Newsletter – 22nd
April 2022
Half-price 1921 Census ENDS MONDAY
What you really need
to know about the 1921 Census
£250 reward for
return of missing registers
Wanted: magic wand,
good price paid
Last chance to save
on Ancestry DNA in Canada ENDS SATURDAY
The LostCousins
newsletter is usually published 2 or 3 times a month. To access the previous issue
(dated 15th April) 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!
Half-price 1921 Census ENDS MONDAY
LostCousins
will be 18 years old on 1st May and fortuitously Findmypast are halving
the cost of the 1921 Census this weekend, cutting the cost of images from £3.50
to just £1.75 from 10am (London time) on Friday 22nd April until midnight
(London time) on Monday 25th April. What a great way to begin celebrating
our coming of age!
Note:
this 50% discount temporarily replaces the 10% discount offered to subscribers
with 12 month Pro and Ultimate subscription – everyone
will pay the same price this weekend, whether you have a subscription or not.
Many
of you will have adopted a similar strategy to me, only viewing the households
of your nearest and dearest – so far I’ve limited myself
to my direct ancestors. This weekend I’ll be extending the search to include the
more intriguing branches of my tree – and there are quite a few of those, so perhaps
it’s just as well that the weather forecast isn’t great!
You
can support LostCousins either by clicking the link on your My Summary
page to go the 1921 Census, or using the link below –
either way you’ll pay half-price during the offer period, and we should get a
few pennies from each purchase.
SAVE
50% ON THE 1921 CENSUS – Ends midnight (London time) Monday 25th
April
What you really need to know about the 1921 Census
Here's
what you really need to know if you want to use your time and your money effectively - and who doesn't?
·
Who's included? Not just the inhabitants of England &
Wales, but also those of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands; members of
the Armed Forces wherever in the world they were stationed, with
the exception of Scotland; Merchant Navy and fishing vessels that were either
in port on Census Night or returned in the few days following; visitors,
tourists, and people in transit.
·
Who's not included? Anyone who was not within the
territory on Census Night (except as noted above); many people who were homeless
or had no fixed abode; anyone who objected to the census and avoided being
enumerated.
·
Use the Advanced Search: I'm sure I don’t need
to tell LostCousins members this, but I've done it anyway!
·
Transcripts: you shouldn't need
to view the transcripts, which will normally cost you an extra £2.50, since all the information
you need to know is either on the household schedule, or
can be found by inspecting the associated images.
·
Transcription
errors:
are more frequent because of the stringent conditions under which the work had
to be carried out (similar to the 1939 Register). Use
wildcards freely, and take advantage of what you
already know from 1911 and 1939.
·
Before buying
an image:
you'll see a mini transcript (as shown on the right), but it will only give
three forenames at most, typically the person you searched for and two others;
it won’t tell you whether the people named have the same surname (in this case
I happen to know that they don't), nor will the head of household necessarily
be one of the people named (in this case he isn't).
·
Make sure you've
found the right household: they are lots of ways to search and you can narrow down
the number of search results by including extra information on the search form;
for example, filling in the Other household
member box on the search form can reveal additional members of the
household. If you know the precise address you can usually find out the folio
number using an address search, and once you have the folio number you can include
this in a person search.
·
Census references: the piece number is handwritten on
the 'Cover' (it's preceded by the reference RG15) but is also part of the filename
when you download the image, and this is a much more reliable source; also on the
cover is the enumeration district; the other reference to record is the schedule
number, which is shown in the top right corner of a standard household schedule.
·
Addresses: the address of a household is on the 'Front'
of the form.
·
Neighbours: if you buy an image and want to know who was
living next door there's usually no need to carry out an address search – instead
you can search using census references (typically the schedule numbers for the neighbours
will follow on from the one you've already purchased). The first time I tried
this out I discovered that one of the next-door neighbours was the girl who my
great-uncle William married in 1928 – what will you find, I wonder?
·
Large households: the standard form has room for 10 people;
there is a list of the different forms here;
households of up to 20 people should be available as a single unit, but I've
seen an example where due to poor handwriting the link has not been made. You'll
know from the mini-transcript how many people are
included in the image(s) you’re buying.
