Newsletter
- 13th March 2017
Irish
records FREE at Findmypast ENDS FRIDAY
FamilySearch
say goodbye to microfilm BREAKING NEWS
Society of
Genealogists inherits massive collection
Inherited
conditions - genetics for beginners
Are
you considering a DNA test?
Save
on Ancestry DNA ENDS SUNDAY
Colour
tithe maps for Middlesex online
Review:
Tracing Your Pre-Victorian Ancestors
Review:
A Dictionary of Family History
The LostCousins newsletter is usually
published fortnightly. To access the previous newsletter (dated 3rd March)
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!
Irish records FREE at
Findmypast ENDS FRIDAY
From 10 am this morning until Friday
17th March you can access the world's largest online collection of Irish
records - more than 116 million of them - completely free at any of
Findmypast's sites around the world.
Combine this amazing collection with the
historic registers of births, marriages, and deaths that are also free online (here
at the Irish government site) and researching your Irish ancestry will be
easier than ever before!
Here's a summary of some of the key
records in Findmypast's collection:
To celebrate St Patrick's Day in style by
tracing your Irish ancestry, simply follow the link to the Findmypast site of
your choice:
You won't need to provide credit card or
bank details to take advantage of this offer, but you will be expected to
log-in, or register if you haven't done so before.
FamilySearch say
goodbye to microfilm BREAKING
NEWS
I'm very grateful to LostCousins member
Sue who pointed out this important announcement on the blog of the London
Family History Centre:
Note: since I wrote this article the blog posting has
disappeared, so it may have been posted in error. You will know more when I do!
Whilst more and more parish registers
and other records are being made available online, either by FamilySearch or
one of the commercial providers, there are many researchers whose only means of
gaining access to records in archives thousands of miles away is to visit their
nearest LDS Family History Centre.
According to Wikipedia there are over
2.4 million rolls of microfilm and around three-quarters of a million
microfiches in the Salt Lake City library - local family history centres only
hold a small fraction of this number, which is why the facility to order in
films is so important. This page
in the FamilySearch wiki explains how to order films and fiches.
Let's hope that the
announcement heralds the start of a new era in which films held at Salt Lake
City are distributed digitally. It's not that expensive to digitize a roll of
microfilm - probably about $50 in quantity - although when you multiply $50 by
2.4 million it's still a very big number. Nevertheless, this has to be the way
forward - provided that the owners of the rights in the material have no
objections.
Note: even if my hunch is correct it's probable that,
like the microfilms, the digitized images will only be available within LDS
Family History Centres around the world.
Society of Genealogists
inherits massive collection
By far the biggest collection of LDS
films and fiches in the UK is the one belonging to the London Family History
Centre. You may recall that in 2011 I reported that the
collection was being relocated to the National Archives at Kew during building
work which was expected to last 7 or 8 months - well, it has been there ever
since!
This month it was announced that the
London Family History Centre's permanent microfilm collection has been given to
the Society of Genealogists, and will be available there - potentially from
early June.
I suspect this will mean that access to
their collection is free to SoG members, but that
others will have to pay the usual modest library fee.
Inherited conditions -
genetics for beginners
We all know that some medical conditions
and unusual traits are inherited, but not everyone knows why it is that
children can suffer from an inherited condition that didn't affect either of
their parents, or how two blue-eyed parents can have a brown-eyed child.
I suspect that at this stage most of you
reading this article will be thinking "there aren't any inherited
conditions in my family" - well, I'm sorry to say this, but most of you
are wrong, so ignore what I'm about to say at your peril!
In the process I'm going to relate the
inheritance of genetic anomalies to the tests that genealogists use to find
living cousins, knock down 'brick walls', test hypotheses, and verify their
paper-based research. No two people can have identical DNA unless they came
from the same fertilised egg (eg identical twins) -
and even then there will be small differences, as I explained in
the last newsletter.
Most differences between the DNA of one
human and another are benign - it really doesn't matter whether we have brown
eye or blue eyes, black skin or white skin (or at least it shouldn't do). But
all of us carry potentially harmful mutations in our genes - research published
in 2012 revealed that in 179 people they found an average of 400 damaging
variants and 2 disease-causing mutations, figures which are expected to rise as
we learn more about the causes of genetic diseases.
