Newsletter – 24th
July 2024
It’s a marathon, not
a sprint BRONZE
Passing the baton SILVER
You can build a team around
you GOLD
Millions of additional
records online NEW
Rags to Riches: how some
of my DNA ended up in Australia
The LostCousins
newsletter is usually published 2 or 3 times a month. To access the previous issue
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1948
was a Leap Year – good news for the athletes competing in the pole vault,
triple jump, long jump and high jump at the London Olympic Games (or the ski
jump at the Winter Olympics in St Moritz, Switzerland). Other notable events included
the birth of Prince Charles, now King Charles III, the founding of the National
Health Service, the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, and the signing of the
Brussels Treaty – which ultimately led to the formation of NATO. And the marriage
of my parents, which ultimately led to the foundation, 56 years later, of LostCousins.
1948
was also the year in which Suffolk-born Rosemary Brown, a PhD
student at the University of Bristol, discovered the kaon (or K meson) when examining
particle tails on photographic plates. Rosemary never completed her doctorate,
choosing instead to marry Peter Fowler, one of her colleagues; her PhD
supervisor, Cecil Powell, won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1950.
This
month Rosemary Fowler, now aged 98, was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the
Chancellor of the University of Bristol in a ceremony near her Cambridge home. You
can see a photograph of the presentation here.
On
Thursday 29th July 1948 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth were at London’s
Wembley Stadium for the Opening Ceremony with 6,000 competitors and a crowd of
82,000 spectators. The King and the Lord Mayor of London, Sir
Frederick Wells, shook hands with every member of the International Olympic
Committee before taking their places in the Royal Box.
Two
of my relatives would have been there for the Opening Ceremony, one from either
side of my family (although my parents didn’t marry until 6 weeks later). Squire Yarrow, my father’s
2nd cousin, was a marathon runner who had retired from international competition
at the European Championships two years earlier, but he was an assistant manager
for the Great Britain team in 1948. The other relative to attend was my
maternal grandfather’s 1st cousin. His name? Sir Frederick Wells, the Lord
Mayor.
Did
you attend the 1948 Olympics, or did one of your relatives take part? Things
were very different in those days as you’ll see from this article
about the disqualification of the Swedish dressage team, who had won gold: it
had been discovered that one of the team was neither an officer nor a gentleman
– what a bounder!
It’s a marathon, not a sprint BRONZE
You
might be surprised how quick and easy it is to build a family tree using the apps
that some of the big genealogy sites offer – it requires no experience, little
knowledge, and hardly any time at all.
But
LostCousins members are serious researchers who are more concerned about
quality than quantity – we want to get it right, because we know the
dire consequences of getting it wrong. And it’s worth mentioning at this
point that careless mistakes are not exclusively a modern phenomenon – there are
plenty of errors in genealogies constructed in earlier centuries, which is
perhaps not surprising when you consider the limited resources available to
earlier generations, and the incentive for the compilers to come up with the
answer that their employer was seeking.
It
takes time to search for clues and weigh up the evidence that we find – and,
like Sherlock Holmes we also have to consider the
implications of the absence of evidence. Researching your family tree is a
marathon not a sprint, as Richard in Australia said when he wrote to me this week.
Although
genealogy is more of a marathon than a sprint, another analogy that Richard
used was of a relay, where each researcher passes the baton to the family member
who is going to take the research to the next stage.
If
you know who is going to take over your research when the time comes – whether it’s
death, dementia, or disability that brings your own role to an end – you can
enter their email address in the box on your My Details page at the
LostCousins site. It has been an option for LostCousins members ever since the
site opened in 2004, but this feature isn’t used nearly as often as it should
be.
Tip:
at Ancestry you can appoint someone as Manager of your DNA test, but you can also
appoint collaborators. Working with your cousins is so much easier when you can
each see the other’s matches – shared matches are important, however you
shouldn’t disregard the matches you don’t share. The chance that you and your cousin
will both have a DNA match with someone who is a 5th cousin
to both of you is only about 1 in 10.
You
can build a team around you GOLD
Knowing
that your research will continue after your demise is comforting, but what’s
stopping you from collaborating with your cousins now? Clearly you can’t collaborate
with everyone on your DNA match list, or with everyone who has one of your
ancestors in an online tree – and nor, I suspect would you want to – but you certainly
should collaborate with the experienced researchers who are your ‘lost cousins’.
Just
to make it absolutely clear, you don’t have to meet up
with cousins in order to work towards a common goal – I’ve never met ANY
cousins on my father’s side of my tree, but that hasn’t stopped us from collaborating
(and I manage or have access to the DNA results of several). Communicating by
email is all that’s needed, though full marks to those of you who do manage to
meet up.
