Newsletter
- 26th May 2017
Last chance
to save at Findmypast EXCLUSIVE
More control over your searches
Another 'brick wall' comes tumbling down
Win a Queen's autograph in our Summer Competition OVER 50 PRIZES
How to avoid ordering the wrong certificate
Fancy working for the Society of Genealogists?
Historic copies of the Radio Times
Email addresses close on Wednesday IMPORTANT
The LostCousins newsletter is usually
published 2 or 3 times a month. To access the previous newsletter (dated 17th
May) click here; to find earlier articles use the
customised Google search below (it searches ALL of the newsletters since
February 2009, so you don't need to keep copies):
Whenever possible links are included to the websites or articles
mentioned in the newsletter (they are highlighted in blue or purple and underlined, so you can't miss them). If one of
the links doesn't work this normally indicates that you're using adblocking
software - you need to make the LostCousins site an exception (or else use a
different browser, such as Chrome).
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!
Last chance to save at
Findmypast EXCLUSIVE
You can save 10% this year and 15% next
year* when you take out any new 12 month subscription to Findmypast before the
end of May - and I'll also give you a free 12 month LostCousins subscription,
worth up to £12.50
*
Findmypast subscribers who allow their 12 month subscription to renew
automatically get a 15% Loyalty Discount; you can make your mind up nearer the
time - there is absolutely no commitment.
You
won't find this offer anywhere else, but that doesn't mean that it's only open
to existing LostCousins members - so please
spread the word! Every new member with British, or mostly British, ancestry is
a cousin to approximately 200 existing members, so there's every reason to
encourage other family historians to join (whether they're going to take
advantage of this offer or not - after all, standard membership is FREE, and
includes this newsletter).
In the last newsletter I listed
the 12 English counties for which Findmypast has indexed parish register images
(they have images for the whole of Wales), and mentioned some of the other key
datasets, such as the National Burial Index, the new and growing collection of
Catholic registers, and the 1939 National Register.
But there are so many important
collections that there are many I didn't mention, such as the British Army
records, many of which are exclusive to Findmypast, the British India records,
historic Electoral Registers, and the British Newspaper Archive (which you
could subscribe to separately, though it would cost you almost £80 a year -
which makes a Findmypast subscription an even better buy).
To support LostCousins and qualify for
your free subscription you must use one of these links - but do also read the
Terms and Conditions below carefully:
The offer
ends at midnight (London time) on Wednesday 31st May, but the sooner you
subscribe, the sooner you can start knocking down those 'brick walls' in your
family tree.
To claim
your LostCousins subscription (which will run from the date of purchase of your
Findmypast subscription, unless you already have a LostCousins subscription, in
which case it will be extended), please forward to me the email receipt that
you receive from Findmypast, bearing in mind that I need to know the precise time
of your purchase (so write it down, just in case the receipt doesn't arrive).
Terms & conditions: your
free 12 month LostCousins subscription (3 months if you buy a Starter
subscription at Findmypast.com) will be funded by the commission that
Findmypast pay us; if we don't receive any commission on your purchase then unfortunately
you won't qualify. If you use an adblocker the link may not
work; if tracking is disabled in your browser the link will work,
but Findmypast won't know that you clicked it, so won't pay us any commission
(if you're not sure whether tracking is disabled ask me for advice).
Don't use more than one device, and to give yourself the best chance of
qualifying use a computer rather than a tablet or smartphone. Commission isn't usually
paid on renewals or purchases that Findmypast regard as renewals. You might
qualify if you upgrade, but there are no guarantees.
More control over your
searches
One of the best features of Findmypast
is the way it allows you to re-sort the search results, just as you might if
you had transferred them all into a spreadsheet, but without the hassle.
It's a definite plus compared to sites
where you have little or no control over the way in which the results are
presented. (To be fair, Ancestry do their best to present the most relevant
results at the top of the list, but what I think is relevant and what they do
are often very different.)