Most of our DNA is autosomal - it comprises 22 pairs of chromosomes. We inherit our
autosomal DNA from both of our parents and pass half of it on to each of our
children (though it's not as simple as taking one chromosome from each pair -
they get mixed up first). The Family Finder test from Family Tree DNA, and the
tests from Ancestry DNA and 23andMe, all work primarily with autosomal DNA
because it can provide insight into any (though not all) of our ancestral
lines.
Note:
the reason why DNA tests can't tell us about all of our ancestral lines is
simple - we haven't inherited DNA from every single ancestor. Whilst we inherit
half of our autosomal DNA from each parent, they could only pass on to us half
of what they inherited, and the same applied to their parents (our
grandparents) and so on. Eventually - and because DNA is passed on in chunks you
only have to go back a few generations - there will be some ancestors whose DNA
has dropped out of the picture altogether.
Most inherited conditions are autosomal recessive, which is a
complicated way of saying that unless you inherit them from both of your
parents, you won't show any symptoms. This diagram from the website of the
National Library of Medicine in the US illustrates how it works when both
parents are carriers:
There are 4 equally-likely outcomes (please
ignore the fact that some of the children are shown as male and some as
female), which means that even if both parents carry the same harmful recessive mutation there's only a 25%
chance of each child being affected. However, there's a two-third chance that a
child who doesn't show any symptoms is a carrier - which is why the conditions
haven't been eliminated from the human population even though the mutation that
causes them could have occurred tens of thousands of years ago.
Of course, if only one parent is a
carrier then there are only 2 possible outcomes - either the child is a carrier
or unaffected. Again there are equally likely.
Some inherited conditions are autosomal dominant, which means that if
you inherit the faulty gene from either parent you'll be a sufferer. In this
case the risk will be clear because a parent who has the condition will
themselves be a sufferer, as you can see from this diagram:
Apart from autosomal DNA we also inherit
mitochondrial DNA - which comes from
our mother (and her mother before that) - and two sex chromosomes, either two X
chromosomes (if you are female) or one X chromosome and one Y chromosome (if
you are male).
Until a few years ago genealogists were
restricted to mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which only
tell us about our direct female line, the one that runs up the extreme
right-hand edge of a conventional family tree, and Y-DNA tests, which can only
be taken by males, and tells them about their direct male line, the one runs up
the extreme left-hand edge of the tree.
Diseases caused by faulty mtDNA are few and far between but can be quite devastating
- I wrote
about them three years ago. Mothers with
faulty mtDNA will pass it on to all of their children;
father with faulty Y-DNA will pass it on to all of their sons.
Although faulty Y-DNA can cause problems
males are more likely to suffer from defects in their X-chromosome, because it
contains more genes and - unlike females - they only have one copy.
If you want to find out more about
genetic conditions, this guide on the US
National
Library of Medicine website goes into
far more detail than I have.
Following the last newsletter I was
deluged with examples of cousin marriages from readers' trees. In that article I mentioned
that the 1st cousins in my tree had only one child - a son - and that whilst he
married he had no children at all.
There are numerous inherited conditions
- most of them rare - that a couple might pass on to their children, but we're
very unlikely to have full medical histories for relatives from earlier
generations. Only those that affect the reproductive capability of the
offspring - or discourage them from having their own children - are going to be
obvious from a family tree.
Nevertheless, quite a few LostCousins
members wrote in with sad stories about the offspring of the cousin marriages
in their trees, several from the 20th century and involving relatives they had
known. Thankfully others were able to tell me that there seemed to have been no
adverse effects - so far as they could tell.
The conditions that are most likely to
cause problems when cousins marry are autosomal
recessive conditions. Most harmful mutations are rare in the population as
a whole, so the chance of two carriers marrying is small - for example, the
gene for albinism is found
in 1 in 70 of the population, so the chance that two randomly-selected
individuals are both carriers is 1 in 70 x 70, or very nearly 1 in 5,000.