Sharing
problems is a wonderful way of gaining insight into possible solutions. Cousins
who share your ‘brick walls’ are going to be just as keen to see them knocked
down as you are, so talking through theories and coordinating your research efforts
will make the process quicker, easier and altogether more pleasant.
Remember
that ALL of your cousins are descended from the branches
of your tree (or ‘collateral lines’ as some people call them). The best way to
find your ‘lost cousins’ is to enter all the relatives you can find in 1881,
especially your direct ancestors’ siblings and cousins (of varying degrees).
Tip:
it doesn’t matter if your ancestors emigrated long before 1881 – your many British
cousins are descended from the relatives who stayed behind.
Millions of additional records online NEW
Ancestry
have added a plethora of new records this month – there’s something for
(almost) everyone!
Aberdeenshire,
Scotland, Poor Law Applications and Registers, 1818-1923
Aberdeenshire,
Scotland, Burial Registers, 1769-1983
Cheshire,
England, Roman Catholic Baptism, Marriage and Burial Registers, 1644-1913
Lancashire,
England, Catholic Registers of Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1762-1913
Gwent,
Wales, Workhouse Registers, 1833-1957
Barnsley,
South Yorkshire, England, Petty Sessions, 1841-1923
Five years ago Sarah wrote in with a
bitter-sweet story which was published in this newsletter in September 2019. I’m
repeating it now because in the next article you’re going to find out what
happened next!
"About 20 years ago my
husband Dean asked me to look for his birth family. At the time we couldn’t
afford a computer, so after several phone calls to the adoption department at
the local council, we were put in touch with After Adoption Yorkshire (now
closed). We discovered that the adoption records were held by The Catholic Children's Society.
"The file had more
information than my husband expected. We now knew that he was given up at the
age of 5 months in 1970, he had the names of both birth parents, and knew that
the maternal grandparents were Polish. By this point we now had a computer and
had joined Friends Reunited and Genes Reunited, so we also obtained the birth
and marriage certificates for Hazel, his birth mother.
"With the help of the
electoral roll we managed to locate his maternal grandad in this country. We
went back to the agency with an address and they sent
a letter to grandad on our behalf. We got a reply, confirming that we had the
right person and that he was in touch with Hazel, his daughter, and would pass
a letter on. My husband had high hopes
"There was a reply to the
letter, but his birth mother didn't want any contact - and claimed she'd never
married, which we knew was not the case because we had letters from Hazel to
her social worker telling her she was getting married and could she ask the new
parents for a photo of baby to show to her new husband. We also had the
marriage certificate.
"Some months later, my
husband found his birth mother on Friends Reunited and there were pictures of
her, her status shown as divorced and retired. You could see who Dean looked
like! At the same time I had done a family tree for my
husband using his birth name and the ancestors I had found. I got a 'hot match'
on Genes Reunited – and there was my husband on his birth mother's tree with
extended family! What was going on?
"After some discussion we
clicked the Make Contact button, asking for further info. While waiting
for a reply from Hazel, one of her cousins got in touch. The cousin knew about
my husband, in fact it seems the whole family did! The cousin assumed he was in
touch with his birth mother, although the cousins themselves were not. The
cousin supplied more info on the maternal (Polish) side and some photos.
"Eventually Hazel replied through
Genes Reunited, asking if I was the cousin previously mentioned, and indicating
that she would be happy to reconnect. However, when I explained that I was
married to her son, and that he would be grteful to
have email contact the correspondence ended. Surprisingly the tree stayed on
Genes Reunited, though we thought it might disappear.
"Years later Hazel appeared
on Facebook, so my husband sent a friend request: it was not accepted. Sadly it was time to let it go after several failed
attempts. Now he is just interested in his ancestors through grandad – where
they were born, why they came to this country, and when. So far
we have not had any success.
"Unfortunately
we did find that his grandmother died before we located her. Finding the birth
father was not going to be possible, there was a name, but no definite age or
location. But to this day my husband cannot understand why his birth mother put
him on her family tree, if she didn't want any contact."
At the time I suggested to Sarah that DNA could help track down
her husband's birth father – and in the next article you’ll find out what has
happened since 2019.
Note:
the names in this article and the previous one have been changed to protect the
privacy of the individuals.
“After many years of searching for Dean’s
birth mother Hazel, finding her, but then discovering that Hazel did not wish
to have contact, further searching was put on hold. Even though I had found
Dean’s uncle and cousins through Facebook and similar sites, as Hazel didn't
wish to have contact we thought it would be unfair to
pursue them. Finding Ant, the father, was always going to be hard as he had a
common surname, and the only other clue was that he came from a family of 8
children.
“In.2022 Dean took a DNA test which came back
with a close match to someone called Laura who shared 695cM (10%) DNA with Dean.
