Newsletter – 30th
June 2023
Celebrate July 4 with Ancestry.com HALF-PRICE OFFER
Scottish Postal Directories online at Ancestry
Missing records from the 1911 Ireland Census
A guide to Anglo-Saxon placenames
DNA down ‘down under’ SAVE AT LEAST $30
Man abandoned in London phone box by mother finds
father in US
Review: The Scourge of the Skua
Save on Who Do You Think You Are?
subscriptions EXCLUSIVE
The LostCousins
newsletter is usually published 2 or 3 times a month. To access the previous issue
(dated 6th June) 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!
Celebrate July 4 with Ancestry.com HALF-PRICE
OFFER
It’s
probably just as well that the American Colonies declared independence from England
in 1776 because, if they hadn’t, Britain could well have ended up as the 51st
State – after all, the distance between Washington and London is a lot shorter
than the distance between Washington and Hawaii (and Alaska isn’t much closer
than London to Washington).
So there are good reasons to celebrate July 4 whichever
side of the Atlantic you’re on. However Ancestry’s
July 4 Flash Sale is only being celebrated on one side, at Ancestry.com – where
you can save 50% on a 6 month membership between June 30 and July 5.
Please
use the link below so that you can support LostCousins with your purchase (you may
find that you need to log-out from Ancestry first, then click the link again):
Scottish Postal Directories online at Ancestry
Earlier
this week Ancestry added over 20 million entries from Scottish postal
directories published between 1825-1910. Although these directories have been
available free at the National Library of Scotland website for some time, it’s now much
easier to attach them to your Ancestry tree – and there’s also the possibility
that you’ll be alerted by a hint to an entry you might not have noticed.
Scotland,
Postal Directories, 1825-1910
Note:
provided you are logged-in at Ancestry you can search the directories free,
even if you don’t have a subscription, and you can also view or browse pages from
the directories – but you can’t view Ancestry’s transcription unless you pay. I
found this page
from one of the directories fascinating!
Missing records from the 1911 Ireland Census
Findmypast
have added 5,483 records from the 1911 Census of Ireland which were omitted
from the original transcription; it’s not clear to me whether these records were
also missing from the transcription at the National Archives of Ireland (NAI)
website, but I suspect that is the case.
Findmypast
have also taken the opportunity to improve the searchability of the collection,
so there’s a good chance that you’ll find relatives who previously proved
elusive. It’s free to search this census at Findmypast and when you find the household you’re looking for you can click a link in
Findmypast’s transcription to view the original images at the NAI site.
Tip:
the 1911 Ireland Census is the one that we use at LostCousins. The only census
reference you need to note is the image number, which is the 9-digit number
shown at the end of the URL when you are viewing the image (see this guide
for an example). It is always preceded by the letters ‘nai’ but you don’t need to enter them.
My
mother-in-law, now 96, is one of the few surviving members of the Women’s Land
Army, which was originally established during World War 1, then re-established
in June 1939. At the peak in 1943 there were over 80,000 ‘land girls’ supporting
the war effort and over 200,000 had served by the time the force was finally disbanded
in 1950.
Although
their service records have not survived, Ancestry
has a large collection of index cards relating to members of the Women’s Land
Army – over 120,000 in all – though the collection doesn’t include my
mother-in-law. Indeed, for data protection reasons it doesn’t include anyone
born after 1922, so I have written to the Imperial War Museum to ask whether they
can provide a photocopy of my mother-in-law’s index card. If I’m successful I’ll
report back in due course.
A
new book published today seeks to highlight the contribution made by the ‘land girls’. The Land Army's
Lost Women, by Emily Ashworth, includes interviews with some of those
who are still living, and whilst I haven’t read the book, this Daily Mail
article
certainly piqued my interest.
A guide to Anglo-Saxon placenames
I
recently came across this useful guide
to the origins of placenames. On the same website (under English Heritage)
you’ll discover interesting information about the early history of the counties
to the east and south-east of England – and much more besides.
I
can’t vouch for the accuracy of the information, but whoever put the site together
certainly seems to know their stuff!
