Newsletter - 25th April 2019
"Genealogy
websites should be BANNED"
Help celebrate our 15th Birthday
How I used to search for living cousins "in the
old days"
Cousins are descended from the branches of your tree
How to deal with misinformation
Review: Advanced
Genetic Genealogy
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"Genealogy
websites should be BANNED"
This astounding Daily Mail headline headed a story about
Professor Guido Pennings, professor of ethics and
bioethics at Ghent University (Belgium) and director of the Bioethics Institute
Ghent, who considers that genealogy websites threaten the privacy of sperm
donors.
The
newspaper report is based on an article by Professor Pennings which was published in the scholarly
journal Human Reproduction on 30th
March. I don’t have access to the full article, but reading the abstract
it seems that the author is actually calling for users of genetic databases to exercise
restraint, and show respect for the privacy of others, rather than suggesting
an outright ban.
There
are big differences between the ways in which different people approach their
research into their family history. A few blinkered and totally self-centred
individuals blunder around like a herd of bulls in a china shop, scattering confidential
information like confetti, and seemingly unconcerned about who will be hurt. (Don't
worry - anyone like this who dares to join LostCousins gets sent away with a
flea in their ear!)
But
most researchers realise that uncovering family secrets, even perfectly innocent
ones, can have an unpredictable (and potentially disastrous) impact on others.
Most of the time patience and tact are all we need - but occasionally we may
have to accept that some stones are best left unturned, at least during the lifetimes
of those most affected. The right to know, where it exists, does not gives us
the right to impose that knowledge on others.
Help celebrate
our 15th Birthday
Wednesday
1st May will be the 15th anniversary of the day that LostCousins launched. I don’t
know how many of you reading this took a leaflet from me as I walked up and
down the queue outside the Royal Horticultural Halls in Westminster, where the
Society of Genealogists annual fair was being held, but perhaps I'll see some
of you again this Friday when I visit Family Tree Live at Alexandra Palace.
Naturally
the best way to celebrate is to find a 'lost cousin' or two. Now, I know that
in these days of DNA cousins are two a penny, but there's a big difference
between finding a documented cousin who is actually
researching the ancestors you share, and a genetic cousin who might not
have a tree at all.
How I used to
search for living cousins "in the old days"
If
you were trying to find living relatives the hard way
you'd research the branches of your tree to find out the names of your cousins,
and where they were born, then make use of the limited modern resources -
mainly electoral registers - to find out where they live.
Believe
it or not, that's what I was doing back in 2002 for the few rare surnames in my
tree. It seemed to be the best way of making contact with
relatives who might be able to help me in my research. Not surprisingly, very
few replied - and of those that did, most knew nothing about their ancestors. I knew there had to be a better way.....
Eventually I realised that,
somewhat counter-intuitively, it was far easier to find cousins in the 19th
century than the 21st century - because there are far more records that are
open to us. Even better, a single relative in 1881 could be the ancestor of - literally
- dozens of living cousins. All that was needed was a website that could make
the link between 1881 and the modern day - and that's how LostCousins came
about.
Finding
a 'lost cousin' might seem like a miracle, but it's not - by and large you get
out what you put in. The more relatives you can enter, especially from the 1881
Census, the more cousins you'll find. The next article will serve as a gentle
reminder for many of you....
Cousins are
descended from the branches of your tree
Of course they are - you knew that, didn’t you? So why
is it that many people reading this are under the impression that, having entered
the households of their direct ancestors, there's nothing more that needs
doing?
Remember,
we all have far more distant cousins than we do close cousins - anyone who has
taken a DNA test will know that more than 99% of their matches are more distant
than 4th cousin. If you want to tap into this rich resource and knock down your
'brick walls' the conventional way, you need to track the branches of your tree
and enter the relatives who were recorded in 1881.
A good strategy is to start
in 1841 (or earlier if you can), then track each individual as they marry and
have children. If your ancestors lived in England or Wales
it’s a LOT easier to do this now that the GRO indexes include maiden names
going back to 1837.
In the last issue I drew
readers' attention to a story on the BBC
News website about a lady who lived to 99, but was discovered - after her death
- to have her organs on the wrong side of her body, but her heart in the right
place (a condition known as situs
inversus with levocardia).
That particular
condition is extremely rare, but there are readers of this newsletter
who have similar anomalies - for example, Michael tells me that his appendix is
on the wrong side, a condition that was only discovered when he was being prepared
for surgery.