Looking at the coloured
chart at the end of Peter’s DNA Masterclass I could see that Laura could be
as close as a 1st cousin to Dean, though there were several other relationships
which were equally feasible based on DNA alone. Unfortunately
Laura didn’t have a tree, so I messaged her asking for more information. Laura
replied asking how I knew she was a relation, but though I tried to explain the
DNA match no more came of this.
“However, Laura's surname was rather unusual so I was able to find her on Facebook – and surprise,
surprise, some of her family members had the same surname as Ant, Dean’s birth
father! There were 6 of them and after some diligent research
I had identified all of Ant’s siblings – Dean’s uncles and aunts – along with
two half-sisters, Kaz and Lola, and lots of half-nieces and nephews.
“Laura turned out not to
be Dean’s 1st cousin but his half-niece (one of the other relationships I’d noted
when I studied the chart in the Masterclass); she is the daughter of Lola. When
more recent death records became available online I
had a feeling that I needed to look for Hazel – and sadly Hazel had died in
2021 from cancer. This spurred Dean on to try to make contact
with the younger relatives on both sides.
“Contact was made via Facebook, starting with
Sally, Dean’s 1st cousin on his mother’s side. At first Sally thought the
message was a prank: whilst she had known that her aunt Hazel had a baby boy,
she hadn't been able to trace him, as she didn't have enough info and couldn't
locate the adoption agency.
“I’m glad to say that Dean and Sally had a
lot of online chats and video calls, then in October last year they met in
person – they immediately bonded. Sally’s father, Rob, is Dean’s Uncle: he too is
looking forward to meeting Dean soon; Sally's brother Steve has yet to join the
chats, but he is happy to know that Dean has been found – and Sally is visiting
again this summer.
“It turns out that Hazel had kept a picture
of baby Dean on her wall, and it was because she was a very proud and private
person who feared rejection that she was reluctant to make contact. As the meeting
with Sally went so well, Dean decided to bite the bullet and contact his half-sisters
Kaz and Lola, as well as his half-niece Laura.
“Kaz had known that there was a child, with a
different mother, born before she was, but she had no more information and had
not got around to asking the aunts and uncles. Ant had disappeared again and she was trying to locate him, this happened a lot.
There is two years between Dean and Kaz; Lola was born a further two years
later. Their mother, Betty, had married Ant, Dean’s father, and it turned out
that Betty had worked with Hazel’s mum – who had apparently warned Betty not to
date Ant given what had happened to Hazel. In the event Betty and Ant did not
stay married for long.
“Dean and Kaz have bonded quiet well through
online chats and video calls, but Lola hasn't taken the news very well and to
this day still hasn't spoken to Dean. But Dean is in touch with Jon, a half-brother
who is 20 years younger, born to yet another mother. It is suspected that there
are more half-siblings out there waiting to be discovered!
“Sadly Ant died in
2012 from motor neurone disease, but Kaz has sent Dean many photos, and Dean seems
to be the spitting image of Ant: in fact, when Dean first saw Ant’s photo he
said it was like looking in a mirror.
“The contact with Dean’s cousin Sally has
been intense – they are speaking daily as It's still very new and exciting for
Dean. This ongoing journey has been a whirl wind of emotions and has upset his immediate
family and his adoptive family, who feel left out. It's only now that we
realise how much counselling would have helped: whilst Dean’s adoptive family had
been supportive of his efforts to find his birth family, when he eventually succeeded they found it all too upsetting and shied away. Nevertheless,
Dean hopes that one day his two families will be able to meet.
“Our advice to anyone else looking for
biological family is to take it very slowly and consider everyone's feelings.
Allow the adoption agency to make the contact, and definitely
accept the counselling that is offered.”
Many
thanks to Sarah and Dean for allowing me to share their story with readers.
Price
shouldn’t determine your choice of DNA test – you should choose the Ancestry test
however much it costs – but there’s nothing wrong with timing your purchases to
coincide with special offers. And right now you can
save on Ancestry DNA whether you live in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada or the
US!
Please
use the relevant link below so that LostCousins has a chance to benefit from
your purchase and if you don’t get taken to the offer page first time around,
log-out from your Ancestry account and click my link again):
Tip:
in the UK I can save on delivery costs by buying multiple kits in the same
order – you may find that it’s the same where you are. Remember that you don’t
need to specify who will be testing – I always like to have a spare kit in reserve.
Tired
of weighting?
Ancestry
use a proprietary algorithm (Timber) to help sort distant matches into a more
meaningful order – where the total amount of shared DNA is below 90cM some segments
of DNA may be down-weighted to reflect the fact that they are relatively common
within a population. The aim of the algorithm is to improve the usability of the
data for users who have ancestors from endogamous populations, which (according
to the ISOGG wiki) include “Jews,
Polynesians, Low German Mennonites, the Amish, Acadians, French Canadians,
people from many Arab countries, people from Newfoundland and people from many
islands.”