·
Printing: the Print button on the image page doesn’t work
for everyone (it depends on your printer), but in any case I prefer to download
images to my computer, save them, then adjust them before printing; some of the
inks used in 1921 seem to have faded, so adjusting the contrast and brightness
will usually produce a clearer print (I use the free Irfanview
program which makes adjustments to the image easy – and it has lots of other features,
most of which I never need to use).
·
Want to know more about how the 1921 Census was digitised? See Stephen Rigden’s article,
written specially for this newsletter.
£250 reward for return of missing registers
I
mentioned
earlier this month that some of the registers for the parish of Althorne in Essex, are missing – and investigating with the
Essex Record Office I discovered that they were last seen in 1898. According to
Frederick George Emmison’s Catalogue of Essex
Parish Records 1240-1894 one of the missing registers records Althorne baptisms from 1735-1810, burials from 1735-1809,
and marriages from 1734-1798, whilst the other records baptism and burials from
1810-1812.
I’m
sure that if they had been destroyed by fire or flood there would be some
record of this unfortunate event, which leads me to suspect that registers are
still in existence – but where? Did the incumbent (or one of his successors)
take them with him to his next parish? Or were they, perhaps, handed to a
bookbinder for repair, and never returned.
As
the 18th Birthday of LostCousins is approaching I’ve decided to mark
the event by offering a reward of £250 to the first person who can locate the
missing registers so that they can be returned to the church or deposited in
the Essex Record Office for the benefit of future researchers. Everyone can
help, even if only by publicising the reward.
Nobody
thought Darwin’s priceless notebooks would ever be seen again, but they were returned
after an appeal – so let’s see if we can track down those registers!
PS:
talking about Darwin’s rediscovered notebooks reminds me that this week I’ve
been watching a dramatisation of the true story of
John Darwin, who disappeared in 2002 (having apparently drowned in a canoeing
accident), but reappeared 5½ years later.
Fred
Emmison, the distinguished archivist I mentioned in
the previous article was known to friends an family as Derick, according to a
1996 article
in History in Bedfordshire. I don’t know how he got that name, but it
reminded me of V P A Derrick, who I mentioned last month when I revealed
what really happened to the 1931 Census.
Victor
Percival Augustine Derrick was a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries who worked
in the Government Actuary’s Department until 1922, when he was seconded to the
General Register Office to help analyse the results of the 1921 Census – in
those days censuses were organised by the GRO, hence the RG (Registrar General)
references at the National Archives.
In
January 1927 Derrick presented to the Institute of Actuaries a paper entitled Observations
on (1) Errors of Age in the Population Statistics of England and Wales, and (2)
the Changes in Mortality indicated by the national records – it was
published in the Journal of the Institute of Actuaries in July 1927.
I’ve
read the 46-pages of the paper and the ensuing discussion from beginning to end.
Suffice it to say that Derrick was aware, as all experienced family historians
are, of the tendency for ages shown in the census to be mis-stated. However,
unlike us, he did not have access to the census information – he had to make
his deductions from the discrepancies in the numbers of people recorded in
successive censuses.
I
was intrigued to find that there was no discussion of the impact that recording
ages in years and months might have, particularly since he refers to the
practice of rounding up the ages of children. From 1851 to 1911 ages were
stated in whole years, but in 1921 heads of households were asked to provide
ages in years and months. My perception is that whilst the age in months might
be slightly out, the age in years is more likely to be accurate than in previous
censuses.
It
would be interesting to know whether others have a similar experience – please post
your comments on the LostCousins Forum rather than writing to me. If you have
been invited to join the forum there will be a link near the top of your My
Summary page – if you haven’t been invited yet, please focus your attention
on adding more relatives from the 1881 Census to your My Ancestors page.
You will get an invite when your Match Potential (also shown on your My
Summary page) reaches or exceeds 1.
Wanted: magic wand, good price paid
Do
you have a magic wand that’s surplus to your requirements? Without one I’ve got
no way of finding cousins for those members who haven’t entered any data.
Of
course, they’re not the only ones who are losing out – if they can’t find their
cousins then their cousins can’t find them. But if only I can lay my hands on a
magic wand the problem could be solved in a jiffy!
Update:
I’ve just been told that there’s a worldwide shortage of wands – in the
circumstances I suggest that you complete your My Ancestors page, then the
LostCousins system can make the magic happen without the need for a wand!
