Newsletter
- 19th July 2017
Largest
surviving 1915 Register collection at Westminster? EXCLUSIVE
Another
chance to save at Findmypast ENDS 30TH JULY
MASTERCLASS:
How to get the most from Findmypast
FamilySearch
confirm the end of microfilm
Free
access to military records at Ancestry.co.uk THIS
WEEKEND
Family Tree
Maker 2017 released - at last!
Ancestry
change procedure for multiple DNA tests
Win a Queen's autograph in our Summer
Competition OVER 50 PRIZES
The LostCousins newsletter is usually
published 2 or 3 times a month. To access the previous newsletter (dated 7th
July) click here; to find earlier articles use the
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Largest surviving 1915
Register collection at Westminster? EXCLUSIVE
In April this year I reported
that Westminster Archives have 9 boxes of forms relating to the 1915 National
Register, and although I wasn't able to make it to the archives myself, a
LostCousins member who was planning a visit kindly offered to check them out.
Here's the very comprehensive report he provided:
Each box contained two or three
parcels of forms wrapped in brown paper:
Box 1 - Paddington
Parcel 1 - Males, surnames
COA-CRI, c.900 forms
Parcel 2 - Males, surnames
CRO-DAY, c.500 forms
Box 2 - Paddington
Parcel 1 - Males, surnames
DAW-DYE, c.600 forms
Parcel 2 - Males, surnames K
& P, c.1000 forms
Box 3 - Paddington
Parcel 1 - Males, cancelled
forms (sequence 1), surnames A-Z, c.600 forms
Parcel 2 - Males, surnames Q-R,
c.800 forms
Box 4 - Paddington
Parcel 1 - Females, surnames
COL-COO, c.500 forms
Parcel 2 - Females, surnames
COP-CUP, c.600 forms
Parcel 3 - Females, surnames
CRO-CUT, c.400 forms
Box 5 - Paddington
Parcel 1 - Females, surnames
JOR-KIN, c.700 forms
Parcel 2 - Females, surnames
KIR-LAZ, c.1000 forms
Box 6 - Paddington
Parcel 1 - Females, surnames
MIN-MUS, c.1000 forms
Parcel 2 - Females, surnames
MUS-NOR, c.700 forms
Box 7 - Paddington
Parcel 1 - Females, surnames
WAT-WEST, c.700 forms
Parcel 2 - Females, surnames
WESTO-WIL, c.800 forms
Box 8 - Scotland & Isle of
Man
Parcel 1 - Males & females,
surnames ADA-HED, c.400 forms
Parcel 2 - Males & females,
surnames HEU-YOU, c.400 forms
Box 9 - Paddington
Parcel 1 - Males, cancelled
forms (sequence 2), surnames A-Z, c.900 forms
Parcel 2 - Females, cancelled
forms, c.500 forms
I unwrapped parcel 1 from box 1
and counted 500 of the forms in order to estimate the
number of forms in each bundle from the thickness of the bundle. The forms I
counted were sorted alphabetically by surname and at least 90% of them were
1915 forms like the third picture in your 20 April newsletter. The other 10%
were titled "National Registration Acts 1915 & 1918".
I also unwrapped one of the
parcels from box 5 and counted 100 of the forms. All of them were 1915 forms
like the first picture in your 20 April newsletter.
So the bottom line is that I think they have
at least 13,000 forms covering some (but by no means all) of the people living
in what was then known as the Borough of Paddington. I didn't have time to
investigate why they had a box of Scotland and Isle of Man forms, but I did
notice that these were larger than the English forms.
My quest to identify surviving records
from the 1915 Register began earlier this year when I heard that 2,409 forms
for Cirencester and the surrounding villages were in Gloucestershire Archives -
to discover a much larger cache at Westminster is a very pleasant surprise,
although to the best of my knowledge there's currently no plan to transcribe
and index the Westminster records.
Perhaps Findmypast, who have an existing
relationship with Westminster Archives, will pick up the baton?
Another chance to save
at Findmypast ENDS 30TH
JULY
Family historians tend to do most of
their research in the winter months, when the nights are long, so there's
inevitably a slump in people taking out subscriptions during the summer. I
wasn't surprised, therefore, to learn that Findmypast are once again offering a
10% discount on new 12 month subscriptions - nor that
this offer doesn't apply in Australia, where it's currently winter.
