. Bingo! I identified a
distant cousin who had done considerable research and had an online tree. A 4th
cousin once removed relationship appeared and a quick exchange of information
brought confirmation of my ancestry. My great-great grandfather had died before
his son was born – possibly a death at sea, though not recorded in GRO Deaths
at sea…. or perhaps he just left his wife and she presumed him dead? Either
way, he never appeared on a census with his family, but a DNA match with my great-great
grandfather’s sister’s descendant seemed to confirm my research and provided
hitherto unknown information regarding the two youngest siblings, whilst my
newfound cousin who was previously unaware of the existence of the other 7
siblings (as the relevant parish records are not available online), found a
whole new family. Mutual success!
Inspired by this revelation, I searched for another
unusual surname I have researched at length – 7 hits, 4 with correspondents
with whom I have had lengthy exchanges in the past. How lovely to renew contact
and to confirm that our research stands up to the test of DNA! Of the new
contacts, though one has failed to reply I recognised the descendant surnames
of the others and quickly established who our common ancestors were, furthering
their trees by several generations and adding to mine, placing descendants on
several different continents.
Next, I felt that a perusal of the matches in common
with the previously identified new 3rd cousins might be worthwhile, since I
knew which quarter of my tree they would belong to, thus making life easier (my
grandparents came from 4 very distinct areas of England, so it is unlikely that
any intermarriage occurred between the branches). The results were very
satisfying, tidying up a number of loose ends on my
tree.
While this was going on Ancestry had a special offer,
and soon another two possible 3rd cousins appeared, though neither had an
online tree. One shared DNA with several known matches from my maternal
grandmother’s line in Devon, which allowed me to narrow down the link to
William Williams, my great grandmother’s brother whom my family informed me had
emigrated to America, though with such a common name, I would probably never
have managed to locate him. My new cousin offered William’s wife’s unusual
name, who happened to be listed as a 16 year old
servant at the Williams household in Cornwall in 1911, though the census
transcription had been incorrect and the handwriting difficult to decipher……...
She also told me that William had eloped with the servant
girl, but whilst they married and had a child his mother had the marriage
annulled - so William emigrated to America where he eventually saved enough
money to send for his wife and child to join him. Information from both sides
of the Atlantic suddenly fitted together perfectly, but without DNA evidence,
my family tree in the UK and the family tree in the US would never have been
linked together as searching for ‘William Williams b England’ in a country the
size of America is an impossible task, exacerbated by the fact that he became
progressively younger with each successive census!
With the other 3rd cousin, yet again, sending surnames
of my great-great grandparents brought instant results – the researcher
immediately recognised an uncommon surname and again a common ancestor was
quickly established. This line caused me much consternation for years until a
chance meeting by my elderly aunt located the family bible, which confirms that
the family not only travelled extensively in the UK, but
failed to baptise any of their children in the 19th century, so it was
rewarding to find a DNA match and more new cousins and be able to provide a
family history which is not available in public records.
In the light of this newly established connection, I
decided to research further into 6 known matches in common with the 3rd cousin,
since I knew they SHOULD all be associated with my maternal grandfather’s line
(barring any coincidences), which cut the possible common ancestors by
three-quarters. Three of them had no online trees and no names stood out on the
other trees, so I picked a distinctive name born in 1913 and began my own
research. Some hours later, my ancestor’s sister’s name popped up with the
right year and place of birth and a move from a village to a nearby big city in
keeping with my research. Armed with the newfound link, I checked out two more
of the shared matches and was able to link them to the same common ancestors.
However, for every instance in which this technique works, there will be many
that don’t and I have found it far easier to trace other peoples’ trees in
England and Wales where parish records may be available and censuses give the
town or city of birth, but far more difficult in the US where only state or
country of birth is given (though death records often give the full names of
parents and sometimes place of birth, which is extremely useful).
Armed with the known common ancestors of several 3rd
cousins and DNA results from 2 of my 2nd cousins, I have been in a position to follow up a number of matches in common,
knowing which quarter of my family tree they should belong to. Not all have
borne fruit, as some people haven’t replied to my messages, whilst some (mainly
with US ancestry) appear to have no possible common ancestors with me within
the given parameters as the ancestors are all located in the US dating back to
the 1600s with no gaps, just as my ancestors to date are firmly rooted in
England….but nevertheless, there have been very many
successful outcomes.