Note:
even if both parents are carriers, there's only 1 chance in 4 that they will both
pass on the mutation to a given child.
But 1st cousins aren't randomly-selected
- they share common grandparents, and if EITHER of their shared grandparents
was a carrier, a 1 in 35 chance, there's a 1 in 16 chance that they will have passed
the defective gene on to BOTH of the cousins who married.
This means that the chance of both
cousins being carriers is 1 in 35 x 16, or about 1 in 500 - in other words,
cousins are 10 times more likely to have an albino child. LostCousins member
Janice told me that her grandparents were 1st cousins and that 2 of their 3
children suffered from albinism (fortunately Janice is descended from the other
child).
But albinism is just one of many genetic
disorders that are autosomal recessive. You will recall that in the article
above I reported research indicating that on average each individual has 2 or
more disease-causing mutations - which suggests that the chance of something
going wrong when cousins have children together is actually quite high. So
whilst many of the members who wrote in with examples of cousin marriages from
their own tree were able to tell me that, so far as they knew, there were no
adverse effects, a significant number reported problems of one sort or another.
A few members reported marriages that
were potentially even more dangerous: in Loreley's
tree the cousins who married were double 1st cousins (ie
they shared both sets of grandparents). Such marriages are legal in most
countries, but nevertheless twice as risky as marriages between cousins who
share only one set of grandparents.
But Lesley told me about a marriage
between her great-great grandfather and his niece - that marriage was illegal,
as well as dangerous. Indeed, it seems that poor Lesley may be paying the price
- her grandmother lost her hearing completely at the age of 11, whilst Lesley
lost the hearing in one of her own ears at the age of 13. On the other hand,
Mike has a similar marriage in his tree, but is unaware of any problems that
resulted.
A member who works in a paediatric
intensive care unit at a hospital in Canada confirmed that there are concerns
about cousin marriages in the medical profession, and noted that some minorities
are particularly prone to problems, such as the Hutterites (who originated
in Austria). Endogamy, the practice of marrying only within a clan, tribe, or
small religious grouping can produce a population in which all of the members
are genetically similar - the ISOGG wiki gives a number of examples here - and this can not only result
in high levels of certain inherited ailments, it has the effect of confounding
DNA tests (since cousins will appear to be more closely related than they
really area).
Ironically many of the US states that
continue to ban marriages between cousins were also amongst the last to allow
inter-racial marriages, even though marrying someone from a different race is probably
the best way to diversify your childrens' genes. Unless,
perhaps, you were alive 40,000 years ago, and had the chance to mate with a
Neanderthal….
Note:
many thanks to everyone who wrote in - I could only feature a fraction of your
contributions in this article.
If you download your raw DNA results
from Ancestry, Family Tree DNA, or 23andMe you can upload them to GEDmatch, where one of the
free tools will tell you whether your parents were related, and if so how
closely.
GEDmatch also offers the opportunity to
find cousins who tested with a different company - you could say it's the
'LostCousins' of DNA!
Are you considering a
DNA test?
We all have 'brick walls' in our tree.
Some will be solved when newly-transcribed records become available online,
sometimes the pieces fall into place when we find a cousin who has approached
the problem from a different angle (perhaps with the help of family stories),
but others may never be resolved using paper records because the written
evidence simply doesn't exist (and possibly never has).
DNA offers a potential solution - not to
every problem we might encounter, but to most of them. Instead of relying on
written records we provide a small sample of saliva (or a scraping from inside
our cheek) so that a DNA testing company can compare the evidence in our cells
with that provided by hundreds of thousands (or millions) of others who have
tested before us, or will test after us. It's like LostCousins but with DNA
rather than censuses.
Because it costs more to take a DNA test
then it does subscribe to LostCousins you might assume that DNA testing is an
easier route to finding cousins and knocking down 'brick walls'. That isn't the
case, I'm afraid, because whereas LostCousins can tell two cousins precisely
how they're related, that rarely happens when you find a DNA cousin.