DNA down ‘down under’ SAVE AT
LEAST $30
If
you live in Australia or New Zealand you can currently save $30 on Ancestry DNA
tests – the only DNA tests that I can whole-heartedly recommend, based on more
than a decade of experience.
Please
use the link below so that you can support LostCousins when you make a purchase:
Ancestry.com.au
(Australia & New Zealand only) – SAVE $30 ON ANCESTRY DNA ENDS 5TH JULY
Wherever
you live in the world, be sure to follow the advice in my DNA
Masterclass – you’ll not only get much better results, you’ll get them more
quickly, and for far less effort!
Man abandoned in London phone box by mother finds father
in US
This
report
on the Daily Mail website is well worth reading for anyone who doubts
the power of DNA to solve family mysteries. Sadly Chris Mason’s mother died 15
years ago, so he may never know precisely why she abandoned him, but at least
she gave him an opportunity of life, unlike the teenager who has recently been
convicted of murdering her new-born child (see this BBC article).
Reading the latter
story reminded me of the shocking tale of Dr Arthur Daly – which I discovered
by chance, and wrote about in this newsletter in 2015 and 2016.
That was another case in which a new-born baby died from asphyxiation though, unlike
Paris Mayo – who got a life sentence, and will serve at least 12 years behind
bars – Dr Daly was found innocent by a jury.
Nottingham
Evening Post 28th February 1940
Image
© Reach PLC. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD and used by
kind permission of Findmypast
Just
yesterday, as I was finalising this newsletter, I read the story of Maria
Cahill, who was born in England in 1954, but sent with her unmarried mother
Philomena to a mother-and-baby home in Ireland, then adopted and given a new
identity; sadly she never met her birth mother, although at one point they were
living in the same city. I was reminded of the film Philomena, starring Judi Dench, which
told the true story of another unmarried mother who was forced to give up her
child – it’s well worth watching if you haven’t already seen it.
If
you followed my example and purchased a copy of the Bible that was published to
mark the 400th anniversary of the ‘authorised’ or King James version
(see my review here), you
may well have been delighted to rediscover the original wording of the
parables. For example:
Therefore, whosoeuer heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I wil liken him vnto a wise man,
which built his house vpon a rocke:
And the raine descended, and the floods came, and the
windes blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell
not: for it was founded vpon a rocke.
And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and
doeth them not, shall bee likened vnto
a foolish man, which built his house vpon the sand:
And the raine descended, and the floods came, and the
windes blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell,
and great was the fall of it.
S. Matthew, Chap. vij, verses 24-27
Of
course, a family tree is more like a skyscraper than a house – each storey in a
skyscraper depends on the stability of all the storeys below, just as the
accuracy of each generation of our ancestors depends on the integrity of our
research into their descendants. Identify the wrong parents at any stage, and all of our research beyond that point is likely to be
meaningless.
That’s
why taking a DNA test isn’t just about knocking down ‘brick walls’ so that we
can add to our tree, it’s also about validating our previous, records-based,
research.
Let’s
face it, even if our research techniques are infallible, we can still be caught
out by errors and omissions. We might like to think that our ancestors always
told the truth, but surely it would be reckless to have that degree of
confidence in the record-keepers? There are sufficient
obvious errors in the records that we know in our heart of hearts that there must
also be many errors which are not so obvious!
If
you’ve tested your DNA, or are considering doing so, it’s essential to follow
the advice in my Masterclass
– more than a decade of experience and thousands of hours of effort have been
distilled into a few pages. Not everyone can fully understand DNA, but anyone
can follow simple instructions.
Review: The Scourge of the Skua
The fifth novel from Wendy
Percival to feature the genealogist Esme Quentin, The Scourge of the Skua
also involves a house that falls down – indeed it’s an
important element of the story. However, the book begins with an investigation
that Esme carries out on behalf of a client who wants to mark a special
birthday by presenting her partner with his family tree.
