Newsletter – 22nd
December 2022
Twas three nights before
Christmas….
Transcription Tuesday 2023 projects revealed
Last chance to save 25% on Gift Subscriptions to
Findmypast ENDS FRIDAY
Hundreds of prizes to be won NEW ADDITIONS
Please complete your My Prizes page
Lifetime savings at The Genealogist OFFER ENDS CHRISTMAS EVE
The referee who changed football
The LostCousins
newsletter is usually published 2 or 3 times a month. To access the previous issue
(dated 15th 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):
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LostCousins website click the logo at the top of this newsletter. If you're not
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whenever there's a new edition of this newsletter available!
Twas
three nights before Christmas….
And
all over the world
There
were cousins connecting, and GEDCOMs unfurled.
Said
one cousin to another, I’m so glad I took note
Of
Peter’s advice – LostCousins gets my vote!
The
point I’m making in that short ditty is that you don’t have to wait until the
night before Christmas to connect with your ‘lost cousins’, the experienced
family historians who not only share your ancestors,
but are researching them. In fact, you don’t have to wait at all.
If
your My Ancestors page is currently empty, or only has a few dozen
entries from the 1881 Census, you have the opportunity to
learn more about your ancestors and make the world a better place – just add
more relatives from the census so that you can start connecting with the living
cousins that you don’t know about.
Remember,
it doesn’t matter if your own ancestors can't be found in 1881, or even if they
were on the other side of the world – it’s your cousins’ ancestors, the
relatives who were recorded on the census, who are most likely to lead
you to them. The more deceased cousins you enter from 1881, the more
connections you’ll make with living cousins!
Tip:
although LostCousins is only totally free until the end of December, provided
you initiate a new contact before the end of 2022 it won’t matter if you don’t
get a reply until the New Year. And if you don’t get a reply at all, drop me an
email and I’ll investigate on your behalf.
Transcription
Tuesday 2023 projects revealed
In
just 40 days’ time thousands of volunteers all over the world will be taking
part in Transcription Tuesday, an annual event organised every year since 2017 by
Who Do You Think You Are? magazine. You can find out more here.
Last
chance to save 25% on Gift Subscriptions to Findmypast ENDS FRIDAY
If
there are family members who are struggling to decide what to buy you for
Christmas, why not suggest that they club together to buy you a Findmypast
subscription?
Until
midnight (London time) on Friday 23rd December most Gift
Subscriptions to Findmypast are discounted by 25%, which represents a very
useful saving at a time when most prices are going up. But do please ask
your relatives to use the link below so that their purchase will benefit LostCousins
– it’s thanks to the commission we receive that I’ve been able to keep the cost
of LostCousins subscriptions unchanged at £10 since 2005.
Findmypast.co.uk
– SAVE 25% ON 3 & 12 MONTH PLUS & PRO GIFT SUBSCRIPTIONS
Findmypast.com.au
– SAVE 25% ON 3 & 12 MONTH PLUS & PRO GIFT SUBSCRIPTIONS
Findmypast.ie
– SAVE 25% ON 3 & 12 MONTH PLUS & PRO GIFT SUBSCRIPTIONS
Findmypast.com
– SAVE 25% ON 3 & 12 MONTH ULTIMATE GIFT SUBSCRIPTIONS
Tip:
the discount only applies to the initial period, so if your relatives can only
afford a 3 month subscription you might want to
chip-in so that you can lock in the savings for a full 12 months.
Of
course, the best present of all would be a Premium subscription – and whilst
they’re not included in this offer, you could get one for nothing if you win
the Top Prize in my competition…..
Hundreds of prizes to be won NEW
ADDITIONS
I
can’t promise that you’ll win a prize in my Christmas/New Year Competition, but
with hundreds of prizes on offer the odds are very good. Indeed, last year some
members won several prizes! I was going to say they were lucky, but in reality the prizes were a just reward for their efforts.
The
TOP PRIZE this year has been generously donated by Findmypast – it’s a 12 month PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTION offering virtually unlimited access
to ALL of Findmypast’s billions of historical records from around the world
(including the 1921 England & Wales census), modern electoral registers for
the UK, and hundreds of millions of newspaper articles.
There
are lots more prizes to be won, including:
STAR
PRIZE – ONE TO ONE ‘BRICK WALLS’ SESSION WITH DR JANET FEW
Janet
Few is an experienced and qualified family, social, and community historian who
has spoken at many 
national and
international genealogical events. She is also a well-known author, several of
whose books have been reviewed in this very newsletter, including Putting
Your Ancestors in Their Place. A founder member of the Society for
One-Place Studies, and a former Chair and Vice-Chair of the organisation, she
is currently Chair of Devon Family History Society.