At Findmypast.co.uk you can save on 12 month Britain and World subscriptions; at Findmypast.com
(the US site) you can save on Premium subscriptions. All of
these subscriptions include the 1939 Register, probably the most
important British release since the 1911 Census.
This offer isn't exclusive to
LostCousins, but you can support LostCousins when you use the following links:
If we do receive commission on your
purchase I'll give you a FREE 12 month LostCousins subscription worth up to £12.50 - just
make sure that when you click the link you can see the words 'LostCousins' on
the browser command line when you arrive at the Findmypast site.
(If
you don't see those words check that you haven't disabled tracking in your
browser - and ask me for help if that doesn't solve the problem.)
To claim your free subscription forward to
me the email receipt that Findmypast will send you (you can use any of the
LostCousins email addresses, including the one I wrote from to tell you about
this newsletter). Please make a note of the precise time of your purchase in
case the email doesn't arrive - I must have that time to confirm your
entitlement. Your LostCousins subscription will run from the date of your Findmypast
purchase unless you already have a subscription, in which case I'll extend it
by 12 months.
MASTERCLASS: How to
get the most from Findmypast
Note:
this article originally featured in my Christmas newsletter, but it was so
well-received that I felt it would be helpful to provide an updated version.
I'm sometimes contacted by readers who
don't get the same excellent results as me when they search at Findmypast - so
I'm going to tell you how I transform their searches….
The first thing you need to appreciate
is that there are two ways of searching. One is to enter lots of data on the
Search form in the hope that some of it might lead to the record you're looking
for - this type of search works best at Ancestry, where it typically produces
lots of results (though most of them won't be relevant).
The other approach is to put the minimum
amount of information on the Search form, see how many results you get and -
only if there are too many results to glance through - filter the results so
that you're only left with those that are most relevant. This type of search
works best at Findmypast.
Because I'm so busy I prefer the second
type of search - most of the time the record I'm looking for is on the first
page of search results, so I get there very quickly. I even cheat by using
wildcards rather than type long surnames in full - this has the secondary
benefit of sometimes picking up records that might otherwise have been missed.
How minimal should your searches be? If
I'm searching the census I'll typically enter just a forename, a surname
(possibly using wildcards), and an approximate year of birth. I rarely enter a
place of birth as this tends to vary so much from one census to another, but
when I do I enclose it in wildcards, eg *London*
Different surnames require different
tactics. The surname Smith is very unlikely to be spelled differently or mistranscribed - but you are likely to get lots of results,
so you'll need to narrow your search in some way. By contrast, when I'm
searching for my Vandepeer ancestors I'm more
concerned about misspellings than anything else, so I'll typically search for
v*d*p*r* and leave the other boxes empty.
Put these tips into practice and you'll
immediately see the difference. But don't stop reading, because I've got
another, even more important, tip for you - one that even Findmypast won't tell
you!
Did you realise that at Findmypast there
are at least three ways of searching for the same historical record? Would you
like to know which of those three ways I use myself? Yes, I thought so…..
The gateway to all of
the different approaches is the Search
menu:
Let's suppose that you were hoping to finds one of your ancestors in the 1881 Census - you could
choose Search all records, or narrow
down your search by clicking on Census,
land & surveys. But I wouldn't choose either of those options - I'd go
to the precise record set I'm interested in by clicking A-Z of record sets, the option at the bottom of the menu (but the
one I use 99% of the time).
Why do I search specific record sets,
rather than starting with a wider search, then homing in? Because it's the only
way you can access some of the key search options. For example, when I search
the 1881 Census directly the Search form offers an enormous amount of choice:
But half the fields - the ones I've
highlighted in red - don't appear on the Search form when you choose Census, land & surveys.
So do what I do - whenever possible focus in on the
specific record set of interest, whether it's a census, a collection of baptism
registers for a specific country, or one of the hundreds of other record sets.
Tip:
one of the secondary benefits of using this approach is that you'll get to know
the records better. Because they come from many different sources there are all
sorts of quirks - for example, some parish register transcriptions will be very
detailed, others very basic.
