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Newsletter – 24th May 2024

 

 

Save 20% on Ancestry.co.uk memberships ENDS WEDNESDAY

More 20th century marriages missing from the GRO indexes

19th century marriages may have even more gaps

What are the GRO planning? LATEST NEWS

Memorial Day offers at Ancestry.com

Investigating disinheritance: can you help?

Save 25% at the British Newspaper Archive ENDS MONDAY

Naming traditions in England & Wales

The Bourne ultimatum

Save 25% on Ancestry DNA UK ONLY

Who Do You Think You Are? magazine OFFER ENDS 31ST MAY

Did your ancestors shop at Sainsbury’s?

Stop Press

 

The LostCousins newsletter is usually published 2 or 3 times a month. To access the previous issue (dated 11th May) click here; to find earlier articles use the customised Google search between this paragraph and the next (it searches ALL of the newsletters since February 2009, so you don't need to keep copies):

 

 

To go to the main LostCousins website click the logo at the top of this newsletter. If you're not already a member, do join - it's FREE, and you'll get an email to alert you whenever there's a new edition of this newsletter available!

 

 

Save 20% on Ancestry.co.uk memberships ENDS WEDNESDAY

It’s a long time – probably several years – since I’ve been able to offer members a discount on Ancestry.co.uk memberships. So if you’ve been considering becoming an Ancestry.co.uk member, whether for the first time or as a lapsed member, NOW is the time to make up your mind – because the offer ends at 11.59pm on Wednesday 29th May.

 

We all have our personal preferences when it comes to websites and the way the work, but ultimately what matters are the records in their database – you can’t find something that isn’t there. And once we get back past 1837 the records that we rely on more than any other are parish registers – which are usually only available at one of the major subscription site. In the Masterclass Tracking down pre-1837 baptisms and marriages you’ll find this list of parish registers at Ancestry:

 

Bexley, Birmingham, Bristol, Derbyshire, Devon,  Dorset, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Lancashire, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Somerset, Surrey, Sutton, East Sussex, West Sussex, Warwickshire, Westminster, Wigan, Wiltshire, Worcestershire, York, North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, and most of Wales. Ancestry also have indexed transcriptions of Essex registers, with links to the register pages at the Essex Archive Online site (this requires a separate subscription). Ancestry are also in the process of digitizing Suffolk registers, and have finished scanning Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire registers, so that’s something to look forward to in the future.

 

Of course, you can also make use of parish registers after 1837 – in particular, most marriages took place in church during the 19th century, and a downloaded image of the original marriage register entry is not only cheaper and more authentic but often more legible than a certificate based on the COPY registers held by the General Register Office. And you get to see your ancestors’ handwriting, which is a bonus.

 

If you’ve tested your DNA with Ancestry you won’t need to be convinced of the merits of an Ancestry membership – it will open up features such as ThruLines and Common Ancestors, as well as allowing you to view the entire public trees of your DNA matches (as well as any of the other public trees on the site). Of course, you should never implicitly trust someone else’s tree – but it’s a great starting point.

 

Please use the link below so that LostCousins can – with luck – benefit from your purchase (if you can use Chrome or Edge rather than Firefox or Brave it will greatly improve the chances):

 

Save 20% on Ancestry® Family History Memberships. Terms Apply.

 

Tip: if the links appear not to work the first time, log-out from Ancestry then PLEASE click the link again.

 

 

More 20th century marriages missing from the GRO indexes

In the last issue I revealed that there is an entire page of marriages missing from the index for the 4th quarter of 1969 – perhaps 140 spouses were unrecorded. Thanks to Jeff, who visited the British Library, it has been confirmed that they are also missing from the indexes deposited at a small number of libraries in order to fulfil the General Register Office’s statutory duty. Jeff also noticed that pages 809 and 810 were identical – but as one is a left-hand page and the other a right-hand page the error must have occurred when the paper index was created, and not when it was microfilmed.   

 

Given that each marriage involves two parties it’s very unlikely that any marriages were completely missing from the index, but family historians often don’t know the names of both spouses – indeed, we may not know whether there was a marriage at all. As there were over 90,000 marriages in that quarter, a very small percentage are affected – about 0.15% – but it’s nevertheless disturbing that a computer-generated index could be incomplete.