In case you haven't explored this
Findmypast feature, here's an example of how it works in practice:
The initial sort is by 'Relevance',
which in practice means that you get exact matches first, followed by near
matches. By default variant forenames are included (eg
'John C', or 'John Charles') but not variant surnames, which I find is a good
combination, however you can change either setting or both.
If you click on the arrow against
'Relevance' a menu will drop down, offering you a choice of alternative sort
criteria - it's far better than working your way through page after page of
search results as you might be forced to at other sites. The options vary
according on the record set, but they're always relevant and potentially useful
- depending on the nature of your search.
Note:
do you remember when you first came across drop-down menus? For many people of
a certain age it was when they bought a computer game called Emlyn Hughes International Soccer, which my company
developed and published around 30 years ago. I didn't write the program or
design the graphics, but it was my idea to use drop-down menus (and I was the
one who signed up the former England and Liverpool captain - a lovely man). The
link above will take you to a YouTube video of the Commodore 64 version - happy
times!
Another 'brick wall'
comes tumbling down
When the whole world seems to be falling
apart it's some consolation that my family tree at last seems to be coming
together. Earlier this month I wrote about the 'brick wall' I knocked down
thanks to Findmypast's Non-Conformist
registers - this week I knocked down another longstanding 'brick wall',
this time with the help of DNA.
My great-great-great grandmother Maria
Shearing was born in Leith, Scotland according to the 1851 Census, but in Lee,
Kent according to the 1861 Census. The latter seemed more likely because she
married in Old Charlton, Kent in 1830 - though as it was before the introduction
of civil registration in 1837 there was no information about her father in the
register (and the witnesses didn't seem to be family members).
Nevertheless, I reasoned some time ago
that she was very probably the
daughter of James Shearing and his wife Catherine, whose offspring were
baptised at St Margaret, Lee. One clue was that James had been briefly married
before, to a Sarah Noakes who died shortly after
giving birth to their only child - and when Maria married it was to a William Noakes from Essex (whose father had a sister Sarah who
would have been around the right age).
Unfortunately, whilst the baptisms for James
and Catherine's other children had been transcribed, there was no mention of Maria.
She wasn't even mentioned in the copy registers at the London Metropolitan
Archives, though as there were children baptised to James and Catherine in 1809
and 1813 there was a glaring gap in 1811 into which Maria could well fit.
I eventually discovered that the
original registers, held at Lewisham Archives, did indeed record the baptism of
a Maria Shearing in March 1811 - but her parents were shown as James and Mary.
The vicar might have got the mother's name wrong - it happens quite often - but
I couldn't be absolutely certain that her parents were James and Catherine
without some other supporting evidence.
But this week I noticed that my 1st
cousin and I had a match through Family Tree
DNA with someone who had ancestors called Shearing (though there was no
indication that they came from England, let alone where in England it might
have been). It was a longshot, but after all these years there were no easy
options - so I emailed my DNA cousin asking whether her Shearing ancestors had
come from Kent. She replied overnight - she was in Canada - and you could have
knocked me down with a feather when I discovered that she was descended from
James & Catherine, making us 4th cousins once removed!
And that's the whole point about DNA -
by itself it tells you very little, but used in conjunction with conventional
research it can tell you an awful lot.
Many of you will have noticed an article on the BBC News
site (and many others) which criticises Ancestry's alleged exploitation of
users who take their DNA test.
Family historians who test their DNA
with Ancestry do so for two key reasons - one is to find cousins and knock down
'brick walls', the other is to find out their ethnicity, ie
where their ancestors might have come from. For either of these to work
Ancestry need to be able to compare the DNA of different users, and the more
results there are in their database the better the outcomes are going to be for
users.
The way Ancestry use DNA is very similar
to the way that LostCousins works - nobody gets to see anybody else's
information. Once cousins have made contact they can choose what information to
share - surely this is exactly how it should be?
In my view the critics have picked the
wrong target. Consider the way that family trees work at Ancestry - when you
post a public tree it can be viewed and copied by any one of Ancestry's
subscribers, whether they are related to you or not. Once you have published
your tree online it effectively becomes public property in perpetuity - you
have given up all rights for all time, not just to Ancestry, and not just to
their subscribers, but to anyone they choose to pass it on to.