Here's a table of links that will enable
you to jump straight to some of key resources at Findmypast without going
through the Search menu (all searches are free, so you don't need a
subscription unless you want to look at the records themselves):
|
1881
British census (FREE transcription) |
* these parish register links will take
you to the baptisms for the county - the Useful
Links on that page will take you to marriages and burials
Note:
there are a few record sets which currently can't be found using the A-Z of
Record Sets; for example if you're looking for the
Chelsea pensioner records you'll find them under British Army Service Records
because Findmypast have grouped together all service records. Other instances
reported to me involve Australian cemetery records. But 99 times out of 100 the
A-Z is the best solution.
FamilySearch
confirm the end of microfilm
In March I revealed
that FamilySearch were planning to discontinue the use of microfilm. Although
initially denied, it was later confirmed to me by FamilySearch insiders, and
recently it was announced
officially on the LDS website. The last day for ordering microfilms will be
31st August 2017 - it's the end of an era.
The most popular microfilms have already
been digitised, and it is expected that by 2020 all of
the microfilm images will be held in a digital format.
However, this doesn't mean that they'll
be available online at the FamilySearch website - in most cases the agreements
between FamilySearch and the owners or custodians of the records preclude this.
Instead, researchers will need to visit their local Family History Centre, as
they would have done to view the films - so the main difference will be the
instant access to the material.
Individual Family History Centres may
retain the microfilms they currently hold, but it's likely that over time there
will be a complete switch to digital, and that the microfilm readers are removed
to make space for the additional computer terminals that will be needed.
When English parish registers held at
local record offices were microfilmed around 40 years ago, the relevant record
offices were provided with copies of the films. What I don't know yet is
whether they will be provided with digital copies as they are produced - I
would certainly hope that this will be the case. Of course, over the past
decade many of those record offices have allowed the registers they hold to be
made available online, usually at Ancestry or Findmypast.
Note:
the films at record offices typically refer to the Genealogical Society of Utah
- but, of course, we now know them as FamilySearch.
Free access to military
records at Ancestry.co.uk THIS
WEEKEND
From Friday 21st July until midnight on
Monday 24th July most of Ancestry's UK military records will be free. You'll
need to register, if you haven't already done so, but you won't need to provide
credit card or bank details (unless you try to access records not included in
the offer, or sign up for the 14 day free trial).
Follow this link
for more information.
Family Tree Maker 2017
released - at last!
The long-awaited new version of Family
Tree Maker was officially released this weekend. Over the past few months 3,000
beta testers and around 100,000 'test drivers' have been trialling the program,
as teething problems with the tree-sync were ironed out.
I know from following the discussions on
the LostCousins forum how frustrating the delay was for researchers who use FTM
as their main tree program - hopefully the wait will eventually prove to have
been worthwhile.
Note:
I've never used Family Tree Maker, so please don't ask me questions about it!
Earlier this year it was announced
that life expectancy at age 65 had fallen, after rising for many years - this
caused a certain amount of consternation, and it was interpreted by many as
evidence that cuts to health and welfare funding were leading to a decline in
the health of older people.
I've certainly noticed a deterioration
in my own health over the past decade, but unfortunately
it's more likely to be a result of my advancing years than austerity measures! Nevertheless I was interested to read an analysis in Significance magazine (which goes out to
members of the Royal Statistical Society) - because it leads me to wonder
whether the statistics might be misleading.
As you can imagine, life expectancy is
calculated by looking at the age at which people die - and comparing the number
of people of each age who died against the much larger number who didn't.
Finding out how many people died is easy - since these figures are recorded by
the GRO - but it's much more difficult to determine how many people didn't die,
because of migration (even migration between England & Scotland can
confound the estimates).
Whilst it wasn't mentioned in the
article, I suspect there's a tendency for expats to return to the UK when their
health deteriorates - because, despite what many think, we have one of the best
health services in the world (indeed, the NHS came top in a recent study - see
this BBC article).
As I was writing this newsletter life
expectancy hit the news again, with a leading health expert claiming that the
increases in life expectancy we've seen over the past century have ground to a
halt - and blaming the worsening situation on austerity (you can read more
about it here).
However, he seems to have based his calculations on the same,
potentially-flawed, statistics that prompted the earlier announcement.
Everyone knows the saying about
"lies, damned lies, and statistics" (though nobody is quite sure who
first said it - I always thought it was Mark Twain, but he attributed it to
Disraeli). The reality is that if you don't look into
the background behind statistics, and use them out of context, you can prove
almost anything. A great example, one that all family historians will be aware
of, is the assumption that low life expectancy at birth in the 19th century
meant that there were few old people.
In fact the
figures were skewed by the large number of infants deaths, so that whilst male life
expectancy at birth was just 40 years in 1841, a man who was 65 years old in
1841 could nevertheless look forward to 11 years of life (on average). By 2011
male life expectancy at birth had increased by 39 years, but life expectancy at
65 had gone up by just 7 years.
I honestly don't know whether life
expectancy has been affected by austerity - though I'm rather sceptical, since
one of the effects of rationing and deprivation in World War 2 was to improve
the health of the British population!
Last month I published a DNA Special
Edition newsletter which set out the key facts about DNA testing. I thought I'd
answered all the important questions - but I now realise that I could have made
some of the basic facts clearer.
So here's my Dummies Guide to DNA
testing…..
Can
DNA testing help me knock down my 'brick wall'?
Yes*
Who
can test?
Anyone descended from the 'brick wall'
ancestor*
Does
it matter if the person testing is male or female?
No
Who
should I test with, and which test should I take?
Ancestry - and they
only offer one test
*
your chances of success are highest if the 'brick wall' is in the last 5 generations
Ancestry change
procedure for multiple DNA tests
Until this week it was possible to activate multiple DNA tests with a
single Ancestry account, but from now on it will only be possible to activate one
test per account (the only exception is that parents will be able to activate
tests on behalf of their minor children).
This means that in future there will
need to be a separate Ancestry account for each person who tests - but don't
worry, this doesn't mean that everyone will need to be an Ancestry subscriber.
Instead the 'owner' of a test will be able to appoint someone else to 'manage'
it.
You'll find full details about this change
here.
Win a Queen's
autograph in our Summer Competition OVER 50 PRIZES
Queen Mary was a cousin of Queen
Victoria, wife of George V, mother of Edward VIII and George VI, and
grandmother of our present Queen. Queen Mary's autograph could be yours - all
you need to do is win our Summer Competition.
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).
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 (I'll be
writing to the June winners shortly).
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!
Although I'm pretty au fait with DNA testing, I'd like to understand more about how DNA
actually works - so I was delighted to discover Herding Hemingway's Cats: Understanding How
Our Genes Work by Kat Arney, who has a doctorate
in developmental genetics, and just happens to be the daughter of a long-time
LostCousins member.
Of course, I didn't take her mother's
word for it - I looked at the reviews at
Amazon, where I found that 19 of the 22 reviewers gave it 5 stars, which is
about as good as it gets.
I'm about half-way through, so with luck
I'll have a full review in time for the next newsletter.
I spent last weekend at a reunion for a
group of a dozen or so friends who I've known for
around 50 years (nearly 60 in some cases). Six of them were in the Boys'
Brigade with me in the 1960s, and two of them were also in my class at junior
school. One of them conducted my father's funeral service.
Two of the others were LostCousins
members (I suspect a third will be joining before long), so it was a chance for
them to sample some of the jams they'd read about in this newsletter, as well
as my 2016 Sloe Gin and Shepherd's Bullace Gin. These
had been decanted after 10 months, rather than the usual 3, giving them a more
intense fruit flavour.
What do you do with the sloes after you decant the gin? I put mine in a Kilner jar and top it up with cheap white or rosé wine -
the sort of wine that people bring to parties but nobody drinks. After few days the wine is transformed into something that is not only
drinkable, but very more-ish.
Talking of food and drink reminds me that I
have a little puzzle for readers: can you tell me who was born a Marquis, became
a Knight, ended up an Earl, but is best known as a Lord? Oh, and he also had a
recipe named after him.....
I forgot to mention that
the Living DNA offer in my last newsletter is continuing - well worth considering
if you've already tested elsewhere, but are looking a better analysis of your British
ancestry.
That's all for now - but
I've got lots more lined up for the next edition, which should be out before
the end of the month.
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