Newsletter - 17th May
2020
How to make the most of lockdown
Free access to
leading surname resource ENDS 21ST MAY
Free access to London
parish records 18TH-31ST MAY
The evolutionary advantage
of twins
Even faster access to
Essex register images
Save on Who Do You
Think You Are? subscriptions
Top prize still
unclaimed! WIN $1000
The LostCousins
newsletter is usually published 2 or 3 times a month. To access the previous issue
(dated 8th May) click here; to find
earlier articles use the customised Google search between this paragraph and
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need to keep copies):
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How to make the most of lockdown
I
was relieved that the UK government continued to follow scientific advice when
announcing the roadmap for the next phase of the lockdown - which although it
applies only to England, isn't so very different from the plans announced by
the other parts of the UK.
But
family history doesn’t count as sport, and there's a limit to how much research
we can do out of doors since very few of the ancestors we're researching will
have any memorials marking their graves (let alone inscriptions that are legible).
It's likely to be some time before we can start
visiting record offices and other archives in person, so many family historians
will be restricted to using records that are online. LostCousins members, however,
have another vast resource to draw upon.
Let's
face it, it's highly unlikely you’re the first descendant to research a particular
ancestor, and when two people are descended from a common ancestor there's a
term that we use to describe their relationship - we call them cousins!
You'll already be in touch with some of the cousins
who are researching their ancestors, including the ancestors you share, but
there will be many more that are still 'lost'. If you have British, or mostly
British, ancestry there are likely to be around 200 cousins of yours amongst
the LostCousins membership, every one of them interested in family history, and
most of them actively researching.
Note:
the figure of 200 only includes 6th cousins and closer - there will, of course,
be many more who are more distant.
Of
course, if you’re one of the 25,000 people reading this
who lives in the New World the situation right now isn't that different from what
you’re used to - the records of your ancestors are always thousands of miles
away. For you, connecting with cousins in Britain who are in a far better
position to explore the archives is a key part of your strategy - or it
certainly should be!
Tip:
if your ancestors emigrated from Britain, even if it was as long ago as the
late 18th century, most of your living
cousins will still live in Britain - and they'll be descended from your
relatives who were recorded in the 1881 Census. This is one of the reasons why
tracking your collateral lines is a good strategy!
There's something else you can do during lockdown:
learn or experiment with new or different techniques. For example, if you
haven't tested your DNA, or have tested, but haven’t been following the advice
in my DNA
Masterclass, there's a whole new world of discovery waiting for you!
Or
perhaps you haven't explored the digital resources
available through your local library - right now most libraries which have
subscriptions to Ancestry and/or Findmypast are allowing their members access
from home. But that's not all that most libraries offer - my local library
offers historic newspapers that aren't available through any of the genealogy
websites, online magazines, and access to reference books (including The Oxford
Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland).
Free access to leading surname reference book ENDS 21ST
MAY
You
could spend £400 buying the printed version
of the book, but until Thursday 21st May you can access The Oxford
Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland online completely free of
charge.
Although
there are over 45,000 entries you probably won't find
every surname in your tree, and some will be lesser-used variants of other
surnames. Nor is the book likely to be correct about the origin of every
surname - it's a very complicated subject, with many
pitfalls.
If
you've tested your DNA it's likely that you have already compiled a list of
your ancestors' surnames (it’s one of the key steps in my DNA Masterclass); if
you haven’t already done this, now's a good time to do it - and make sure you
keep the list up to date as you knock down 'brick walls' and discover new
ancestral names. Follow this link
for free access - there is no need to log-in.
Free access to London parish records 18TH-31ST
MAY
The
London Metropolitan Archives have arranged for their records at Ancestry.co.uk to
be free during Family History Fortnight, which runs from Monday 18th May to Sunday
31st May.