I'd much rather allow Ancestry to use my
DNA results "for the purposes of providing Ancestry’s products and
services, conducting Ancestry’s research and product development, enhancing
Ancestry’s user experience, and making and offering personalised products and
services" than have my family tree misused by all and sundry. How about
you?
Note:
Ancestry aren't by any means the only site to encourage users to post public
trees - and they do at least offer the option of a private tree, which some
don't.
Win a Queen's
autograph in our Summer Competition OVER 50 PRIZES
Today is the 150th anniversary of the
birth of Queen Mary, great-grand-daughter of George III, grandmother of Queen Elizabeth II, wife of
George V, and mother of King Edward VIII and King George VI.
In the last newsletter I published a
picture of the autograph that I'm giving away as the 1st Prize in my Summer
Competition - you can see it here.
Now all that remains is for me to tell you about the other prizes, and what you
need to do in order to WIN!
To enter simply do what comes naturally
- or should do for a LostCousins member - enter relatives on your My Ancestors page. Every direct ancestor
or blood relative you enter will represent an entry in the competition, but
those from the 1881 Census will count double (because it's far more likely to
match with an entry made by one of your cousins).
Relatives entered since 17th May will
count for this competition, and because those made between 17th May and 31st
May will also count as entries for our Birthday Competition there's a good
reason to start right away, rather than leaving it to the last moment.
Because it's summer in the northern
hemisphere a lot of members will be travelling, so I've set the closing date for the competition as Thursday 31st
August - at which point I'll start selecting entries at random until all the
prizes have been awarded. And here are the prizes:
FIRST
PRIZE: autograph of Queen Mary and a 5 year LostCousins subscription
20
runners-up will each get a 12 month LostCousins subscription - which can be a
joint subscription covering two accounts (eg husband
& wife)
There
will also be 10 subscriptions given away each month (June, July, August) based
on the entries made in that month - these will be drawn at the end of each
month and the winners notified as soon as practicable thereafter
Everyone who takes part will have
multiple chances to win even if they only enter a single relative - best of
luck to all of you!
There's never enough hours in the day -
I'm sure you know the feeling - which makes it very easy to put things on the
back burner, even important things like connecting with your 'lost cousins'.
But it really doesn't take long - here's how you can find your first 'lost
cousin' in 30 minutes or less:
- Focus on
the England & Wales 1881 census - 90% of all cousins are found through
this one census, and just 10% through the other censuses we support
- Findmypast
can provide a printout of a household that is neatly laid out with all the
information you need, which makes it really, really easy to enter (you
don't need a Findmypast subscription, by the way)
- Spread the
net widely - entering relatives from only one part of your tree is like
putting all your eggs in one basket
- Use the tab
key to move from one field to the next rather than picking up the mouse
every time
- Remember
that the second part of the form is optional - you can fill in all the
information if you want but it won't increase your chances of finding
cousins
- Click the +
symbol to add someone to the same household - most of the information will
be filled in automatically
- Or, save
even more time by entering only the head of each household - it's not
ideal but if you are really, really short of time it's far better to enter
1 person from each of 5 households than 10 people from 1 household
If you didn't get your first match
inside 30 minutes despite following those tips, get in touch and I'll make sure
you're not doing anything incorrectly.
How to avoid ordering the
wrong certificate
Who
Do You Think You Are? magazine
recently published a question from a reader which read:
"Can you give me any tips for
obtaining the correct birth/death/marriage certificates from the General
Register Office. I have several certificates for the wrong people, particularly
death certificates where the age, name and even the location seem right."
There were a number of suggestions made
by the magazine's expert, but he omitted to mention the most important thing of
all - that when you order a certificate from the GRO you don't have to provide
the index references.
Why is this important? Well, if you
provide the index references you'll get the certificate you order, whether it's
right or whether it's wrong. But if you don’t provide them the GRO will search
a three-year period using the information that you do provide - which must
include the full name, year, and registration district.
Of course, if that's all the information
you provide you could end up with the wrong certificate. But if you provide
additional information they will check it against the entry, and only provide a
certificate that matches.
For example, when I wanted to obtain the
death certificate for my great-great-great-great grandmother Elizabeth Stevens
it was a common name. But the one thing I did know for certain was that she was
the widow of John Stevens - so I specified that as her occupation (because
that's where it would appear in the register entry):
The GRO used to charge extra for these
sorts of searches, and could well do so again now that the legislation has
changed. But right now they don't, so it's a great opportunity to fill in some
of the gaps in your collection - and in your knowledge of your ancestors'
lives.
Note:
this technique can be used for births and marriages as well as deaths - but
it's most useful in the case of deaths.
For further guidance on ordering BMD
certificates from England or Wales please see these official Guidance
Notes.
Fancy working for the
Society of Genealogists?
There are three vacancies at the SoG which are currently being advertised. There's no
indication of salary, but since the jobs are in London I would expect them to
be well-remunerated.
I know there are many LostCousins
members who would be capable of fulfilling the different roles - all the
details can be found here.
The closing date is 5th June, so you don't have long to dust off your CV and
polish it up!
In 2011 I asked whether members knew of
anyone other than the Queen who celebrates two birthdays - and after nearly 6
years I finally got a response, from David who sent me this article
from the Sheffield Star.
May Lashmar
was 106 years old on 11th May - but she
won't receive a card from the Queen until 1st August, which is the date shown
on her birth certificate. Born May Frost, just a few weeks after the 1911
Census she is recorded on the 1939 Register with her correct date of birth:
©
Crown Copyright Image reproduced by courtesy of The National Archives, London,
England and Findmypast
For 30 years Rita Monteiro worked as a
maid to Francisco Marcolino, who lives in northern
Portugal, but at the beginning of May their relationship changed - they became
husband and wife. It's not really an unusual story - the late 19th century
British censuses are littered with single or widowed men living with a
housekeeper whose role clearly went beyond the minimum required for the job.
But this case stands out because
Francisco is 101 years old - and is a wealthy man, with an estate thought to
be worth 2 million Euros, an enormous
amount of money in a poor country like Portugal. Perhaps predictably his
children are challenging the marriage - you can read more about this story on the BBC
News site.
Although there's often little variation
from one census to the next, over the years the questions asked in UK censuses
have changed quite considerably. 1951 was the first year when householders were
asked whether they had a piped water supply, but it wasn't until 1961 that they
were asked if they had hot water on tap (many still didn't).
Many of the forms are available online
but this week I discovered a fantastic spreadsheet on the Office for National
Statistics website which makes it really easy to see how things have changed -
you'll find it here.
Historic copies of
the Radio Times
Hidden at the BBC website is a wonderful
resource - copies of the Radio Times
from 1923-2009 which have been partially transcribed and indexed so that you
can search for programmes that you remember from your youth.
This week I discovered a name that had
eluded me for years - do you remember Shirley Abicair, an Australian folk singer who appeared on
children's television in the 1950s? I remember her playing a zither and singing
- I think I fell in love with her at the age of 6 or 7.
How about Stranger on the Shore, which first aired in the autumn of 1961, and
is best remembered for the haunting theme tune composed and played by Acker
Bilk? Or The
Moving Toyshop, an adaptation of Edmund Crispin's novel which was shown
in March 1964, though goodness knows how I managed to persuade my parents to
let me stay up so late on a Monday evening (it must have been school holidays).
You can access all these memories and
many more right here.
Note:
this unofficial site has browseable copies of the TV Times from the 1950s through to
the 1980s
Email addresses close on
Wednesday IMPORTANT
Is there anyone in your address book
with an email address ending with any of the following?
Orange.net
Orangehome.co.uk
Wanadoo.co.uk
Freeserve.co.uk
Fsbusiness.co.uk
Fslife.co.uk
Fsmail.net
Fsworld.co.uk
Fsnet.co.uk
Not only are ALL of these addresses going
to stop working on 31st May, it's likely that all the email correspondence held
on the servers will be lost.
Please warn anyone you know with one of
these addresses - don't assume that they've been notified because I know for a
fact that many LostCousins users were completely unaware of what was going to
happen until I emailed them.
It's hard to believe that this is really
happening - indeed I had to check with the EE Press Office to make absolutely
sure. Here's the official statement from an EE spokesperson (grammar and
punctuation uncorrected):
"At the
end of May 2017, we will be closing the free email service that was offered
with select Orange home broadband, dial-up and mobile plans prior to October
2012. Since it was first introduced, a wide variety of providers now offer
better free email services with more advanced functionality. The number of
Orange Email users has also been in decline since 2012, and the vast majority
are no longer Orange broadband or mobile customers. Therefore, we have decided
to close the service on 31st May 2017. This means customers can move to a
better email experience and we can focus on providing our customers with the
best possible products and services."
There are going to be some very unhappy
people on Thursday morning - please don't allow your own friends and relatives
to suffer.
Before we had 'fake news' we had myths -
and somewhere in between we had 'old wives' tales'. I bet that there are all
sorts of things you learned in your childhood that have no known scientific
basis, such as eating carrots to improve eyesight, or spinach to supplement the
body's reserves of iron.
So I was fascinated by this article
in New Scientist which puts to the
test more than a dozen commonly-held beliefs about food and cooking - I think
you will be too! (When I wrote about this article I thought it was free for anyone to read,
I've subsequently discovered that this isn't the case - however,don't give up, check
whether your local library offers Zinio - mine does, and one of the magazines I can
read free online is New Scientist.)
In about 6 weeks it will be 20 years to
the day since my wife and I moved into our house, and so I decided it was about
time I sorted out our Wi-FI. In truth this wasn't
something we thought about when we were house hunting in 1996 - I'm not sure
that the word Wi-Fi was even in my vocabulary, and it certainly wasn't in the
dictionary.
Up to now we've managed with sticking
plaster solutions. First we had cables running around the house, some of them
cunningly hidden, some of them glaringly out of place. Next we tried powerline
adaptors, which worked well up to a point; then we tried a Wi-Fi extender;
finally we ended up with a combination of the two, but there were still dead
spots.
Eventually someone came up with a system
that would work, even in a house like ours - and amazingly that company was BT.
Their Whole Home Wi-Fi system comprises
three identical disk shaped devices - you plug one of them into your existing
router, and position the others around the house in the locations where they
can do the most good. The neat thing is that all the disks use the same name
and password, so you're not conscious of switching from one to another as you move
around the house - it just happens.
The free Android/iPhone app isn't great,
but I eventually twigged that this didn't really matter, because I could log-on
from my computer, just as I would my existing router. When the system launched
last year it was priced at around £300, but you can now get it for less than
£200 at Amazon - and do you know what's
best of all? It doesn't matter who provides your broadband.
Talking of broadband, I received an
email yesterday from Sky in which they said they had extended my existing
broadband contract for another 12 months. At first I was astounded by their
cheek - then I remembered how much I was paying each month for my broadband….
absolutely nothing! Admittedly I'll be paying full price for my phoneline,
whereas it was half-price in the first year - but overall it's still a pretty
good deal, don't you think?
Staying with phones, I had an email this
morning from GiffGaff to let me know that from 14th
June their 'Goody Bags' will work throughout the EU. It's not that they're
being generous - an EU Directive is forcing all mobile phone companies to stop
charging penal rates to users who roam. But there are plenty of other good
reasons to switch to GiffGaff (such as free calls
between GiffGaff users) - follow this link to
order a free SIM card and get a £5 bonus the first time you top-up.
Update 31st May: I've arranged an exclusive discount with British Newspaper Archive, who have by far the largest online collection of British newspapers in the world. To take advantage of this offer, click here or on the banner and enter the discount code LCBNA20
I hope you've found this
edition both useful and interesting.
Peter Calver
Founder, LostCousins
© Copyright 2017 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