Newsletter
- 16th August 2016
Ancestry
add 1973-95 wills to National Probate Calendar
Temporary
closure of ScotlandsPeople in September
Do
you have Scottish ancestry?
Stirling
Poor Relief indexes online
Was
your scoundrel ancestor sent to the American colonies?
The
Global Impact of London Punishments 1780-1925
Staffordshire
parish registers - nearing completion?
From
FutureLearn to FutureLean?
Review:
'Life as We Have Known It'
This DNA
project is strictly for the birds
DNA
discounts ENDS SOON
Mum
reunites with daughter after nearly 50 years
The LostCousins newsletter is usually
published fortnightly. To access the previous newsletter (dated 4th August)
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!
Ancestry add 1973-95
wills to National Probate Calendar
Although it's possible to search for
(and order) wills for England & Wales from 1858 up to the current day at
the official government website,
it can be an extremely long-winded process if the surname is a common one, or
if you don't know the year of death - and, of course, these tend to go hand in
hand.
Almost exactly 6 years ago Ancestry
launched an online index, the National
Probate Calendar, which initially covered the years 1861-1941 with some gaps,
but was soon extended to cover the whole of the period from 1858-1966. Ancestry
offer a much more comprehensive search than the official site, which means it
is more feasible to use the probate calendar as a supplement to the GRO
indexes.
I'm delighted to report that after several
years with no additions Ancestry last week added wills and administrations from
1973-1995, and you can search them here.
I can't tell you whether the remaining gaps will be filled at some point, but I
suspect it's far more likely that we'll see the calendars from 1967-1972 than
those from 1996 onwards.
Incidentally, it is also possible to
search the probate calendars from 1858-1959 here
at Findmypast: you can carry out some searches that aren't practical at
Ancestry, and aren't possible at the government site. This article
from last August has some useful suggestions.
Note:
for information about Scottish probate calendars see this newsletter article
from October.
Temporary
closure of ScotlandsPeople in September
ScotlandsPeople have announced
that the site will be closing at midnight on Wednesday 7th September for
"essential planned work", which I suspect is connected with the
transfer of operations from Findmypast to the new service providers, CACI.
The site is expected to reopen by Monday
12th September. I understand that on Thursday 8th and Friday 9th it will still
be possible to access records at the ScotlandsPeople centre in Edinburgh, or at
the local family history centres listed here.
Do you have Scottish
ancestry?
Since LostCousins began using the 1881
Census of Scotland on 29th September 2004 we have standardised on the census
references used by FamilySearch, since at that time their transcription was the
only one available for this census (even ScotlandsPeople used their
transcription at the time).
Subsequently Ancestry, Findmypast, and
ScotlandsPeople all came up with their own transcriptions of this census - however,
Findmypast and FamilySearch no longer quote references for the Scottish
censuses which means that Ancestry is currently the only source (other than the
pay-per-view ScotlandsPeople site) of this vital information.
Last year I introduced a feature which
allows members with entries from the England & Wales, Scotland, and Ireland
censuses to quickly and easily check their entries simply by clicking the button which appears alongside the census
references on the My Ancestors page.
This has not only proven to be a big timesaver it has also enabled numerous new
matches to be made as inadvertent errors have been rectified.
Until now there have been a small number
of Scottish entries - no more than 5000 - that couldn't be checked using the button, because the Registration District has
an alphabetic suffix, eg 328B, and the format
FamilySearch chose differs from that used by Ancestry. As Ancestry is now the
primary source for this census I have decided to standardise on the Ancestry
format in future, and this week I updated all the entries made by members over
the past 10 years so that individual members won't need to make any changes.
This is a good opportunity to remind all
members to check your entries using the button, if you haven't already done so - it
takes only a few seconds to check each household, so it's well worth doing.
Note:
the advice on the Add Ancestor form has been updated to reflect the change;
whichever census you are using, always follow the advice given on the form -
and please bear in mind that it changes depending on the census selected.
Stirling Poor Relief
indexes online
Stirling Archives have made available
online indexes to their Poor Relief records - you can search them here.
Was your scoundrel
ancestor sent to the American colonies?
Prior to the American Revolution in 1776
over 50,000 men, women, and children were transported in chains from Britain to
the colonies in America - and they populated the fledgling nation, just as
later generations of convicts were to populate Australia.
Ancestry have just updated their Emigrants
in Bondage, 1614-1775 dataset to include an additional 9,000 records. Other
datasets that will help you track your errant ancestors include:
Middlesex,
England, Convict Transportation Contracts, 1682-1787
Dorset,
England, Convict Transportation Records, 1724-1791
Another key source is the record of Old
Bailey proceedings from 1674-1913 - you can search them free here.