Last chance to save on Ancestry DNA in Canada
ENDS SATURDAY
Until
11.59pm EST on Saturday 23rd April Canadian residents can save $50
on Ancestry DNA, bringing the price down from $129 to just $79 (excluding
shipping). Please click the banner below so that you can support LostCousins
when you make your purchase.
Want
a reminder of what to do once you’ve taken a DNA test? Check out the latest edition
of my Masterclass,
which helpfully leaves out all the bits which you don’t really to know about.
I
mentioned earlier this month that I was reading MJ Lee’s latest book in the
Jayne Sinclair series of genealogical mysteries – in fact I was so engrossed in
the book that I finished it shortly afterwards!
As the book begins
Jayne is preparing for the trip of a lifetime – she’s taking her step-father Robert and his wife Vera to Australia, so her
main focus on finishing off her current assignment. She’s certainly not looking
for new clients, but when Alice Taylor turns up on her doorstep she can’t
refuse her – because Alice is the neighbour who has promised to look after
Jayne’s cat while she’s away.
Alice
was adopted during World War 2, and her adoptive parents told her very little
about her origins – but now that she was 80 she felt
it was time to see what she could discover, with Jayne’s help.
There
are two threads to the story – one follows Jayne and Alice as they research
together, the other is about events leading up to the fall of Singapore in
February 1942. Of course, as readers we’re bound to speculate about how the two
threads are linked, but the obvious answers aren’t always the right ones!
MJ
Lee has cleverly set the book in December 2019, just as there are stories coming
out of China about a new and potentially dangerous virus – so there are
interesting parallels between the two threads which are apparent to the reader
but not, of course, to Jayne. There’s even some similarity between the
struggles of the Manchester United football team in the 1938/39 season, and the
troubles they’re going through now.
And
as ever the author has thoroughly researched the events upon which the historical
thread is based, so by reading the book we’re not only enjoying the story, but gaining insight into a period of history that we
might not be that familiar with. (There are also a few pages of historical
notes at the back of the book for those who want to know more.)
It's
a jolly good read, and one that can be enjoyed in its own merits – though you’ll
get even more from it if you’ve read some of the previous books in the series
(I’ve read them all, of course). It’s due for release on Tuesday 26th
April, so it’s not going to interrupt your 1921 searches – though you can order
the Kindle version now, and be one of the first to get
it. No date has been given for the release of the paperback.
As
ever you can support LostCousins by using the relevant link below – it may only
be a few pennies, but they do add up! If you prefer to start with one or more
of the earlier books in the series (they’re all good), follow the link I’ve
provided and click on the author’s name in the Amazon listing.
Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com Amazon.ca Amazon.com.au
I’m
delighted to say that my wife has agreed to continue with her occasional
gardening articles in 2022, and as her first contribution of the new year, New
Beginnings: Lemon Trees, Spring Sowings and Shady Places is quite long, I’ve
put it on a page of its own – you’ll find it here.
Browsing
the BBC News site this week I came across an article about
Felixstowe Museum, which is currently celebrating its 40th
anniversary with an exhibition celebrating the 1980s – well worth a visit if
you live in the area and want to be reminded how far we’ve come in the past four
decades (especially when it comes to electric cars, because there’s an original
Sinclair C5 on display).
Thanks to everyone
who wrote in with suggestions for cling-film replacements – it’s quite amazing
how many different solutions there are. However as I
already have a set of Pyrex bowls and dishes with lids I’m not a big user of
cling film (one roll lasts me several years); my main problem is covering jugs
which, because of their spouts, can be quite awkward.
Quite
fortuitously I stumbled across a solution for the small milk and cream jugs
that I use most often: you can see in the photo that I’ve covered them with the
foil that comes with plastic packs of Philadelphia Light cream cheese (left)
and Flora Light margarine (right). The foil is recycleable,
of course, but why not reuse it first? It’s stronger and easier to shape than
regular aluminium foil, and it’s just the right size for the jugs.
I’ve
been reusing the plastic packs for ages, but hadn’t
previously considered that there might also be a use for those small pieces of foil
– I would wash them and put them straight into the recycling bin.
This is where any major updates and corrections will be
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check again before writing to me, in case someone else has beaten you to
it......
Peter Calver
Founder, LostCousins
© Copyright 2022 Peter Calver
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