Jenny sent me a newspaper
report relating to the inquest on her great-great grandfather, which revealed
that he only had one lung, a condition that had existed since birth.
Another reader, David, has situs inversus, a condition that
(according to Wikipedia) only affects 1 person in 10,000 - still, with more
than 66,000 people on the mailing list for this newsletter there must be others
out there! David writes:
"I
was very interested in this story as I too have this (apparently) rare condition.
As I am now aged 80, I am not convinced that it is, in itself.
life threatening - at least, I hope not!
"About
30 years ago I had symptoms which took me to see my GP who, having palpated my
abdomen, was concerned enough to refer me to a specialist. There I was further
examined manually, had an ultrasound test and a barium enema - all with no
obvious abnormal findings.
"I
was then referred for a CAT scan and was laying on the table after the scan
when the consultant came rushing in and started feeling my abdomen. He then
announced that 'all' my organs were transposed. Happily, I was given a clean
bill of health and sent on my way.
"I
still have the X-Ray films in case I have to convince others in the event of
future examinations. In fact, a year or so after that incident I was forced to
visit A&E with very severe earache and was examined by a young doctor who
gave me a complete medical examination. I told him about the transposed organs and he was extremely interested. As a result,
apparently, this is now recorded in my hospital notes."
April 25th is DNA Day - it's
the anniversary of the day in 1953 when James Watson, Francis Crick, Maurice
Wilkins, Rosalind Franklin and their colleagues published papers in the journal
Nature on the structure of DNA. Half
a century later it was also the day when the Human Genome Project was declared to
be effectively complete.
Not surprisingly suppliers of
DNA tests have been jumping on the bandwagon, offering attractive discounts to
persuade those who have been holding out to buy their first test, and the rest of
us to buy additional tests for our nearest and dearest.
It used to be very difficult
to figure out which test to buy, but now it's much easier. The biggest database
of genealogical DNA - by far - is held by Ancestry. According to the ISOGG wiki
Ancestry have sold around 15 million tests (the numbers quoted for Family Tree DNA
and MyHeritage are 1 million and 2.5 million respectively).
The ONLY way to get access to
Ancestry's vast database is to test with Ancestry - whilst many other providers
accept transfers, Ancestry don't. So testing with
Ancestry and transferring your results to FTDNA and MyHeritage to find a few
more matches is an option - doing it the other way around isn't.
Please use the links below in
order to support LostCousins (please log-out from your Ancestry account first, otherwise
the link won't work). I'll update this article daily, so if there's
an offer that's missing do let me know:
Ancestry.co.uk
(UK only) - £59 plus shipping until Sunday 28th April
Ancestry.ca
(Canada only) - $79 plus shipping until 11:59pm EST on Tuesday 30th April
MyHeritage
(UK) - £59 plus shipping until Sunday 28th April (free shipping on 2 or more
kits)
MyHeritage
(US) - $59 plus shipping until Sunday 28th April (free shipping on 2 or more
kits)
Note: for regulatory and other reasons Ancestry don’t sell
their test in every country, but even if you can't buy a test yourself, perhaps
one of your relatives can help you out? For example, if one of your brothers or sisters lives in the UK you could ask them
to test instead - they won’t get the same results or
the same list of matches, but since they have the same parents and the same ancestors
they'll be just as valid as your own.
I was reminded of this 2012 article
from The Independent when I read this
recent BBC article
about Bessborough. Things have certainly changed
since the mid-20th century.
At the end of the article in
the last issue about the foundling who was abandoned in November 1918 I
mentioned that I'd asked a key question when I first heard the story, and wondered whether any reader could guess what it
was. As it turned out nobody could.
The question I asked was
whether the baby was found before or after Armistice Day (11th November). My
reasoning was that if it was before the war ended then it was likely that the
mother had abandoned the child because its father wasn't going to be coming home - whereas if it was after the armistice
was signed it was because the mother's husband was going to be coming home (but he wasn't the father).
How to deal with
misinformation
Around 30 years ago I was
sitting next to a magazine publisher at a software industry dinner - his name
was Chris Anderson, and he wore a splendid striped blazer (I've wanted one like
it ever since). These days Chris is the owner (or rather, curator) of TED,
which describes itself as a media organization that posts talks online for free
distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading".