There are also over 125,000 later
records in this Findmypast dataset:
Convict
Transportation Registers 1787-1870
The Global Impact of
London Punishments 1780-1925
This project, which involves the
Universities of Liverpool, Oxford, Sheffield, Hertfordshire, and Tasmania is
looking at the impact that the transportation of criminals had, both on their
lives and the colonies to which they were sent. The lives of individual
convicts will be traced through the surviving records in an attempt to draw
conclusions about the comparative effectiveness of transportation and
incarceration, both in the short-term and the longer-term.
You can read more about the project here.
Staffordshire
parish registers - nearing completion?
This week Findmypast added over 230,000 parish records
for Staffordshire, from 10 parishes, bringing the total to well over 4 million
records from the county - I suspect that these new records had to be scanned
(or re-scanned) before they could be made available online.
Findmypast have also added the option to
Browse the Staffordshire registers - this
provides an opportunity to look for names that have been misindexed,
which is always a potential problem given the poor handwriting and the fading
of ink. Newly-scanned registers are in colour, but the majority of those I looked
at had been scanned from microfilm - often created decades ago by the
Genealogical Society of Utah (better known as FamilySearch).
Findmypast helpfully provide a list showing the coverage by parish, by
event, and by year of their entire Staffordshire Collection. Recently added
parishes are noted, although it isn't currently possible to identify the most
recent additions. You can also see a list of all the registers held by
Staffordshire Archives here.
According to the French
Genealogy Blog lists of passengers departing from the French port of Le
Havre are now available online - previously they could only be viewed on
microfilm in Rouen. I'm not going to attempt to explain the records in detail,
since Anne Morddel has provided the key information
in her blog article, but it's worth noting that the surviving records include
both passengers and crew.
L’Inscription Maritime can be found at the website of
the Seine-Maritime departmental archives, and you can search the records by
name (though as far as I could tell wildcards are not supported, so you may
need to try different spellings).
Tip:
although the site is in French, if you use the Chrome browser it will translate
it into English automatically (depending on your settings - you'll find
Languages under Advanced Settings).
Unfortunately it isn't going to be
possible to hold the next course in March 2017 as hoped because there simply
won't be sufficient accommodation available for a group of our size - it seems
the Rocha Brava resort has become very popular with people of my age looking
for low cost out-of-season holidays.
My apologies to all those who pencilled
this date in their diaries - I hope that we'll be able to do something in 2018.
There are still a handful of places
remaining on the Society of Genealogists 'Family History Getaway' - it might
not be as glamorous as a holiday on the Algarve but if you live in the London
area it's a great opportunity to listen to expert speakers and, perhaps, knock
down some long-standing 'brick walls'.
From FutureLearn to FutureLean?
It's week 5 of the free FutureLearn course Genealogy: Researching
Your Family Tree and I'm getting some very positive feedback about the
course from LostCousins members who are participating. I'm delighted to say
that there have also been quite a few complimentary remarks about LostCousins
in the discussion forums, so I'd like to say a special welcome to everyone reading
this newsletter for the first time!
Tip:
although the course is intended to be accessible for beginners, even the most
experienced researchers are going to learn something new (and no doubt be
reminded of more than a few things that they've forgotten!). It's not too late to
join in, and it really is free, no matter where in the world you live - just
follow this link to sign up.
I can confidently predict that the more
people who get enthused about genealogy, the more healthy the world will be. One
of the things I've noticed over the years is that family historians are less likely
to be overweight than the population as a whole - whether I've been attending
shows or speaking to family history societies, it's become clear that you don't
have to be an Olympic athlete to keep fit - simply taking part in an activity,
even one that exercises the brain more than the body, can have a positive
effect on our physical well-being.
Tip:
if you are a bit overweight - as I was a year ago - all you need to do is eat a
little less and exercise a little more. I lost 2 stone (about 12Kg), not by changing
my diet, but by portion control - putting a little less on the plate - and not
by joining a gym, but by doing some basic exercises at home. Like Queen Elizabeth II I
own a Nintendo Wii, and I use a fitness program called EA Sports Active 2 to provide me with exercises
and measure how many calories I'm burning up.
Incidentally, did you see this story
in the newspapers, about the man who halved his weight after he was forced to
buy two seats on an airplane? Amazing!
That example comes from the US, but before
those of you on the other side of the Atlantic say "it couldn't happen
here", let me point you to this study, which has shown
that in Britain we eat rather more than we think we do - about 50% more, in
fact. Even worse, another British study has shown that being overweight affects
our brains - the brain of an overweight 50 year-old will have aged as much as
the brain of a fit 60 year-old (you can read about the findings here).
On reading the first draft of this
newsletter my wife asked whether the damage is reversible, clearly mindful of
the fact that I was a little overweight until recently - the simple answer is
that the researchers don't know yet, but finding out is one of their next
objectives.