 

However it turns out that there was more than one page missing from that quarter’s index – eagle-eyed Jeff also noticed that page 553 (names between HAVENHAND and HAWKESWOOD) and page 1209 (names between SUCKLING and SULLIVAN) are also missing from the online indexes – which means that the number of marriages affected is over 400, approaching 0.5% of the total. Some of those marriages – perhaps as many as a quarter – will involve relatives of people reading this newsletter. All of the missing index entries are pointers to important records.

 

 

19th century marriages may have even more gaps

Some of you will have read the two volumes written by the late Michael Whitfield Foster, and published by him in 1998 and 2002 under the title A Comedy of Errors or The Marriage Records of England and Wales 1837-1899. It’s more understandable that there would have been mistakes made in the 19th century, since the system would have been entirely manual.

Note: in 1837 photocopiers, typewriters, and duplicators had yet to be invented – though James Watt, best-known for his invention of the steam engine had, in 1780, come up with an ingenious way of copying handwritten documents (using a copying press). However, I don’t believe it was used by the GRO for their registers and indexes – nor are they likely to have used carbon paper, though it had been invented in the early years of the 19th century by Ralph Wedgwood, cousin of the famous Josiah.

 

One example of the errors identified by Michael Whitfield Foster appears in Appendix 8 of the first volume: the marriage index for the 2nd quarter of 1844 jumps from John JENKIN to Thomas JENKINS. Many of the handwritten quarterly indexes were typed as the pages deteriorated through use, and in this case it seems likely that the clerk turned over two pages rather than one – if so there must be about 80 entries missing, since there are usually 40 entries per handwritten index page. It’s only 80 out of 35,000 marriages that are affected by this clerical error, but if you’ve read the books you’ll know that the author identified many other sources of errors (which are documented in his books).

 

Fortunately for family historians, most 19th century marriages took place in the parish church, so with more and more parish registers becoming available online we have an alternative source of information. This isn’t the case for much of the 20th century, and by 2019 only 15% of couples were marrying in church.

 

 

What are the GRO planning? LATEST NEWS

All of the missing marriage entries I’ve written about above would be found if the GRO were to reindex their marriage registers, as they have already done for births from 1837-1934 and deaths from 1837-1957. Those new birth and death indexes wers created as part of a digitisation project which was terminated by mutual agreement in 2008.

 

You may recall that at the beginning of this year I referred to a government tender on behalf of the General Register Office for scanning and transcription services with an estimated value of £38m over a 5-year period. I’ve just discovered a press release from 2nd May put out by a company called XBP Europe announcing that:

 

the Company has been selected by His Majesty’s Passport Office (HMPO) as its technology and services partner on a nationwide project, which aims to make documents dating back to 1837 digitally available to the General Register Office (GRO). This multi-year contract in the UK has an approximate total contract value of $40 million.”

 

The press release continues “The GRO, part of HMPO, maintains the national archive of births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales. This project is one strand of a wider transformation program for GRO to update its systems and services. With some records dating back to 1837, the GRO faces significant document quality issues, which complicates the process of making them digital. Varied record formats must be handled, paper records are often faded, and microfilm can be of poor quality.”

 

Although there are clearly issues with the births and deaths that have previously been scanned and indexed, I would be surprised if marriages were not to be included in this new project. It would appear from the press release that XBP will be employing AI to transcribe the records and, considering how successful the AI-based transcriptions of the US 1950 and Canada 1930 censuses proved to be, this is a promising approach.

 

 

Memorial Day offers at Ancestry.com SAVE 40%

Until the early morning of Tuesday 28th May you can save 40% on memberships at Ancestry.com (though if you’re in the UK I think you’ll find that the UK offer above will work out cheaper once tax and exchange rates are taken into account).

 

Please use the link below so that you can support LostCousins with your purchase:

 

Save 40% on a 6-month Ancestry® US Discovery membership. Only $69! Ends 28 May 2024.

Save 40% on a 6-month Ancestry® World Explorer membership. Only $99! Ends 28 May 2024.

Save 40% on a 6-month Ancestry® All Access membership. