Newsletter - 5th May 2019
Did you win our 15th Birthday Competition?
15 years of finding cousins safely
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery
An Unanticipated
Outcome of a DNA Ancestry Test
Sisters reunited after 89 years
Handing over to the next generation
Get a free 'Esme Quentin' short story FREE
Builders discover mediæval bones
Will
testing Fido land you in jail?
The LostCousins newsletter is usually published
2 or 3 times a month. To access the previous issue (dated 25th April)
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!
Did you win
our 15th Birthday Competition?
Somebody did - but they're
not responding to my emails, presumably because they've gone into their spam (or
junk) folder.
It's good practice to check
your spam folder from time to time - when I checked mine just now I found an email from a LostCousins member with a link
to an interesting article about the discovery of mediæval
remains in a garage (see below).
Spam filters inevitably get
things wrong from time to time: but whilst letting junk mail through to your
inbox is no more than a temporary inconvenience, when a genuine email ends up in
your spam folder it could be lost for ever. Even worse, if you leave it there future emails from the same sender could also end up
getting the same treatment.
So why not check your spam
folder now - who knows, you might find an email from me?
Tip: you may have two spam folders, one online, and one
in the email program on your computer.
15 years of finding cousins safely
Wednesday 1st May was the
15th anniversary of the day the LostCousins website opened to the public (though
there were many months of design, development, and scrupulous testing that
preceded the opening).
At a time when there's
concern about privacy, especially in relation to DNA, it's salutary to remind
ourselves what made LostCousins so different in 2004 - and, indeed, what makes
it so different in 2019.
When you enter data on your My Ancestors page nobody
but you and I can see it - even after you've connected with a 'lost cousin'
they still won’t be able to see your entries.
All they'll know is which of their
entries also appear on your page. No other
site offers accurate automated matching with such a high degree of privacy -
this was true in 2004 and it’s still true in 2019.
Imitation is
the sincerest form of flattery
Having read the previous article you might be somewhat sceptical - after all, if the
LostCousins system is so good, why haven't other sites copied it?
Actually, many have: every single one of the major DNA websites has
adopted a similar system. When you get an autosomal DNA match with a genetic cousin
you don’t get access to their DNA results - all you know is that a segment of
your DNA matches a segment of theirs.
This is a key point that
detractors miss (or choose to ignore). For example, a letter from a reader in
the latest (June) issue of Who Do You
Think You Are? magazine asks "I wonder how
many people consider the possible consequences of making their DNA publicly available
online?".
What would your answer be? I
suspect most people would respond instinctively, but irrespective of your answer
you would be wrong!
It's a modern equivalent of
the legendary "When did you stop beating your spouse?" question - in
that case, almost any answer you give will implicitly accept the (hopefully) false
assertion that you have beaten your spouse. Similarly, whether you say you have
or haven't considered the consequences of making your DNA publicly available
you're implicitly accepting the premise of the question - that some people are
doing this.
The reality is that virtually
nobody makes their DNA publicly available - either online or offline! Yes, we
may entrust our DNA results to various websites, but they don’t make the
information publicly available - they only report matching segments.
Tip: we're all researchers - and we don’t have to
confine our research skills to our family tree. We can also use them to check
out statements and assertions that we read in the press (or hear down the pub).
An Unanticipated Outcome of a DNA Ancestry Test
It's not often that I link
to articles in the American Journal of Psychiatry,
but this story of a doctor who was a sperm donor when in medical school is very
topical.
Sisters
reunited after 89 years
It's never too late! The story
of how LostCousins member Martin was able to reunite two sisters on the other side
of the world using a combination of conventional research and DNA analysis is really heart-warming:
"Working
on family history when you have one side of your family in Ireland can be a
frustrating business. But online access to records is getting better, so I’m no
longer poring over microfiche in the national library on my annual visits to
Dublin. But, many of the documents that we take for granted on the British side
of the Irish Sea, censuses in particular, are just not
there. And, my family, being labourers
left very little mark on the documentation of the time.
"But,
by the time my DNA test results came through in January 2017, I had been able
to sketch together a potential tree of relatives in one area of Dublin. Chapelizod, next door to Phoenix Park and straddling the Liffey is home to the pub where Joyce’s Finnegans Wake is set. I had also been able to make
contact with Chris, a descendant of my great Uncle James.
"My
top match on the DNA results was Dave from Australia. As far as I knew, none of
my family had gone in that direction and this was potentially a 3rd cousin. I
made contact and got a reply almost immediately. Dave had very few details
about his family and that was why he tried the DNA. His mother, Monica, had
been brought up in an orphanage and all he had was her birthdate, maiden name
and the names of her mother and grandmother. I wasn’t hopeful that I could make
much difference, but it was enough to get started.