Whether
you win this prize or not you’ll find it worthwhile reading Janet’s excellent advice
on what to do before you ask for help – you’ll find it here.
STAR
PRIZE – WILL TRANSCRIPTION BY DAVE ANNAL
Wills are a wonderful
source of information, but few family historians have mastered both the
handwriting and the abbreviations.
I’m
delighted that professional genealogist Dave Annal, former Principal Family
History Specialist at The National Archives, and author of numerous books has
offered to transcribe up to 4 pages from 1 or 2 wills submitted by the
prize-winner (provided they are written in English rather than Latin).
Dave
Annal’s blog is a great source of tips, and if you haven’t read his June 2021
post Walls Come Tumbling Down I would thoroughly recommend it – you’ll
find the article here.
STAR
PRIZE – A CHANCE TO REACH OUT TO 70,000 FAMILY HISTORIANS
More
family historians read this newsletter than any other independent genealogy publication,
so just
imagine what might
happen if you were able to reach out to the readership!
Whether
you have an ancestor who disappeared off the face of the earth, someone you can’t
identify in a photograph, or any other family history-related mystery, if you’re
the prize-winner I’ll give you up to a page in the newsletter to explain the
problem and appeal for help solving it.
To
have a chance of winning any of these wonderful prizes, all you need to do is
enter my competition by adding relatives to your My Ancestors page, and indicate which prizes you are most interested in
on your My Prizes page. Forgotten how to log-in to your LostCousins
account? No problem, just click here and
enter your email address (as shown in the text of the email you received
telling you about this newsletter).
STAR
PRIZE – ANCESTRY DNA TEST (UK only)
There
can’t be many people reading this who haven’t tested their DNA, but what about
your cousins? One of the best ways to knock down a ‘brick wall’ using DNA is to
persuade a cousin who shares the same ‘brick wall’ to test. They don’t need to be
interested in family history – though they will need a free Ancestry account in order to register their test (they can then assign the management
of the test to you, as many of my own cousins have done).
I
have a spare Ancestry DNA kit which I will either post to the winner or the
person they nominate – but it must be a UK address, as this is a UK kit. As with
all of the other prizes, you can only win if you enter
the competition (by adding to your My Ancestors page) and indicating
your interest in your My Prizes page.
Other
prizes include opportunities to attend exclusive Zoom presentations, with
limited audiences so that everyone who wants to can ask a question (if you are
on the guest list you will also have the opportunity to
submit a question in advance, if you prefer).
I’m
still in the process of inviting speakers, but I’ve already arranged some great
talks:
SOURCING
WOMEN ANCESTORS with ELSE CHURCHILL – THE GENEALOGIST AT THE SOCIETY OF
GENEALOGISTS
The
Society of Genealogists (SoG) was founded in 1911, so
to be the genealogist at the Society is arguably the most 
prestigious position imaginable!
Else
Churchill is not only extremely knowledgeable, she is a
wonderful communicator – she spoke at
both of the Genealogy in the Sunshine conferences that I organised in
Portugal (in 2014 and 2015), and I was delighted when she accepted my invitation
to speak to LostCousins members via Zoom. DATE TO BE ARRANGED
MARRIAGE
LAW with PROFESSOR REBECCA PROBERT
The leading expert on
English marriage law and customs over the centuries, Professor Probert is the
author of numerous books – both academic textbooks and easily understood guides
for family historians like you and me.
Her
best known book is the ground-breaking Marriage Law for Genealogists
which debunked many of the myths that have seduced previous generations of
family historians – you can read my review here.
Professor
Probert will give a Zoom presentation followed by a Q&A session, but there
will also be the opportunity to submit questions in advance. The presentation
will commence at 10am (London time) on Saturday 11th February – put the
date in your diary now in case you’re one of the lucky ones!
WENDY
PERCIVAL – interview with the author of the Esme Quentin mysteries
What
I like most about genealogical mysteries is the continuity from one book in a
series to the next – I 
feel that with each
book I get to know a little bit more about the lead character. I can’t say that
I’ve ever identified with Esme Quentin, the hero of Wendy Percival’s highly-popular books, but she’s certainly a convincing amalgam
of some of the researchers I’ve come across since founding LostCousins back in 2004.