Having dealt with all the 3rd cousins associated with
my DNA and my sister’s, I am now ready to move on to looking at 4th cousins’
DNA in more detail, in the hope that I will find at least one match associated
with my paternal grandfather’s line in Yorkshire, where to date I have no hits.
The aim on my maternal grandfather’s line was to try
and break down a longstanding brickwall regarding
Harriet HERITAGE, my great-great grandmother who died before the first census
in 1840……no luck as yet, but who knows what the future
holds? I think she may have had a brother who emigrated to Australia, so
perhaps one of his descendants will test one day? Who knows?
This shows a very small fraction of what can be done
with DNA results and how researchers can help one another in the knowledge that
there IS likely to be a valid genetic connection, especially where the degree
of Ancestry confidence is high, and once a connection is established, the
relevant census details for the new relations can be added to Lost Cousins.
However, I am amazed at the difference in the numbers
of 4th cousins and closer between different tests – I have 180, my sister has
221 whilst my second cousins only have 135 and 75 respectively. I would have
certainly expected the number of matches for my sister and I especially to be
closer and expected my cousins to have more matches.
To date I have identified common ancestors for 4 new
third cousins, 15 4th cousins and 12 distant cousins, though at least 6 of the
fourth and distant cousins have been known to me for many years. And the
success continues – another day, another positive reply this morning……..but there are quite a few people who haven’t replied at
all, possibly only interested in their so-called ‘ethnicity’.
Chris finished her covering
email to me with by commenting: "However, the new contacts aren’t just
falling in my lap – I have only had a handful of people contact me. As the
newsletter says, you have to be proactive if you are
to be rewarded and it helps, of course, having done the basic research on my
direct ancestors and their immediate families myself via the local record
offices and taken the trouble to extend the tree into the 20th century. And for
those of us of a certain age, research also helps to keep the brain cells
functioning and alert! Also family history is a
marvellous antidote to a perpetual diet of football on TV!"
Tip: if you've tested with Ancestry and want to be as
successful as Chris, make sure you follow the strategies in my Masterclass -
you'll find it here.
An article by restaurant
critic Matthew Norman in this month's issue of The Oldie told the story of the Papaya Salad he ordered which
contained no papaya - quite an omission! This story reminded me of the Chicken
& Ham Carbonara I once ordered which contained no ham - though, to be fair,
they did at least remember the chicken (but like most Carbonaras
outside Italy the sauce was cream-based).
Now, you might be wondering
what this has to do with family history… well, I'd argue that it's very
relevant, because names are our bread and butter (to continue the culinary
metaphor). If the wrong name is recorded in a parish register, or in a BMD
register, it can confuse matters as surely as if the ingredients for a recipe
listed salt rather then sugar.
Coincidentally, in the same
issue, the magazine's publisher mentions a restaurant in Deal, Kent called 'The
Black Douglas Coffee House', and describes it as owned by a descendant of Lord
Alfred Douglas (or, as Oscar Wilde called him, Bosie).
This is unlikely to be true - Lord Alfred's only son never married, and even
the restaurant's own website doesn't make this claim. In other words, it’s
probably a misunderstanding - the sort of misunderstanding that if left
uncorrected can propagate and confuse future generations.
Another misunderstanding I
spotted recently was on Ancestry's blog, where there's an article entitled
"What does your surname say about you?" (you'll find it
here), which
talks about the different types of surname , and
comments that writer Jack London might have had an ancestor from London - which
is quite possibly true, but since he took his surname from his stepfather it's clearly
not quite what the author of the article had in mind.
Yet another name-related
story comes from Sweden, where a mother didn’t panic when the tattooist
misspelled her son's name - rather than have the tattoo painfully removed she
legally changed the name of the 5 year-old from Kevin
to Kelvin! Which reminds me that when I was in the software industry I published
software written by a programmer called Kelvin, but my US distributor kept calling
him Kevin - so it’s arguable that the lady in Sweden has simply redressed the
balance.
Last month a letter to New Scientist pointed out "you can
guess the approximate age of many people from their name", a fact that credit
rating agencies use to their advantage. And in May an article in the same
magazine reported research carried out at Syracuse University in New York, which
found that your first name determines the way that other people perceive you.