That’s
not intended to be a complete list: any population which is isolated geographically
or culturally is going to have less genetic variation. For example, 19th
century Irish immigrants in the US tended to marry each other, as did German
immigrants – the first group primarily for religious reasons, the second
because they spoke the same language (see this research paper
for more details). I can see the same things happening in my tree: for example,
my Irish Catholic ancestors married other Irish Catholics even after migrating to
London, where they would have had a much wider choice of partners; similarly my German relatives who came to London, or were
born here to German couples, mostly married other people of German origin.
Ancestry
isn’t the only company to down-weight some DNA segments, but they do it more consistently.
Of course, once the precise relationship has been established the amount of DNA
shared is no longer relevant, though I do record the information in my tree –
not just for myself, but also for the cousins whose tests I manage or have
access to.
Tip:
if you have upgraded to Pro Tools (see this article
in the last issue) you’ll notice that the unweighted and weighted figures for relationships
between your cousins are always the same. For some reason Ancestry are not
showing the correct unweighted figures – nor the number of shared segments.
Rags to Riches: how some of my DNA ended up in Australia
Although the majority
of active LostCousins members have taken a DNA test there’s still a significant
minority who might be wondering what they can expect – so I thought I’d share
with you a small section of my tree, showing an Australian branch that I was
completely unaware of until the DNA matches started rolling in…..
Edward Holmes and Charlotte
Masters (shown at the top of the image) are my great-great-great-great grandparents.
Edward Holmes was a bricklayer who moved around the country to find work, which
meant that his children were baptised all over the place – before I started getting
DNA matches I only knew about my great-great-great
grandfather, John Holmes, and the other children who were baptised in London. I
didn’t know that Charlotte’s maiden name was Masters, or that she came from
Cornwall – or even that they married in Plymouth, Devon.
The pieces only
started falling into place when I got multiple DNA matches with descendants of
Isaac Holmes, who was convicted of theft in 1818 and sentenced to 7-years transportation
to the colonies. I discovered that he had been baptised to Edward &
Charlotte Holmes at Stoke Damerel, just outside
Plymouth, in 1800. The yellow circles towards the bottom of the diagram show
the 12 DNA matches that I’ve been able to place on this new branch of my tree –
there are several other cousins who are also descendants of Isaac but can’t be
placed on the tree because I don’t know the precise line of descent. (All of
the information that is shown is taken from public Ancestry trees, so I didn’t
feel any need to obscure the names.)
Of course, I don’t
need 12 matches to prove that the Edward and Charlotte Holmes who were the
parents of Isaac, baptised in Devon in 1800, were also the parents of my
ancestor John Holmes, baptised 240 miles away in east London in 1804: one or
two would have been sufficient. Isaac arrived in Australia in rags, but after
he became a free settler he married Rachel Riches and
started a family, one that was to grow exponentially – there are many more of
his descendants than are shown on my tree. But finding cousins isn’t an end in
itself, it’s merely a step on the way to knocking down ‘brick walls’. And that, of course, is the reason I took the test
in the first place.
Would
you like 6 issues of Who Do You Think You Are? magazine for under £10? I’m
afraid this offer is only available in the UK, but there are also discounts around
the world:
UK - try 6 issues for just £9.99
Europe - 13 issues (1 year) for €74.99
Australia - 13 issues (1 year) for AU $125
Rest of the world - 13 issues (1 year) for US $89.99
To take advantage of any of these deals (and to
support LostCousins) please follow this link.
The
saying “It’s a bit Marmite” is the equivalent of “You either love it or hate it”.
I love it, and have done for 70 years, but the price of Marmite has been
creeping up, and currently Tesco have a special offer on Vegemite – the equivalent
product from down-under – so I thought it was about time I experimented. Unfortunately I didn’t like it at all – it tastes so
different from what I’m used to. There are over 10,000 LostCousins members in
Australia so please don’t all write in and tell me I’ve got it wrong – just accept
that it’s a matter of personal preference!
On
a more positive note, as we had eaten the last of the home-made salsa from the
2023 harvest, I recently tried the Hot Salsa Dip sold by budget supermarket
Aldi under the Snackrite brand for 89p per 300g jar. I
have to say that it was excellent – as good as the Doritos equivalent, which is
twice the price (even when it is on special offer). I haven’t tried Aldi’s
tortilla chips, but Tesco’s budget version (57p for 200g) is good enough for me.
Now that summer has finally arrived – the thermometer briefly got above 30C – I’m
looking forward to making more of own salsa using home-grown tomatoes, chillies,
and sweet peppers (plus the onions harvested earlier in the season).
I’ve
now been given a closing date for the special offer I negotiated with The
Genealogist – it ends on 6th August. Follow this link
if you’d like to take advantage of a lifetime discount on their top
subscription!
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 2024 Peter Calver
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