As
so often happens in real life, the research that Esme carries out reveals something
completely unanticipated – and what happens next is even more unexpected,
though I don’t want to give away too many clues lest it spoils your enjoyment
of the story! Suffice it to say that a journalist contact
of Esme’s late husband crawls out of the woodwork (almost literally), and from that
point onwards Esme isn’t sure who she can trust.
One
of the things that makes reading stories in books so different from watching TV
adaptations, or even listening to a radio version, is the scope for imagining
what the characters look and sound like. In this instance I became increasingly
convinced that Max Rainsford, the aforesaid journalist, was modelled on Matt
Crawford – a slightly dodgy character from The Archers (an everyday
story of country folk that has been broadcast on the wireless for over 70
years).
I
thoroughly enjoyed this book, and am already looking
forward to the next one – but if you’ve missed out on Esme’s previous outings,
I recommend you start with the first story, as there are themes that continue
from one book to the next. All of the novels are available
in paperback or as Kindle books (remember, you don’t need a Kindle – almost any
computer, tablet, or smartphone will do).
The
links below will take to all of the books in the
series – note that you can save money when you buy the Kindle version of books
1-3 as a box set.
For
paperbacks:
Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com Amazon.ca Amazon.com.au
For
Kindle:
Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com Amazon.ca Amazon.com.au
When Oliver Twist was
in the workhouse he and his fellow inmates existed almost entirely on gruel, a very
thin porridge made by boiling oatmeal or other cereals in water. Dickens adds
that they also had “an onion twice a week, and half a roll of Sundays” – what
luxury!
Image
© Reach PLC. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD and used by
kind permission of Findmypast
At
Rainhill County Lunatic Asylum, in Lancashire, the staff received free meals
while they were on duty – a perk that led to a walk-out when, on 6th
April 1914, the meat component of their meals was switched for oatmeal
porridge. Whereas Oliver Twist asked for more porridge, the attendants wanted
less, as you can see from this extract from the Western Mail of 20th
April.
The
latest issue of Who Do You Think You Are? magazine has a fascinating
letter from Katharine McKinnon who, when studying for an MA in History, wrote a
dissertation about women in asylums which drew on the case notes of in-patients
at Rainhill between 1851, when it opened, and 1901. I expect that, like me, you’ve
read stories of women who were consigned to asylums by their husbands,
and spent the rest of their lives in an institution – however it seems
that most of the female patients were there for short periods, perhaps after childbirth
or during menopause.
Save on Who Do You Think You Are? subscriptions EXCLUSIVE
It’s
not too late to take advantage of the exclusive offer I’ve arranged – but don’t
leave it too long, since all good things must come to an end!
As
I mentioned in the last newsletter, whilst the magazines I subscribe to are all
available in digital format (some of them free through my local library), I
still prefer to pay for paper copies, because I keep so many of the articles
for future reference. This is especially true of Who Do You Think You Are?
magazine – by the time I’ve finished tearing out articles of particular
interest there are barely any pages left between the covers!
Many
of the articles I keep are not relevant to my research at the time, but that’s precisely
why it’s so important to keep them – after all, we never know quite where our
research is going to go, and it’s almost inevitable that it will expand into
new counties if not new countries, new occupations, or new religious
denominations.
There's
an extra special introductory offer for members in the UK, but there are also offers
for overseas readers, each of which offers a substantial saving on the cover
price:
UK - try 6 issues for just
£9.99 - saving 68%
Europe - 13 issues (1 year)
for €65 - saving 33%
Australia
& New Zealand
- 13 issues (1 year) for AU $99 - saving 38%
US
& Canada
– 13 issues for US $69.99 – saving 59%
Rest
of the world
- 13 issues (1 year) for US $69.99 – saving 41%
To
take advantage of any of these deals (and to support LostCousins) please follow
this link.
Normally
it’s my wife who writes about plants and gardens for the newsletter, but as we
both had the pleasure of visiting the beautiful gardens of Highgrove House (the
Gloucestershire home of King Charles III and Queen Camilla) two weeks ago I
thought I’d chance my arm.