I’ll
be interviewing Wendy Percival via Zoom, asking questions that have intrigued me
– and hopefully some that have intrigued you. If you are fortunate enough to be
in the audience you’ll also have a chance to ask questions
– but please don’t expect Wendy to reveal very much about book 5 in the series,
you’ll have to wait until it is released!
The
interview will commence at 7pm (London time) on Monday 6th February –
so make a note on your 2023 calendar.
FORGOTTEN
WOMEN – panel discussion with the team behind ‘A FEW FORGOTTEN WOMEN’
It
might be a new site, but A Few Forgotten Women, which launched earlier
this month, was created by a team with a wealth of experience.
This
event will start with a discussion between the founders of the site, and then
we’ll open it up to the audience, for you to ask questions or tell us about the
women in your tree. It starts at 4pm
(London time) on Saturday 28th January, which is a few days before
the competition ends, and lucky winners of invites to this event will be chosen
notified around a week earlier – so it’s one more reason not to
leave things to the last moment.
Tip:
there are more prizes to come – they’ll be added to the My Prizes page as soon
as they have been confirmed.
Please complete your My Prizes page
Because
there will be hundreds of prizes and hundreds of prize-winners there needs to
be an efficient way of ensuring that the prizes go the entrants who are the
most deserving and the most appreciative.
The
My Prizes page allows you to indicate which prizes are of interest to
you by giving each of them a rating for 10 (most interested) down to 1 (least
interested). As to whether you are one of the most deserving entrants – that will
depend on how many entries you add to your My Ancestors page during the period
up to 31st January. You won’t need to have entered the most
relatives to win a prize, but the more you enter the more likely it is that you
will win – it’s rather like Premium Bonds, you’re not guaranteed to win if you
hold the maximum amount, but it certainly helps!
Note:
as mentioned earlier, some prizes will be awarded before the competition ends,
so it is better to act sooner rather than later!
Lifetime savings at The Genealogist OFFER ENDS
CHRISTMAS EVE
Just
as I was finalising this newsletter I heard that The
Genealogist has added 185,000 land records for Berkshire and Buckinghamshire –
and although that might not sound very many records, they cover an area of 800
square miles. Taken from the ‘Lloyd George Domesday’ valuation compiled from
1910 onwards, they give details not only of land-owners,
but also occupiers (the latter being of much more interest to the average family
historian!). It’s one of the record sets that links into the Map Explorer – see
this short video for an overview.
The
Genealogist also has the most comprehensive online collection of tithe maps and
tithe records – enabling me to pinpoint the cottage where my great-great-great-great
grandmother had moved to when she grew too old to run the Three Compasses
at Patchetts Green.
The
special offer I negotiated for LostCousins members includes:
- 1 year Diamond Subscription to
The Genealogist
- 1 Year Subscription to Discover
Your Ancestors Online Magazine (worth £24.95)
- Discover Your Ancestors'
Occupations
by Laura Berry, digital edition (worth £9.95)
- Researching and Locating Your
Ancestors
by Celia Heritage, digital edition (worth £9.95)
- Discover Your Ancestors Compendium
featuring 12 monthly editions from 2021, digital edition (worth £9.95)
- TreeView 2 discount
voucher offering £10 off the Windows or Mac software
You
get all this for just £94.95, a saving of almost £100 compared to the list
prices.
But
that’s not all: should you decide you want to continue your Diamond Subscription
you’ll pay just £94.95 for the second year, and same in the third year – indeed
the price will never go up so long as there is no break in your subscription.
Think of it as a Lifetime discount!
To
take advantage of this offer please follow this link
– but you’ll have to quick, because the offer ends at midnight (London time) on
Christmas Eve.
This
story
of how two sisters managed to track down the woman who gave them an envelope containing
$100 on a plane 23 years ago doesn’t involve genealogy, but nevertheless I’d
like to share it with you.
My
wife pointed this article
with Christmas stories from celebrities – not normally our thing, but one of
them is an ex-boss of hers.
Someone
else my wife knows is John Adams – not the US president (he died in 1826), but the
academic who discovered long-forgotten recordings of British Prisoners of War. None
of us would want our relatives to be held in a prison camp, but for a fortunate
few, there’s an opportunity to hear them speaking more than a century ago. And
for the rest of us, it’s a chance to hear how ordinary people spoke back then –
it’s surprisingly different from today.
During
the Great War a number of British prisoners were asked
to read the Parable of the Prodigal Son in their native dialect – it was a
project run by a German sound pioneer who had a particular interest in British
dialects. The recordings were made on wax cylinders, but
transferred to shellac discs which were discovered in a Berlin library by John
Adams in 2007. Digital copies were acquired by the British Library in 2008, and
many of them can be heard on their website.