Nevertheless, because DNA can solve problems that would otherwise be completely
insoluble, it's something that no serious family historian can ignore.
You can help yourself and your cousins
by completing the section at the bottom of your My Details page at the LostCousins site:
Cousins you're matched with now or in
the future will be able to see whether you have tested, or are considering
testing - this will be very helpful for them in planning their DNA testing
strategy and might well encourage them to test. Remember that a DNA match with
a cousin you already know can be just as valuable as one that leads to a new
cousin, not least because it helps to verify your records-based research.
But
there's another reason why you should update this section of your My Details page - if I know you're
interested in testing I'll make sure you get to hear about offers on DNA tests
(sometimes they don't coincide with my newsletters).
However, if you've left this section of
your My Details page blank, or
selected the 'No' option, I'll assume that you AREN'T interested, and I won't
send you a special email.
Save on Ancestry DNA
ENDS
SUNDAY
If you live in Australia, New Zealand, or North America there are
offers starting today that will enable you to make useful savings on tests from
Ancestry DNA.
For the US just click the banner above;
if you're in Canada please use this link;
if you live in Australia or New Zealand please use this link.
Colour tithe maps for
Middlesex online at The Genealogist
This week The Genealogist
added colour tithe maps for the old county of Middlesex (ie
not including London), following on from the Northumberland maps I mentioned in
the last issue. The image above is taken from the tithe map for New Brentford.
Tip: you can save £20 on a Diamond subscription to The Genealogist
if you follow this link.
On Saturday 1st April Anne Morddel, whose French Genealogy Blog I recommended
last year, will be presenting an afternoon course entitled "Tracing French
Genealogy" at the Society of Genealogists headquarters in London.
Unfortunately the course sold out while
I was writing this newsletter, but I thought it would nevertheless be useful to
reproduce this extract from the write-up:
"France has required the recording
of birth, marriage and death information since 1615, first as parish
registrations by curates and priests of baptisms, marriages and burials, then,
from 1792, as civil registrations. Nearly all of these, as well as those of
many Protestant churches, have been filmed, now digitised, and are available at
no charge online on the various websites of the Departmental Archives."
A number of readers who have written in
reporting problems finding returns clearly hadn't used the web page that I
created especially to make it simple - you'll find it here.
Although most of the returns aren't
online yet, the links on that page will work as and when they do become available,
so I would recommend bookmarking it in your browser.
Thanks for writing in with news of the
discoveries you've made in the returns that are already online.
Review: Tracing Your Pre-Victorian Ancestors
When John Wintrip, the
author of Tracing
Your Pre-Victorian Ancestors, wrote last November to ask whether I
would review his upcoming book I was somewhat reticent - I explained that I
can't read more than a fraction of the books that I'm invited to review, not
even when the book has been written by a LostCousins member.
Well, I'm jolly glad I made the time to
read his book! It's absolutely crammed with useful information, as well as
hints and tips to help those of us who don't have John's experience as a
professional genealogist. I found out quite a few things that I didn't know
before, and more importantly the book provided confirmation of numerous
assumptions I'd made in the past, but hadn't been able to back up with hard
evidence (despite having a bookcase full of genealogy books).
Many books seem to tail off towards the
end - whether this is because the author has run out of ideas or because the
reader has run out of stamina doesn't matter - but in Tracing You Pre-Victorian Ancestors the author has saved some of
the best bits for last. For example, I thought Chapter 10 (out of 14) on
"Evidence and Proof" was outstanding, by far the best thing I've read
on this thorny topic.
Chapter 11 deals with "Family
Reconstitution", then Chapter 12 tackles "Missing Ancestors",
presenting numerous useful techniques for knocking down those pesky 'brick
walls'. Chapter 13 focuses on "Mistaken Identity", and considers how
easily we make unsound assumptions, whether through carelessness or ignorance
(did you know, for example, that before the 18th century the term 'nephew'
might refer to a grandson, whilst a 'cousin' might be a nephew?).