Review: 'Life as We Have Known It'
First published in 1931, this account of
the lives of working class women - told in their own words - is an amazing
book, one that I found hard to put down once I got beyond the long introduction
by Virginia Woolf - a friend of Margaret Llewellyn Davies, the editor of the
book. My advice is to skip it and jump straight to page 1!
The first writer's account was of
particularly interest to me because she was born in Bethnal Green, a part of
London where several of my ancestors lived, in 1855, but the story of
deprivation and high infant mortality is repeated in accounts from other parts
of the country. The one thing that links the contributors is their membership
of the Women's Co-Operative
Guild, an organisation founded in 1883 to educate women in the principles
and practices of Co-operation and to work for the improvement of the status of
women.
It's so important to read first-hand
accounts rather than relying on hearsay, or the treatises cobbled together by
social historians - and whilst we're hearing only from survivors, their stories
are at times quite heart-wrenching. Life as We Have Known It is well worth
reading - almost all of us have ancestors who would have experienced similar
hardships.
In the UK it's cheapest from Amazon, but if you're overseas you'll
probably find that The Book Depository
works out cheaper because they offer free delivery worldwide (but either link
will help to support LostCousins).
Note:
for an insight into the trials and tribulations of the working-class poor in
London in the early 20th century read Round
About a Pound a Week, one of the best books I've ever read.
This DNA project is
strictly for the birds
Scientists at the University of
Copenhagen started work on a massive project - to sequence the DNA of all
10,000 bird species, in order to construct an evolutionary tree. You can read
more about the Bird 10k Project here.
Many thanks to DNA expert and LostCousins
member Debbie Kennett for sharing
this information via (where else?) Twitter.
Family Finder tests from Family Tree DNA
are still discounted to an unprecedented $69, and the closing date for the
Summer Sale still hasn't been announced - follow this link
to ensure that you support LostCousins (and also see my article from
the last newsletter for more information).
One member tells me that she has ordered
9 tests in the sale - remember that by persuading cousins to test we can not
only find more matches, but also learn more about the matches we've already
made.
Ancestry
DNA are having a sale in the UK - until Thursday 18th August the price has
been slashed from £79 to £59, though with shipping it still works out more expensive
than Family Tree DNA's offer (plus you need to be an Ancestry subscriber to
view the trees of your matches - there are no subscriptions at FTDNA).
Nevertheless, the fact that more people have tested with Ancestry could sway
your decision - if you do decide to test with Ancestry you can support
LostCousins by using this link.
Remember that whichever company you test
with, you can upload your results to the mostly free GEDmatch site to connect with cousins who
have tested with a different company.
IMPORTANT:
please remember to indicate on your My
Details page at LostCousins whether or not you have taken an autosomal DNA
test - this will not only help the cousins you've been matched with come up
with the best testing strategy, it will encourage them to share their results
with you.
Of the nearly 2000 members who have
completed this question so far 40.7% have answered Yes, 45.9% have said No, and
the remainder are considering testing.
Mum reunites with
daughter after nearly 50 years
The ITV programme Long Lost Family recently broadcast the story of Susan Webb (nee
Galsworthy), who had to give up her illegitimate daughter just 6 months after
her birth in 1967. Their researchers managed to track down Samantha, who after
adoption was known as Donna, and when they met up again after 48 years apart it
was an emotional occasion. There a number of newspaper reports online, but this
one from Susan's local newspaper is particularly good - and if you're in
the UK you can watch the programme by following this link (it will be available
until the end of August).
As a child I used to chant "Sticks
and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" when someone
said something unpleasant - I expect some of you did too. So I was a little
surprised, though only a little, to receive an email complaining about my use
of the word 'bastard' in its literal sense in the last newsletter (when writing
about the 5 illegitimate children of King Charles II and Barbara Palmer - who
the diarist John Evelyn described as "the curse of the nation").
Is the word really shocking to
genealogists? I don't suppose there's anyone reading this who doesn't have some
illegitimate ancestors - I can think of at least 3 in my tree - so most of us
will have encountered Bastardy Bonds, which recorded the sums that the alleged
fathers of illegitimate children were bound to pay towards their welfare. And,
of course, the word appears frequently in baptism registers (and you'll even
find it in the King James Bible). We can't avoid the word, so let's use it as
it should be used - if a word is only ever used as an expletive the original
meaning can eventually be lost, as in the case of 'blimey', which began as the
blasphemous oath "God blind me" (other terms with a similar
derivation include 'zounds' and 'strewth').