Recently
Findmypast added records for 56 of the recordings, including information about
the individuals and their origins – you can search this small collection here,
and listen to the recordings free on the British Library website.
One of the PoWs came from the Essex village of Latchingdon, just 30 miles from where LostCousins is based –
but, more importantly, only 3 miles from Althorne,
the village where my great-great-great grandmother Sarah Precious was born.
In
the last newsletter I mentioned that website of the Wellcome
Library had copies of the reports of the Medical Officers of Health for London
boroughs covering the period from 1848-1972, but what I didn’t realise is that
they also have similar reports from many other parts of the country, which can
search for via this page.
The
Scottish Parliament today passed legislation making it easier for Scots to
change their legal gender – the legislation that came into force in 2005 is thought
to be unnecessarily intrusive and distressing.
This
just one of many factors that are going to make matters more complex for the
family historians of the future – especially since they’ll also have the option
to change back again.
The referee who changed football
What
a fantastic World Cup Final last weekend! Like so many independent observers I
wanted to see Lionel Messi get a winner’s medal, but at the end it could have gone either way (rather
like the goalkeepers and the penalty takers in the shoot-out that eventually
decided the epic match).
I’ve
only ever been in the crowd for one World Cup match and that also featured
Argentina – though on that occasion it was at Wembley, it was 1966, it was the
quarter-final, and I was supporting England. The Argentine captain, Rattin, was controversially sent off in that game – by a
West German referee, which was perhaps ironic considering that it was West
Germany who were beaten by England in the final. It was as a direct result of
that match that Ken Aston,
the head of the referee panel for the 1966, 1970 and 1974 World Cups came up
with the idea of red and yellow cards – something that now seems such a basic
part of the game that it’s hard to believe that they haven’t been in use
longer.
At
the time I was living with my parents in Ilford, and Ken Aston was the headmaster
of a local school (Newbury Park). But it was only recently that I realised he had
been at Ilford County High School at the same time as my father – they were
only a few months apart in age.
Whilst
I don’t have any school photos of my father, I do have a photo taken on his 21st
birthday in 1937 in the garden of my grandparents’ home in Newbury Park. I don’t
know about you, but I reckon that the chap who is third from the left could
well be Ken Aston – I compared it with this much later photo
which I found online.
My
father, by the way, is the good-looking fellow with his arms folded – and that’s
the last time he’s seen in the family photo album with a full head of hair. Mercifully
I don’t appear to have inherited those particular genes
and I’m also a lot taller than Dad was – perhaps it’s just as well I took a DNA
test and have confirmed my ancestry back to the early 1800s (and further on
some lines)!
Seasons
Greetings from Gardeners Corner
As
this is the last newsletter before Christmas my wife agreed to write a short seasonal
article….
Our
week of snow and plunging temperatures has not devastated the garden – mainly
because everything planted into the ground is very frost-hardy, and the raised
beds in the vegetable garden enable good drainage and more absorption of
sunlight. I have read that the cold weather should sweeten the assorted kale,
chard, spinach and other winter leaf plants filling
almost every bed, although they probably won’t grow much over the next few
weeks. The citrus trees in the unheated greenhouse were covered with a cotton
sheet and left alone; Sunday’s overnight thaw raised temperatures by some 12c,
so I was keen to remove the sheet, give them a good watering and inspect the
damage. Aside from a few blackened baby fruits, they have survived well and
kept all their leaves and larger fruits.
There
are already some excellent offers from some of the bigger online plant
suppliers. I bought some surprisingly large indoor plants from Gardening Express as
Christmas gifts, which are so lovely that I may keep more than I had planned.
And if you are thinking that the dead of winter isn’t the right time to buy
garden plants, remember that they will be dormant and perfectly comfortable in
a sheltered corner of your garden or cool greenhouse (if frost tender) for
several weeks to come. Better to plant out once the ground is warmer and less
prone to compaction when working it; so pick up your
bargains now, keep them moist but not waterlogged, and then take your time
deciding where they will live.
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......
In previous years I’ve usually managed to get out a LostCousins newsletter
on Christmas Day – but I have feeling that I’m not going to manage it this
year. So this is probably my last opportunity to wish
you a Very Merry Christmas (and a Prosperous New Year).
Peter Calver
Founder, LostCousins
© Copyright 2022 Peter Calver
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