"It
soon became clear that the most promising line of enquiry was my great-uncle
James, so it was lucky, that I already knew Chris. Although he is an intermittent
family history enthusiast my email contained enough intriguing messages for him
to dig out his research notes. And also, luckily, the news
that the family had moved en masse to the
London area in the 1930s. I used the usual sources to build up a list of
descendants and then ended up with someone with an uncommon surname with no
death record. I reported back to Dave
with the exciting news that I had found a living cousin on Facebook and that I
was contacting her.
"Maureen
came back to me, also surprisingly quickly. Yes, she was descended from Kate
Hall. I introduced myself as a cousin and shared that part of the family where
we were related. She had some interest in the family history and had visited Chapelizod to see where we came from. But it was clear she
didn’t know anything beyond her grandparents.
"At
this point I checked, double-checked and checked again. I ran the details past
other people, as well as Dave in Australia.
"I
had realised that I was the one with the secret. Maureen didn’t know it, but
she had an illegitimate half-sister who was now living in Australia. I told
Dave about the relationship. He was excited and wanted to make contact, but the
only way that he could do that was through me.
"This
was my dilemma. Maureen didn’t know that she had a half-sister, she didn’t know
that her mother had had a child out of wedlock (in 1920s Ireland) and that the
child had been adopted. Should I tell her? Was it fair to bring up something
from far back in the past that might shape how she felt about her parents or
should I just let things lie? I was sure of my results, but I wasn’t sure
whether I should do anything about it.
"In
the end, after a lot of agonising, I sent a long email to Maureen outlining her
tree and telling her about Monica. I also gave her my phone number. We had
several long chats about it. She was shocked, obviously - but pleased to know. I
was relieved and put her in touch with Dave. In a sense, my job was done.
"In
a coincidence worthy of a badly-written novel, one of Maureen’s sons lives in
Melbourne and she had just got back from visiting him. It wasn’t long before
they were on the plane again - and this magazine article
was one of the results....."
LostCousins is about cousins
helping each other - and what Martin achieved is an example to all of us. Even small
things, like completing your My Ancestors
page, can change someone's life for the better - what will you do?
Another letter in the latest Who Do You Think You Are? referred to
'Old Lady Day' and 'New Lady Day'. Unfortunately, in his explanation the author
of the letter seems to have relied on a Wikipedia article which gets them round
the wrong way. Whoops! (If, like me, you're a Wikipedia contributor please
don't edit it just yet, otherwise it wil be confusing for other readers.)
Even today, many a property
lease specifies that rent should be paid on the usual quarter days, ie Lady Day (25th March), Midsummer Day (24th June), and
Michaelmas Day (29th September) and Christmas Day (25th December) - and, perhaps
surprisingly, after the calendar changed in 1752 the same dates continued to be
used.
However the start of the tax year changed from 25th March to
5th April and subsequently, in 1800, to 6th April - a date that was referred to
as 'Old Lady Day'. The following examples from historic newspapers are
instructive:
Images © The British Library Board,
All Rights Reserved; used by kind permission of Findmypast
The first, somewhat blurry,
example from 1867 refers to Old Lady Day as Saturday 6th April, whereas the
second cutting, from 1908, clearly refers to Tuesday 7th April. How can the two
be reconciled?
You may recall that the
starting date for the tax year initially changed from 25th March to 5th April,
but in 1800 it was further adjusted to 6th April - because 1800 was not a Leap
Year under the new calendar, but would have been under
the old calendar.
The same was true of 1900 -
hence the change in the date of Old Lady Day from 6th April to 7th April. However,
on this occasion the Inland Revenue decided not to adjust the start date of the
tax year - and in 2000 there was no need to even consider the issue, as it was
a Leap Year according to both calendars.
This 1894 article from The Star provides some interesting
background information:
Image © The British Library Board,
All Rights Reserved; used by kind permission of Findmypast
In researching this article I came across a number of newspaper adverts and
reports of court cases which referred to Old Lady Day or New Lady Day, but
without making it clear which calendar date they represented. However, one also
mentioned New Michaelmas Day.
Many Orthodox Christians
celebrate Christmas on 7th January, which is 25th December in the old calendar
- and I found a modern reference to this date as 'Old Christmas Day'.
Note: a lot of the most interesting letters in family
history magazines are sent in by LostCousins members - but neither of the letters
I've referred to come from people whose names I recognise. I'd like to think
that if only they had been readers of this newsletter then they wouldn't have
made the mistakes that they did!
Like Lady Day and Christmas
Day, Mother's Day is celebrated on different dates around the world - though
for different reasons. In Britain Mother's Day was celebrated on 31st March
this year, but in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the USA, and many other countries
Mother's Day is on the 2nd Sunday in May, ie 12th May
this year. (This page
on a florist's website offers a handy guide to the dates in different countries
around the world.)