This year there have been numerous
instances of people being overheard saying things when they thought nobody was
listening, but it's nothing new - I always think back to the late Richard Dimbleby, who was much criticised after he commented
"Jesus wept" when technical problems occurred during coverage of the
Queen's visit to Berlin in 1965 - you can read the BBC's apology on page 14 of The Times of 28th May 1965.
Talking of Richard Dimbleby,
who sadly died at 52 just a few months after that incident, reminds me that I
have a collection of tapes recorded from the wireless on Coronation Day in 1953
- which I acquired when I bought an old tape recorder at auction many years
ago. Disappointly that Grundig
tape recorder didn't work, despite much pleading, but I hope to hear the tapes
shortly on a similarly ancient - but working - Philips tape recorder that my
brother has lent me.
The rare Dimbleby
surname lives on: his sons David and Jonathan are both famous broadcasters, who
respectively present the current affairs programmes Question Time (on BBC1) and Any
Questions? (on Radio 4). I had the pleasure of attending the live broadcast
of Any Questions? last month when the
programme visited my old school - and one of my questions was chosen to be put
to the panel, although I never had the opportunity to ask it because the
discussion of the previous question strayed onto the topic of mine! Coincidentally,
Robin Day, the first presenter of Question
Time, attended the same school - though many years before me, of course.
Another Old Brentwood - one who was there at the same time as me, though
Charlie Bean was 3 years younger - became deputy governor of the Bank of England,
a post that he held for 6 years until 2014. Which brings me on to interest
rates: this month's rate cut was good news for many borrowers, but bad news for
savers - many of whom were already receiving under 1% on their deposits.
When interest rates fall there's a
tendency to switch to more risky investments, one that most of you would do
well to resist! However, you'll know that for several years I've been involved
in peer-to-peer lending, which sounds complicated and risky, but is actually
quite simple and can be a lot safer than you might think - because the
companies I've chosen have funds set up to cover loans that aren't repaid by
the borrowers. I get an average interest rate of around 3% on money tied up for
a month, but the return on longer-term loans can be significantly higher - 4%,
5%, or even more!
If you follow this link to Ratesetter
you'll get a £100 bonus when you lend £1000 for a year or more (I'll get £50
too); the other site I use is Zopa, and if you use
this link and
lend £2000 or more we'll each get a £50 bonus. Remember, I'm not a financial
adviser - and nor were the members who told me about these sites in the first
place - I'm simply telling you how I maximise the return on the money I've
saved for my own retirement. Everyone's financial position is different, so
what's right for me won't necessarily be right for you.
Occasionally there are risk-free
opportunities to earn extra income on our savings, such as the government's
pensioner bonds - unfortunately at the time I was a few months too young to
take advantage of that opportunity. But I didn't completely lose out -
as regular readers of this newsletter will know, I've deferred my state
pension, which for those of us who reached retirement age before 5th April 2016
provides a 10.4% increase for each year we defer (on top of the normal
indexation).
But if you hunt around there are other
options, and these apply to all ages: for example, as a Nationwide current
account holder you can earn 5% on regular savings (up to £500 per month), a
generous rate that they've pledged not to change, despite the reduction in base
rate, and they also pay 3% on balances of up to £2500 in a FlexPlus
current account, the account I have, or you can get 5% for the first 12 months
if you open a fee-free FlexDirect account.
You can also get a £100 bonus when you
switch to Nationwide after being referred by an existing accountholder - which
I'd be pleased to do for any LostCousins member, since I'll get a bonus too!
Just drop me an email and I'll tell you what to do - switching bank accounts is
really easy these days.
Of course, the best returns come from harvesting
nature's bounty in the wild: at long last the blackberries are ripening - and
whilst they're smaller than usual that could mean that the flavour is more
concentrated. I've also seen a few ripe elderberries, but I won't be harvesting
them for a couple of weeks yet as there are too many green ones in the sprays,
and I'm also holding off on the sloes.
In the garden my wife's tomatoes are
still green as you can see, even the ones in the greenhouse, but she tells me
that they're going to ripen very soon….. the delay in the seasons isn't all bad
news, though, because I'm still harvesting rhubarb, which would normally have
been spongy by now. And even if there are plenty of green tomatoes left at the end
of the season it'll be a good excuse to make green tomato jam!
This is where any last minute updates
and corrections will be highlighted - if you think you've spotted an error
(sadly I'm not infallible), reload the newsletter (press Ctrl-F5) then check here before writing to me, in case
someone else has beaten you to it......
That's all for now - but do look out for
the next issue as I usually come up with something special for the Bank Holiday
weekend!
Peter Calver
Founder, LostCousins
© Copyright 2016 Peter Calver
Please
do not copy any part of this newsletter without permission. However, you MAY
link to this newsletter or any article in it without asking for permission in
advance - though why not invite other family historians to join LostCousins
instead, as standard membership (which includes this newsletter), is FREE?