I’d
love to show you some pictures of the gardens, but for security reasons we
weren’t allowed to take photos – the gardens go right up to the house. However we
brought back a wonderful, lavishly-illustrated, large-format hardback all about
the gardens, and though we later discovered that we could have purchased a
paperback copy more cheaply at Amazon I
didn’t begrudge paying the extra (particularly since the profits go to charity).
The
only place where photography was allowed was the Orchard Room, where I took
these two very different shots:
The
elephants are not real, but life-size sculptures – and there’s a story behind
them, which you can read here,
on the ITV News site.
The
second picture, on the other hand, might look like a painting, however I can
assure you that the beautiful cream tea was not only edible, but delicious –
and at £27.50 for the two of us it was reasonably priced, especially given the
surroundings. Even though we had skipped lunch we couldn’t eat all of it (that scrumptious
chocolate cake was bigger than it seems in the photo), so had to take two of
the scones away with us in a ‘dorgi bag’.
Visiting
in mid-June we were too late to see the azaleas and rhododendrons, but the
roses were stunning, whilst the flowers in the cottage garden and wildflower
meadow were as pretty as a picture. In total there are
15 acres of gardens at Highgrove, all run on organic principles – no wonder it
takes 10 gardeners to plant, tend, and weed them. Our very knowledgeable guide
recommended visiting again at a different time of the year – certainly something
to consider, though demand is such that you’ve got to get in quick when the
bookings open (which this year was on 23rd February, or 24 hours
earlier for those of us on the mailing list).
Clunton and Clunbury,
Clungunford and Clun,
Are the quietest places
Under the sun.
In valleys of
springs of rivers,
By Ony and Teme and Clun,
The country for easy livers,
The quietest under the sun.
A E Housman
(1859-1936)
After
our visit to Highgrove – see the previous article – we spent a week at a beautiful
holiday cottage in Shropshire. The Miller’s Cottage at Birches Mill is set in a valley not far
from Clun (it’s on the River Unk,
which flows into the Clun just north of the town). We’ve stayed at Birches Mill
about a dozen times over the past 30 years, and on our second visit in 1994 we
met the present owners, who had recently purchased the property. However this was the first time we’ve been back since 2010.
When
we originally stayed at Birches Mill it was just a B&B, but two beautiful holiday
cottages were fashioned from the mill buildings, and for a while there was a
choice of B&B or self-catering. Now only the latter is on offer, though the
owners offer excellent homemade ‘ready meals’, so you don’t really need to do
any proper cooking – and if I said the food was of restaurant quality that
would be an understatement! They also sell eggs laid by their own hens, and make delicious jams and chutneys from the fruit
they grow in the garden, though that didn’t stop me giving them a couple of
jars of my own preserves, so that they could try some different flavours.
If
you’re looking for somewhere to stay that’s quiet, but not too far from
civilisation, I can thoroughly recommend Birches Mill – and amazingly there is
still some availability in late July and August (as you can see here). By all means mention
my name when booking: though you won’t get a discount and
I won’t get any commission, it’ll demonstrate the power of personal
recommendation (which is also what brings most people to the LostCousins site
for the first time!).
Tip:
Mr
Bun the Baker, in Church Stretton, Shropshire sells the best Eccles cakes I’ve
tasted in 40 years. So good, in fact, that we made a detour on our way home and
bought another four! I also enjoyed their chocolate tiffin cake, though my wife
was less impressed.
I
mentioned
at the beginning of the month that EDF had refused to allow me to reduce my
monthly payments for electricity to £184, and that I had been forced to wait
for their upcoming annual review. Perhaps it was just as well, because the
review has come up with a figure of just £174 – thank you very much!
It
seems I’m not the only one to have reduced energy consumption – the Royal
Household accounts for 2022/23 were published this
week, and show (on page 25) that they’ve been turning down the thermostats to
19C, only one degree higher than my usual daytime setting. Well done, Your Royal
Highnesses!
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 2023 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?
Many of
the links in this newsletter and elsewhere on the website are affiliate links –
if you make a purchase after clicking a link you may be supporting LostCousins
(though this depends on your choice of browser, the settings in your browser,
and any browser extensions that are installed). Thanks for your support!