The
records include parish registers for most parishes in London (registers held by
City Of Westminster Archives are online at
Findmypast).and well as wills, school records, and electoral registers. As the
offer doesn’t start until tomorrow I haven't been able
to check out how it works, but the chances are that you will need to register at
Ancestry (or log-in if you've registered previously). You won’t
be asked to provide credit card or bank details - if you are it's because you've
tried to view records that aren't in the offer, or have clicked the Free Trial
link by mistake.
London and Surrey, England, Marriage Bonds and
Allegations, 1597-1921
London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages
and Burials, 1538-1812
London, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms,
1813-1917
London, England, Church of England Confirmation Records,
1838-1923
London, England, Church of England Deaths and Burials,
1813-2003
London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns,
1754-1932
London, England, City Directories, 1736-1943
London, England, City of London
and Tower Hamlets Cemetery Registers, 1841-1966
London, England, Electoral Registers, 1832-1965
London, England, Freedom of the City Admission Papers,
1681-1930
London, England, Gamekeepers' Licences, 1727-1839
London, England, Land Tax Records, 1692-1932
London, England, Non-conformist Registers, 1694-1931
London, England, Overseer Returns, 1863-1894
London, England, Poor Law Hospital Admissions and
Discharges, 1842-1918
London, England, Poor Law School District Registers,
1852-1918
London, England, Poor Law and Board of Guardian Records,
1738-1926
London, England, School Admissions and Discharges,
1840-1911 FREE INDEX
London, England, School Admissions and Discharges,
1912-1918
London, England, Selected Poor Law Removal and Settlement
Records, 1698-1930 FREE INDEX
London, England, Selected Rate Books, 1684-1907
London, England, Stock Exchange Membership Applications,
1802-1924
London, England, TS Exmouth Training Ship Records,
1876-1918
London, England, Wills and Probate, 1507-1858
London, England, Workhouse Admission and Discharge
Records, 1764-1930
Middlesex, England, Convict Transportation Contracts, 1682-1787 FREE
INDEX
IMPORTANT:
make sure you download records that you find to your own computer - attaching
them to your Ancestry tree won’t allow you to access them after the free access
offer ends (unless you have an appropriate Ancestry subscription).
Where
there's
a will....
You
can currently access wills from the jurisdiction of the Prerogative Court of
Canterbury free at the National Archives website, but it's
very important to remember that most wills didn't need to go that high up. Some
of the most important clues to my London-based ancestors of German origin have
come from wills that were proved in lesser courts, and found in the London
Metropolitan Archives collection.
So whilst your main focus between now and the end of May
might well be on London parish registers, don't ignore the other records in the
collection.
The evolutionary advantage of twins
Twins
can be 'identical', descended from a single fertilised egg that fortuitously divided,
or 'fraternal', where two eggs are released and fertilised during the same
cycle.
Identical
twins seem to occur by chance - there is no evidence that it is a heritable
trait. However fraternal twins do run in families, and for some time researchers
have wondered whether there was an evolutionary advantage - even though the statistics
show that twins are more likely to die in infancy (something that most family
historians will be well aware of), and the risks to mothers are also higher.
This
article
describes analysis carried out by researchers that seeks to explain why evolution
might favour mothers who are more likely to produce twins.
One
factor they don’t seem to have considered - but other
researchers might - is that twins tend to be smaller than single babies, and this
might make natural births a little easier.
Note:
there is some evidence that twins (both identical and fraternal) are more likely
to be born with defects but I haven't had a chance to fully
review the literature.
My
wife spotted this story
in The Guardian about a man who discovered that his aunt was his mother
- now, which fictional genealogist does that remind you of? (The answer is at
the end of this newsletter.)
It's
nearly a year since Ancestry launched their indexed transcriptions of Essex
parish registers held by the Essex Record Office - these have allowed me to knock
down some of my own 'brick walls' and extend some of my Essex lines back by as
many as 5 generations. On one line I was able to go from 1757 back to the late
1500s in a matter of hours, and was able to confirm my research as far back as
the mid-1600s thanks to DNA matches with some 8th cousins.