Several companies which
provide DNA tests have offers timed to coincide with the run-up to Mother's
Day, and these are some of the ones that I'm aware of (all prices exclude
shipping; end dates are shown where known):
Ancestry.com
(US only) - $59 plus tax until 11.59om EST on Monday 13th May
Ancestry.ca
(Canada only) - C$99 until 11.59pm EST on Sunday 12th May
Ancestry.com.au
(Aus & NZ only) - A$99 until 11.59pm AEST on Sunday
12th May
MyHeritage
(UK only) - £69 (free shipping on 2 or more kits)
MyHeritage
(US only) - $69 (free shipping on 2 or more kits)
My
Heritage (Aus & NZ only) - A$99 (free
shipping on 2 or more kits)
Clicking the relevant link will
enable you to support LostCousins when you make your purchase - it's the income
from links like these that keeps LostCousins mostly free and totally independent!
I recommend the Ancestry DNA
test because they have the largest database of results by far, which means that
- if your ancestors spoke English - you'll get more matches with cousins than
at any other site. Of course, whichever site you test with you'll get more
matches than you can handle, but with more matches to choose from you're likely
to find - as I have - that Ancestry provide more useful matches than any other
site.
Tip: if you test with Ancestry you can transfer your
data to most other sites to get additional matches - so you get the best of
both worlds. However, Ancestry don’t accept transfers from other providers, so
the only way to match your DNA against the biggest genealogical database
in the world is to take the Ancestry test.
Although the 1939 National
Register is similar to a census in many ways, it doesn’t
show how members of a household were related to each other. As a result, when you
see two people with the same surname who are both described as married, you can’t be absolutely certain
that they were married to each other.
Of course, it's not as problematic
as in the 1841 Census, when we've neither marital status nor relationships to guide
us - but nevertheless, it's something we need to be aware of when we're interpreting
the records.
Handing
over to the next generation
When our days of actively
researching are finally over, and it's time to hand over to the younger
generations, what preparations can we make to ensure that our legacy is
treasured? LostCousins member Suzanne explained to me what she has done and, with her permission, I'd like to share it with
you:
"It
has been a wonderful journey but I am closing down now
to focus on just the nearest and dearest.
"Family
goods and trinkets have all been marked and handed out amongst extended family,
impressing upon them the significance of all. Anything still family-linked such
as pictures, ornaments, postcard scrapbooks, embroidered wedding hankies, furniture
etc now have little stickers with family claimant(s) names attached to them
that will remain here for my present pleasure until downsize & then the
family, knowing that which is sacrosanct, will settle any 'double-ups' if any
occur. No disputes allowed. You should have seen the grandchildren peering into
cupboards, standing on steps to reach high places & placing their name stickers
on items - they do actually care!
"This
passion (or obsession) may be the burden of being an only child and not knowing
many relatives in my early life.
"Years
later I started searching in 1985/6 here in Adelaide, South Australia. Now
those first arranged yearly family gatherings, from way back 'then' grew larger
and larger in size, mostly of folk never met or known before, thus adding so much knowledge which
extended in all directions and included the spouses' families and kin, backwards,
sideways & ever onwards to 2019. Adventures
around Australia and across the seas with much optimistic hope scraping moss off
worn gravestones, knocking on doors, meeting suspicious relatives who, once
proof of kin was shown, threw
open the welcome door and it was all warm greetings and
hospitality (plus archival photos, certificates, and letters shared). What a journey of enlightenment it has been!
"I
have written in soft pencil on the backs of every photo that has passed my way,
I have recorded on USB sticks photos and stories for backups which I have distributed
amongst the willing and unwilling, and I have lodged any 'finalised' printed
work amongst families and also in relevant research repositories locally and
across the seas. Small portions, but very satisfying.
"I
shall still nibble away at any unfinished business, especially a birth or
parent name that hasn't been forthcoming after years of looking. I shall still get disgruntled when I am told
or see a load of 'nonsense' claimed as fact regarding 'my' families. I shall
remain angry when 'puffed up authorities' in government positions will not seek
to amend incorrect data without my having to purchase yet another expensive certificate
when they can readily access the fact and make the correction.
"I
will keep calm, I will feel proud, I will know I have achieved much, I will be
pleased that I have expanded my knowledge of my forebears in every direction and
that I have shared it with others just as their own input also has enriched
those stories and they have become dear friends within my lifetime.........
"Now,
have I the energy to go through all those drawers and packets to get rid of the
repeats, the misinformation, the scribbles, the indecipherable?"
Of course, we must also plan
for the unexpected - such as being run over by the proverbial bus. Why not
leave a sealed letter with your will, explaining what you would like to happen
to your research, and including log-in details for key online accounts? Getting
access to online records could be a nightmare for your heirs and executors if
you don’t make some sort of provision.
And remember to tell me the
email address of your genealogical beneficiary - no need to write to me,
there's a space for it on your My Details
page at the LostCousins site. Fewer than 10% of the readers of this newsletter
have taken this important step - why delay any longer?
My old Fujitsu laptop came
with Windows 7, and although I was able to upgrade it to Windows 8, I could
never manage to upgrade to Windows 8.1 - which meant that when Microsoft
offered free upgrades to Windows 10 for users of Windows 8, I couldn't take
advantage of the offer.
For the past 4 years it has
been gathering dust - Windows 8 was so clunky by comparison with Windows 10 (or
even Windows 7). I last used it to run the presentations at Genealogy in the Sunshine.
Then I heard on the
LostCousins Forum that it was still possible to upgrade to Windows 10 - and,
having a spare hour this week, I thought I'd have another go, not expecting to
succeed. But I did (although it took much more an hour to download all the
updates and install them)! Now I've got to decide how best to make use of my 'new'
computer.
If you follow this link
you'll find the instructions that guided me - it was really easy (but make sure
you have a backup of your data, just in case).
Get a
free 'Esme Quentin' short story FREE
In January I reviewed
Blood-Tied, the first novel in Wendy
Percival's series featuring freelance historical researcher Esme Quentin. Now
there's great news for all lovers of genealogical mysteries - Wendy Percival
has written a short story as a prequel to the Esme Quentin series, and you can download
it free when you follow this link
to her website.
I haven’t had a chance to
read it yet, but it’s sitting on my smartphone waiting for a few spare moments
(along with several other books from my favourite authors!).
Remember, you don’t need a
Kindle to read Kindle books - I generally read them on my phone so that I can read
them in spare moments, but there's a free Kindle app for almost any Android,
iOS, or Windows device.
Note: if you enjoy the free short story so much that
you want to buy one of the books in the series, please use the relevant link
below so that LostCousins can benefit - it won’t cost you a penny more.
Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com Amazon.ca The Book Depository
Also sitting on my Kindle is
a pre-release copy of The Sinclair
Betrayal, the next book in MJ Lee's series of genealogical mysteries
featuring the intrepid Jayne Sinclair. It's not out until 18th May, but if you're
following the series and want to be one of the first to read this new
instalment you can re-order it (and support LostCousins at the same time) by
following the link below:
Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com Amazon.ca
Builders discover
mediæval bones
Some of my ancestors came
from Whitstable in Kent, so when Gill pointed out this story
about the discovery of mediæval human remains when a garage was being demolished I was
naturally interested.
Unfortunately there seems to be no way of knowing where the bones
came from though, if funding is available, DNA testing might possibly reveal
who they belonged to, or at least provide some hints.
Will testing
Fido land you in jail?
Last year's big DNA story was
the nailing of the Golden State Killer, which resulted in a lot of head-shaking
and hand-wringing in certain quarters (though most people were just glad to see
justice being done).
How would you feel if the
same thing happened to your dog? I read this week that DNA testing is now being
used to catch owners who, how shall I put it, don't use a doggie bag when out
walking their pooch - find out more in this BBC article.
My question is: would you buy
a DNA test for your dog knowing that one day it might lead to a fine for fouling
the footpath? I'd like to think that readers of this newsletter are good
citizens - if so follow this link
and use the code WISDOM5OFF to get
£5 off your dog's test.
It never amazes me how much some
people are prepared to pay for a cup of coffee these days - my wife and I can both
drink freshly-brewed coffee every day for a week for less
than the price of one cup at a coffee bar. We prefer decaffeinated coffee,
which can be expensive to buy - but Aldi recently cut the price of a 227g pack
to just £1.09, which is a real bargain. It tastes good, too!
At the end of the last newsletter I mentioned that I
was about to install my new central heating thermostat. It end
up taking longer than expected, though only because my old thermostat was so
old (about 40 years) that I couldn't find any information about it online. Fortunately Netatmo support were
able to look at a picture of the wires and tell me what to do - and once I got
going it only took about 15 minutes.
It's really
useful to be able to monitor and adjust the central heating remotely -
and whilst Netatmo are far from the only manufacturers
of smart thermostats, their device is the only user-installable thermostat that
is rated a Best Buy in Which? magazine. You can buy them here, but I got mine second-hand on eBay
at half the cost of a new device.
Note: you won’t find my thermostat set to 21C, like
the one in the picture!
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......
That's all for the
first newsletter of our 16th year. I hope you've found my advice useful over
the past 15 years - I shall do my best to maintain the quality and quantity for
the next 15!
But there's one
thing you can do that would help me, help yourself, and (above all) help your
own cousins - please ensure that you've entered on your My Ancestors page every blood relative you can possibly find on the
1880/81 censuses. You may never save a life - but just an hour of your time
could change someone's life.
Thanks,
Peter Calver
Founder,
LostCousins
© Copyright 2019
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?