Throughout the book the
style is friendly rather than condescending - it's more like being mentored
than lectured (I try to achieve the same in my newsletters, though whether I
succeed only you can judge!). Like all the best authors on genealogy his
writing is clearly influenced by the mistakes he made and the lessons he
learned along the way. The only friendly criticism I have is the failure to
mention LostCousins by name in the last chapter, "Help from Others"
(no doubt this will be rectified in the 2nd edition!).
Tracing Your
Pre-Victorian Ancestors deserves
a place on the bookshelves of anyone who is, or aspires to be, a serious family
historian. It's bang up to date - the GRO's new online indexes, which were
launched in November are mentioned - and whilst the examples are all from
England, most of the principles can also be applied to research in other
English-speaking countries.
The book is well worth
the published price of £14.99, but the good news is that when I checked Amazon UK
there were several sellers offering it at a useful discount, even taking into
account shipping costs.
Unfortunately it hasn't
been released yet in North America (it's due out in June in the US, with
Amazon.com quoting a price of $24.95), but if you are outside the UK I can recommend
Book Depository who are based in England, but offer free delivery worldwide
(their price was £14.14, less than US$18, when I checked just now). As ever,
you can support LostCousins by using the links below, even if you end up buying
something completely different.
Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com Amazon.ca Book Depository
Review: A Dictionary of Family History
The preface states "this book is part
encyclopedia, part dictionary, part almanac, part directory", and
continues "The idea was to create a work of reference where definitions of
obsolete terms rubbed shoulders with facts, dates, tips, advice, websites and
little-known sources."
If this gives you the impression that
the book is a bit of hotch-potch then you're right -
it isn't by any means comprehensive, and yet every time I opened the book at
random I came across something useful or interesting that I didn't know before.
For example, in a conventional
dictionary of family history you'd probably expect to find definitions of words
and phrases like 'peculiar', 'extra parochial', 'relict', 'messuage',
and 'Lady Day' - all terms that I encountered as I was reading the previous
book, but which don't merit an entry in this dictionary. Also omitted are
'brick wall', 'transcription', 'St Catherine's index', 'Family Record Centre',
'City of London', 'Findmypast', and even 'LostCousins'.
There are entries for both Abney Park
and Highgate cemeteries, but none for the other key London cemeteries that
opened around the same time, nor for the City of London Cemetery, even though
(according to Wikipedia) it's the largest municipal cemetery in the UK, and
possibly in Europe, with up to 1 million people interred there.
You'll find the Guild of One-Name
Studies mentioned under 'One-Name Studies, Guild of', but there is no entry for
'Surname studies' or 'One-Place studies'. The entry for 'Mormon' tells you that
they are members of the LDS Church - which is in the list of abbreviations, but
doesn't have an entry of its own, so you wouldn't necessarily know that members
of the church are often called Mormons. Staying with churches, Baptists,
Methodists, and Unitarians get a mention, but not Congregationalists.
Some entries which should be
cross-referenced aren't. For example, there's a brief entry under 'Marriage Act
of 1753' but to find out more about what it entailed you'd have to know to look
up 'Hardwicke's Marriage Act'. Similarly, an entry for the Miriam Weiner Routes
to Roots Foundation explains that it's a guide to Jewish and civil records in
Eastern Europe, but there's no entry for Eastern Europe, nor any mention of
this resource in any of the 'J' entries. There are entries for both Dade and
Barrington registers, but neither entry mentions the other - which would have
been helpful.
But realistically, most of my comments
are irrelevant in the age of the Internet - Google has most of the answers - so
the need for conventional dictionaries is fast disappearing. Nor would most people want to browse a
regular dictionary, whereas dipping into Jonathan Scott's compendium is like
watching QI - you'll discover all sorts of things that you didn't know you
didn't know (and I suspect you'll find it hard to resist a wry smile when you
read what he has written about the IGI!).
The cover price is £14.99 but at the
time of writing it was available at lower prices (including shipping) from the
sites below:
I've just started reading the next
Morton Farrier story from the pen of Nathan Dylan Goodwin - and this time it's
about Morton's search for his own father. I should be able to tell you more in
my next newsletter, but for now I'm just going to list the previous titles in
this genealogical mystery series in case you've missed out on one or two:
It isn't strictly necessary to read the
books in order, but I enjoy following the saga of Morton and his long-suffering
Juliette, so I suspect you will too.