It's not often that I read a non-fiction book that I find
difficult to put down but The Secret Barrister is one of those rare exceptions. Indeed, I'd
love to meet the author of this fascinating book, but that's unlikely to happen - like Banksy
his (or her) identity is hidden, which is understandable given the
forthrightness of the writing.
The full title is The Secret Barrister - Stories of the Law
and How It's Broken and it begins with a brief description
of how the English legal system evolved from the Middle Ages onwards, one that
I found both interesting and enlightening. Although prisons were first built in
the 12th century, they were mainly used to hold debtors and prisoners
awaiting trial - not as a form of punishment, for there
were many far crueller alternatives available, many of which ended in the death
of the alleged culprit. It seems that it was only in the 19th century, with the
ending of transportation, that prison became the most common form of punishment.
Most family historians will
have come across records of Petty Sessions, Quarter Sessions, and Assizes
without necessarily being able to relate them to the modern court system, and the succinct
description of how they were worked until they were replaced (within my
lifetime) by Magistrates Courts and Crown Courts helped me to put things into
perspective. But what this book is really about is how
the modern legal system so often fails to deliver justice - though before you
condemn the book as the outpourings of a defence lawyer who believes that
everyone is innocent, I should perhaps mention that the author also takes cases
for the Crown Prosecution Service.
It's impossible to convey in
a short review just how comprehensively the author examines the justice system,
finding fault at almost every stage, and condemning the cost-cutting which has
led to impoverished lawyers earning less than the minimum wage - and which also
means that someone charged with a crime they didn't commit could lose their
life's savings, or even their house (it happened to somebody I know).
Of course, it’s even worse
for those who are found guilty of a crime they didn't commit - they can lose
everything, not just their savings and their home, but also their liberty,
their career, their friends, their marriage, and their children. Or, in the
case of Derek Bentley, their life - it would have been his 85th birthday last
Saturday had he not been wrongly hanged in 1953.
Important though the
historical context is, this book is mostly about the modern criminal justice
system in England & Wales: as a family historian I found it interesting,
but as a concerned citizen I found it devastating. Highly recommended for
anyone who cares about justice. I'm going to end my review with a comment from
another review by Geoffrey Robertson QC (who wrote the article on the history
of English law that I referred to in my May article):
"An expert and eloquent account of much that has
gone wrong with our criminal law procedures: this book is accurate,
informative, and sensibly points the way to pragmatic reforms"
Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com Amazon.ca
Staying with the law I'm
currently reading Ludovic Kennedy's Thirty-six Murders and Two Immoral Earnings,
which features miscarriages of justice including the Derek Bentley case, and
the earlier case of Timothy Evans. If you want to pick up a second-hand copy at
a bargain price ahead of my review (when prices often rise dramatically) please
use one of the links below:
Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com Amazon.ca
Next month the new Jefferson Tayte genealogical mystery from Steve Robinson will go on
sale - but while you'll have to wait to read it, I've just received a review
copy from the author, and it's sitting on my Kindle right now!
It was reading the first book
in the series (In the Blood) that got
me hooked on genealogical mysteries in the first place, so the release of a new
Steve Robinson novel is always a special event as far as I'm concerned. But if
you haven't read the earlier books you might be interested to know that Kindle
versions of the first 3 books in the series are currently on sale for a paltry
99p each (if you follow the appropriate link below you'll find links to all 7
of the books).
Letters from the Dead will be out on 14th August (it’s published under
Amazon's Thomas & Mercer imprint), and you can be one of the first to get a
copy if you pre-order it. Remember that if you use Amazon links that I've
provided you'll be supporting LostCousins - even if
you end up buying something completely different - but it won’t cost you a
penny more.
Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com Amazon.ca
Survivors of
the Battle of Waterloo
There are no photographs of
the Battle of Waterloo - in 1815 photography hadn't been invented. But there is
a photograph that was taken in 1880 at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea which shows
some of the last survivors of the battle - you can view it here.
Thanks to Myko Clelland of
Findmypast for alerting me.
Last month I wrote
about the Romanian man who was ruled by a court to be officially dead, even
though he was standing in front of them: this week came the news that in South
Africa a woman who died in a road accident was found to be alive in a
refrigerator in the morgue. And this isn't the first time something like this
has happened - see this BBC News article for more
details.
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 2018
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?