Note:
although the chance of getting a match with a specific 8th cousin are very small, typically less than 1%, we have so many 8th
cousins that we're bound to get matches with cousins who are this distant. See
the table near the beginning of my DNA
Masterclass for some mind-blowing statistics!
As
most of those with Essex ancestors will know, Ancestry don't
have images of the register on their site - instead they provide a link to the
Essex Ancestors site run by the Essex Record Office. There you'll
see a small low-resolution image of the page, one that you could copy to a
graphics program and magnify, but probably won’t be very legible.
Tip:
pages from printed registers (typically marriages after 1753, baptisms and burials
after 1813) are more likely to be legible when magnified.
Essex
Ancestors allow you to purchase a high resolution image for £2.99 but many
people with ancestors from Essex will find it cheaper to purchase a
subscription:
1
day (24 hours) - £20.00
1
week (7 days) - £30.00
1
month (30 days) - £40.00
6
months (182 days) - £70.00
1
year (365 days) - £95.00
You'd
think that someone like me with a subscription would be able to view the high
resolution image of the register page simply by clicking on a link, but sadly
no special provision has been made for subscribers - which is why, when Ancestry
launched their index last year I developed a technique
for subscribers to locate the image much more quickly.
However,
it was still a bit more time-consuming than I would wish, so I was hoping that the
Essex Record Office would come up with a 'proper' solution to replace my kludge.
But they didn't, so in the next article I'm going to provide
my streamlined fix, which is far quicker and much more usable.
Even faster access to Essex register images
As
explained in the previous article, it's much more difficult
than it ought to be for subscribers to Essex Ancestors to make use of
Ancestry's wonderful index to Essex register entries.
To
start paste the URL below into a tab in your browser:
https://www.essexarchivesonline.co.uk/ViewSecureImage.aspx?&ID=950804&DocID=12311
The
simplest way to do this is to right-click the link and choose Copy Hyperlink.
Note that the link won’t
work unless you have a subscription to Essex Ancestors and are logged-in to
your account. Leave the tab open - you'll need to go
to it later.
The
next time you find a transcribed record in Ancestry's index which you'd like to
view in the register click the link to Essex Ancestors and copy the 6 or 7
figure number which follows the letters 'id' in the URL. For example, in the
case below you would copy the number '934220':
https://www.essexarchivesonline.co.uk//ancestry.aspx?id=934220
Make
sure you’re logged in to Essex Ancestors, then go to the tab that you've been keeping
open and paste the number you've just copied in place of the first number, so
that in this example you would end up
with:
https://www.essexarchivesonline.co.uk/ViewSecureImage.aspx?&ID=934220&DocID=12311
Again,
this link will only work if you have a subscription to Essex Ancestors and are
logged-in to your account.
Keep
the tab open. From now on, every time you want to view a high-resolution image
of a record you've found, make sure you’re logged-in
at Essex Ancestors, then paste the new id into the URL. It's
a much shorter solution than the one I found last year.
Note:
there is one slight disadvantage to this new streamlined technique - you won’t be able to page backwards and forwards through the
images in the register. Even if the buttons work, they'll
take you a page in a different register. But don’t worry, there's a fix for
this too - you can manually alter the number that you pasted into the URL, eg deduct 1 to go to the previous
page, add 1 to go forwards one page.
Nothing
in this article will work unless you have a current subscription to Essex Ancestors
- but if you do it will save you an enormous amount of time. Indeed, it’s the reason I was able to make so many breakthroughs
last week!
Save on Who Do You Think You Are? subscriptions EXCLUSIVE
I've been a reader of Who Do You Think You Are?
magazine since it launched. Even though I have many sources of information
there are always a few things in the magazine that I didn’t already know, plus
a few that I'd forgotten, so I always read it as soon as possible after it arrives
through my letterbox (after disinfecting it, of course!).