But if you want to buy the new book now,
rather than waiting for my review, you'll find it here:
Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com Amazon.ca
Tip:
if you prefer paperbacks to ebooks you'll find that
there are secondhand copies of some of the earlier
books available at Amazon.
I try to keep the newsletters
light-hearted but there are times when I have no option but to be serious.
LostCousins doesn't simply exist to
brighten up your day - though I hope my newsletters manage to achieve that now
and again. I created LostCousins (and have spent a fifth of my entire life running
it) because I knew that every family historian has tens of thousands of living
cousins, some of whom will have invaluable information or heirlooms (including
photos, letters, certificates and, perhaps, the family Bible).
Of course, most of those cousins aren't
researching their family tree, and even fewer will be LostCousins members, but
anyone reading this who has predominantly British ancestry will have in the
region of 200 cousins (6th cousin or closer) who ARE fellow members.
And yet, most of you haven't made the
connections! Why? Because connecting with your cousins requires you both to put
in a little effort, by completing your My
Ancestors page. Some people do it on the day they join and find cousins
immediately - others put it off by coming up with lame excuses like "I
haven't got the time", "I don't know where to find the census
references", or "I haven't got a subscription to Ancestry/Findmypast".
Some are misled - understandably - by
the title My Ancestors. You're not
restricted to entering your direct ancestors - you can enter any of your
relatives who were recorded on the censuses (ideally the 1881 Census, as that's
the one your cousins are most likely to have used). Indeed, it's the members of
your ancestors' extended families - their brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces,
and cousins - who are most likely to connect you to your living cousins.
A few are simply selfish - they're only interested
in the lines where they need help, and not those where they can give help to
others (their own cousins, for goodness sake!). I'm sure you're not one of
them, so I'm just going to deal with the other obstacles….
"I haven't got the time"
assumes that using LostCousins takes time - when in reality it saves you time,
by connecting you with cousins with whom you can share the workload. Two
cousins working together can achieve so much more!
"I don't know where to find the
census references" is perhaps the lamest of all excuses, because there are
illustrated Getting Started guides on the Help & Advice page that
demonstrate how simple it is to find the 1881 census references (for other
censuses see the FAQs page, as well as the notes on the Add Ancestor form).
"I haven't got a subscription to
Ancestry/Findmypast" doesn't apply since there is at least one census from
all of the countries that LostCousins covers which is free online (it might
only be the transcription that's free, but if that's the case, you'll only need
access to the transcription in order to complete your My Ancestors page). The Census Links
page indicates which of the censuses are free online - and crucially, it
includes all the 1881 censuses that we use, the ones that are most likely to
connect you to your living cousins.
Of course, there are a few people for
whom it's very difficult, even impossible, to participate - although if the impressive
success of Jon (a blind member I've been corresponding with recently) is
anything to go by, those cases are few and far between. Even members whose direct
ancestors left these shores in the early 19th century should be able to find some
of the many relatives who stayed behind, or their descendants, on the censuses
we use.
Please don't write to tell me if you are
one of the few exceptions who is genuinely unable to take part in the search
for living cousins - I don't have a magic wand - but by all means write if you need
some help figuring out who to enter, or where to find their information.
However most of you are perfectly able
to complete your My Ancestors page -
you just haven't got around it. Don't plan to make a New Year's resolution -
you won't keep to it. Just do it!
Tuesday: If you're looking for a new monitor for your PC
why not amaze your friends with this
24in Samsung Full HD curved screen monitor for under £110 with free delivery!
This is a busy time of the year in the
family history world - so my next newsletter might arrive more quickly than
either of us expect. See you soon....
Tuesday: If you're looking for a new monitor for your PC
why not amaze your friends with this
24in Samsung Full HD curved screen monitor for under £110 with free delivery!
This is a busy time of the year in the
family history world - so my next newsletter might arrive more quickly than
either of us expect. See you soon....
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