Fake news has been around a
long time - over the years I've featured several examples from 19th century
newspapers in this newsletter - but it’s only in recent years that the issue
has threatened to destabilise society. Fortunately
there are plenty of people who are aware of the problem, and are trying to come
up with solutions.
This recent BBC article focuses on
TED 2019, which took place in Vancouver last week. Fake news and other forms of
misinformation were much discussed, and Roger McNamee, whose insightful book
about Facebook I reviewed
recently was interviewed by Chris Anderson.
Family historians are used to
misinformation - we see it every day in online trees. At least if they're
Ancestry trees we can post comments against individual relatives.
Review: Advanced Genetic Genealogy
Edited by Debbie Parker Wayne, and featuring within its
400 large format pages 14 chapters written by leading figures in the field, Advanced Genetic Genealogy: Techniques and Case Studies tells the
reader almost everything he or she needs to know about using DNA for
genealogical purposes.
Without doubt this is a major
work - but should you buy it, and should you read it? I paid £35 for my copy,
so it’s certainly not an impulse purchase - but then neither is a DNA test.
Unless you know what you're doing you might buy the
wrong test, test the wrong people, or draw the wrong conclusions from the
results. But whilst there's clearly an argument for buying the book before you
test, unless you've already tested you're unlikely to
have the basic knowledge to provide a foundation on which to build.
When I started researching my
family tree I bought a copy of Ancestral Trails by Mark Herber - it provided a wealth of information about records
- and for many this book will be the DNA equivalent. Some chapters will be more
relevant to you than others - but the ones of most interest to me won’t necessarily
be the ones of most interest to you.
Everyone who thinks they
understand autosomal DNA should read Ann Turner's contribution (Chapter 8),
which is entitled 'Would You Like Your Data Raw or Cooked' and gets into the
nitty-gritty of segments, allele frequencies. At the end she writes "This
chapter should leave you with the impression that the genetic genealogy
companies have done an admirable job of making the raw data more tasty and
digestible", and I couldn't agree more - I frequently warn researchers
about the dangers of going 'off piste', but they invariably
ignore me. Perhaps they'll take notice of Ann Turner?
Another of my favourite
chapters was Michael Lacopo's 'Uncovering Family Secrets:
The Human Side of DNA Testing' (Chapter 13), which should be required reading
for everyone who finds themselves in possession of information that could help,
harm, or otherwise impact on others. The preceding chapter, 'Ethical
Underpinnings of Genetic Genealogy' by Judy Russell is another must read.
The book ends with Debbie
Kennett's contribution, 'The Promise and Limitations of Genetic Genealogy',
which looks to the future - including Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS). Although
the cost of WGS has fallen considerably the total number of genealogical tests
is still very low, and there aren't many tools to make use of the vast amount
of data that each test generates.
Perhaps the best endorsement
I can give of this book is the photo on the right of my personal copy - you can
see it is well-used, even though I've only had it for a week!
As usual you can support
LostCousins by using the relevant link below when you make your purchase - even
if you decide to buy something completely different.
Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com Amazon.ca The
Book Depository
I recently stayed at the
beautiful Rocha Brava resort where the Genealogy
in the Sunshine conferences were held in 2014 and 2015 - and was surprised
to discover that bookings are well down this year, partly because of the
political turmoil. If you've been thinking of taking a
holiday in the Algarve now would be a good time, and if you choose Rocha Brava try mentioning my name - it might
get you a better apartment (no two are exactly alike).
About half an hour's drive
from Rocha Brava is the city of Lagos, which has a marina full of beautiful but
very expensive boats. Hidden away in the marina is a wonderful Italian restaurant
called Portofino's which seems to be
the only restaurant in the world that serves Spaghetti Molfetese.
I enjoy it so much that I'm learning to cook it myself - I'll let you have my
recipe when I've finally cracked it!
Today I was picking rhubarb -
for the second year running we've forced some of the plants in
an attempt to make the season last longer. I don’t know about you, but I
feel so much happier when I can pick fruit from the garden or hedgerows, rather
than having to buy it in the supermarket!
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......
That's all for
now - I've got to figure out how to install a new (or rather, new to me) central
heating thermostat. I decided it was about time that I could control the heating
from my phone - it has to be more efficient!
Peter Calver
Founder,
LostCousins
© Copyright 2019
Peter Calver
Please do NOT copy or
republish any part of this newsletter without permission - which is only
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permission - though why not invite other family historians to join LostCousins
instead, since standard membership (which includes the newsletter), is FREE?