I'm
delighted that I've been able to persuade Who Do You Think You Are? to
offer a special deal for LostCousins members in the UK - 6 issues of the magazine
for just £9.99 (less than you'd pay at the newsagents for 2 issues).
To
take advantage of this offer please follow this link.
Top prize still unclaimed! WIN $1000
Most
of the prizes on offer in my competition have yet to be claimed, including the
top prize of $1000 (or £1000 or €1000, depending on where you live). It's not a fortune, but it's more than Billie Jean King
received for winning the Wimbledon Ladies Singles in 1968.
To
have a chance of winning simply add relatives from the 1881 Census (of England
& Wales, Scotland, or Canada) to your My Ancestors page at the
LostCousins site. There are many other prizes still to be won, including
Ancestry DNA tests and LostCousins subscriptions.
Of
course, the real reason you're adding relatives is to
connect with the other members who are researching your ancestors - the prizes
are simply a bonus. And whilst it's impossible for
every member to win a prize, it’s very possible for every member to find some
'lost cousins'.
Remember
we all have thousands of cousins that we don’t know -
and whilst they're not all members of LostCousins, the ones who have joined
are inevitably going to be the keenest family historians.
Note:
for full details of the competition please follow this link.
It's all Greek to me.....
Ploughing
through parish registers looking for records of my ancestors I came across some
comments written in Greek, presumably by the incumbent - as it’s
54 years since I studied Ancient Greek at school I asked for assistance on the
LostCousins forum, and I was pleasantly surprised to receive an almost
immediate response.
Tip:
if you’re entitled to join the LostCousins Forum you'll
find a link and a coupon code on your My Summary page.
In
the last issue I asked whether you could work out the meaning of the symbols shown
in a Yorkshire parish register. You'll find the answer at the end of this
newsletter, but if you first want to have another go at solving this riddle
follow this link
to the original article.
You
may recall that earlier this month I published a newspaper article from 1933 in
which a disgruntled reader was complaining about someone who had clearly enjoyed
a cheese sandwich while reading a library book.
This
inspired Camilla (no, not that one) to write in about the foreign objects that she
had come across:
"I had a little laugh at the newspaper
cutting, 'Cheese is not a good book-mark'. I'm an ex-librarian and have found a
slice of uncooked bacon, and a rather rubbery fried egg (yes, it was real),
used as bookmarks, along with the more mundane supermarket receipts and
lollipop sticks."
I
have to admit that I can’t always lay my hands on a
proper bookmark, so I use whatever will do the job. But they’re
my books, not library books, so it’s not quite so bad.
I
took a chance this week and placed a Tesco Click & Collect order - it's so
difficult to get a home delivery slot - and was delighted to discover that I
could collect it in the early morning, before the store opened, and that I didn’t
have to go anywhere near the store itself.
Two
employees brought my order out and left me to put it in the boot myself, which
was ideal - I didn't even have to wind down my window
while they were present. Well worth considering if, like me, you're
trying to avoid contact with people outside your household.
Of
course, I still took the precaution of disinfecting the groceries when I got
back using the hydrogen peroxide solution
I mentioned recently. Experts differ as to whether it’s
essential - but I don’t believe in taking unnecessary chances. And yes, I did
wear a mask when I went out - one that was beautifully sewn by my wife.
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......
Finally, the strange symbols in the parish register were, of
course, indicating the day of the week. Although I don't recall seeing these
symbols in English registers before, I discovered that they are more common in
German registers, as you can see from this FamilySearch article.
And the fictional genealogist who discovered that his aunt was his
mother is, of course, Morton Farrier, hero of Nathan Dylan Goodwin's wonderful 'Forensic
Genealogist' series. You can find my review of the latest and greatest book in
the series here.
I'll be back with more news and articles very soon - in the
meantime, please stay safe, and protect your ancestors'
memories by connecting with your 'lost cousins'!
Peter Calver
Founder, LostCousins
© Copyright 2020 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
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not invite other family historians to join LostCousins instead, since standard
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