Newsletter – 20th
November 2024
LostCousins offer extended NOW ENDS MONDAY
Save around £60 or $100 at Findmypast NOW ENDS SUNDAY
Support LostCousins and get a bonus!
The best way to overcome a ‘brick wall’
The LostCousins
newsletter is usually published 2 or 3 times a month. To access the previous issue
(dated 14th November) 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
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whenever there's a new edition of this newsletter available!
LostCousins offer extended NOW ENDS
MONDAY
Over
the past week lots of members have made connections with distant cousins who
are researching their ancestors,
and it’s been great hearing some of your stories. However
there are still far too many people reading this who don’t realise that
LostCousins isn’t a newsletter, it’s a project to connect experienced family
historians around the world who not only have a shared interest in genealogy,
but also shared ancestors. By collaborating with your ‘lost cousins’ you can go
further back on more ancestral lines than you could ever do on your own, even
if you worked on your family tree 24/7 for a lifetime.
Sometimes
connections are made between cousins who already know each other. That tells
you that the system works, and works well – but it’s
also hinting that you need to widen your search. By all means
start by entering any of your direct ancestors who were recorded in the
1881 Census, but don’t stop there: because it’s your ancestors’ cousins from
1881 who are most likely to lead you to your own ‘lost cousins’ in 2024.
To
encourage you to widen your search I’ve extended totally free access until
midnight on Monday 25th November. Nobody is ever obliged to buy a
LostCousins subscription (though thank goodness some of you do), but it’s good
to know that when you find your new cousins you’ll be able to initiate contact
with them immediately, rather than having to wait for the next free access
offer.
Tip:
why do I talk about ‘initiating contact’ rather than making contact? Because at
LostCousins you can’t send a message to another member until they’ve agreed to correspond: this may sound like a restriction, but what it
actually does is ensure that you don’t spend ages writing a long message to a
cousin who has passed away, or whose email address hasn’t been updated. None of
us are getting any younger, so if you can find an hour to enter some more of
your relatives from 1881, rather than finding another excuse for putting it
off, we’ll all benefit.
Save around £60 or $100 at Findmypast NOW ENDS SUNDAY
15
years ago you could have paid £159.99 for a
subscription that included all of Findmypast’s records including the latest
census (it was 1911 in those days). But the Findmypast of 15 years ago was a
mere shadow of what it is now – there were NO parish registers, NO poor law
records, NO historic electoral registers, NO school records, NO newspapers, NO
army service records, and virtually NO records from outside the UK. How on
earth did we manage?
Back
in 2009 a 1st Class stamp would have cost just 39p – now it would set you back £1.65
– so by that yardstick £139.99 for a Findmypast subscription which includes
absolutely EVERYTHING on their site seems like quite a bargain. The only
problem is, from midnight (London time) on Thursday the price goes back up to
£199.99 – which is still a pretty good deal, all things considered, but it’s
£60 more than you’d pay today. In Australia the price will be $111 higher when
the offer ends, and at the US site it’ll be $90 more. Time to raid the piggy bank, perhaps….
Since
the offer began last Thursday every LostCousins member who has taken the time
to follow my instructions carefully has qualified for a free 12
month LostCousins subscription. The free subscription is an incentive to
get it right, but I know from experience that most members want to get it right
in order to support the LostCousins project, rather
than out of self-interest.
So
thank you for reading the next article carefully before taking up the
Findmypast offer…..
Support LostCousins and get a bonus!
Although
the Findmypast offer is exclusive to readers of this newsletter, you’ll only be
supporting LostCousins if you use the appropriate link at the end of this
article – but please don’t stop reading as the next bit is really
important!
Please
do what you can to ensure that your purchase is going to be tracked as coming
from LostCousins – if you have installed any browser extensions with names that
include the words 'ad' and/or 'block' this is a danger sign! Beware: if you
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have installed something you don’t know about.
Don’t
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sense to have a choice (especially since many problems can be solved by using a
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I
also recommend you use a computer rather than a smartphone or tablet, but
whatever device and browser you choose, please stick to it, as clicking my link
on one device and then making your purchase on another definitely
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In
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and security, then either Cookies and other site data or Third party cookies
depending on the version of Chrome – the default setting
is OFF, as shown BELOW, and this is exactly what you want:
The
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In
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Once
you are satisfied that your purchase is going to be tracked, click the link and
make your purchase, noting the EXACT time of the transaction (to the minute!).
Provided
that we receive commission on your purchase of a new 12 month
Findmypast Everything subscription under the offer above you’ll receive a free 12 month
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it will be extended). To claim your bonus forward the
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IF
IN DOUBT PLEASE CHECK WITH ME BEFORE MAKING YOUR PURCHASE - AFTERWARDS
WILL BE TOO LATE!
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The best way to overcome a ‘brick wall’
Have
you got a ‘brick wall’ in your tree? I should jolly well hope so – the only
family historians who don’t have ‘any ‘brick walls’ are beginners, and you
won’t find beginners at LostCousins.
In
fact, the more experienced you are, the more ‘brick walls’ you’ll have in your
tree, because each time you knock down a ‘brick wall’ there are at least two
more behind it. I should know – I have well over 100 ‘brick walls’ in my tree,
and the most experienced readers will have even more in their own trees.
A
‘brick wall’ is an obstruction that prevents us going back a generation on a
particular ancestral line. Some ‘brick walls’ are solved when new records
become available online, making it feasible to carry out wider searches than
would otherwise be practical. Some are solved thanks to DNA matches, which
usually don’t provide the answer on a plate, but point us in the right
direction.
We
have little or no say in which records get scanned and indexed, and there’s not
much we can do about our DNA matches – other than making the most of them by
following the simple steps in the DNA
Masterclass. But there is one verdant opportunity that’s often forgotten –
the chance to collaborate with cousins who share the same ‘brick wall’ (and the
further back the ‘brick wall’, the more cousins there will be). Everyone will
have something different to offer, whether it’s a family story, a coincidence
that might just be a clue, a fortuitously discovered document that has lain
unread and unindexed in the archives, or a theory that nobody else has
considered.
Even
if our cousins didn’t have anything more to offer, simply by connecting with
them we’re making more efficient use of our time. Instead of each cousin
researching independently and duplicating what others have already done, we can
co-ordinate our research, giving us more time to spend on our other ‘brick
walls’.
So
don’t miss out on the opportunity to make connections with experienced family
historians who share your ‘brick walls’. And if you think that connecting with
someone through the 1881 Census can’t help you knock down a ‘brick wall’ in the
1600s –think again. 1881 is simply a convenient meeting point.
Tip:
I recently received an email from a member who told me he had given up family
history because he had gone as far as he could go. I’m sure he was right about
that – but what he hadn’t considered was how much further he would be able to
go once he connected with some of the experienced researchers who shared his
ancestors – and his ‘brick walls’. Giving up is easy, but succeeding is so much
more satisfying! If your ancestors and their stories really matter to you, you
won’t give up on them so easily.
My
wife recently discovered that her 1st cousin once removed was a plain-clothes
detective with London’s Metropolitan Police in the 1950s. She was born after
her parents moved to the suburbs, so never met Gershom, but her older brother
remembers him in fedora and mackintosh, rather like Michael Gambon’s character
in The Singing Detective (one of
the best drama series either us has ever seen).
Judging
from the contemporary newspaper reports in the British Newspaper Archive (at
Findmypast) he seems to have spent much of his time gathering evidence against
brothel-keepers, but I suspect that’s because those sorts of cases were easy to
report and popular with readers of certain newspapers.
During
the course of Siân’s research she came across this interesting discussion
about Scotland Yard in the 1940s and 1950s. I was particularly interested in
the comment about the pencilled date on John Christie’s WW1 medal card (see the
post dated 29th March 2019); isn’t it wonderful how you can find
clues in the most unexpected places?
Since
LostCousins has now been around for over 20 years there are quite a few
nonagenarians amongst the membership. If you’re one of them, and are still
actively researching your family tree, I’d like to interview you about what got
you interested in the first place, the most intriguing discoveries you’ve made,
and what keeps you going. Don’t worry, I’m not going to come round your house
(or care home) – the interview will take place over Zoom, and
will be recorded with a view to sharing an edited version (approved by you)
with LostCousins members.
Tip:
don’t worry if you’ve never used Zoom before – it’s really
easy, and you don’t need any special equipment.
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.
I understand that prices are going up shortly, so don't delay!
Given
recent developments I’m glad I fixed the cost of my energy until the end of
next year. But it’s not too late to do the same and get yourself a £50 bonus –
see this tip
from a fortnight ago. And if you do take up the offer using my link,
please let me know. Thanks!
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
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?
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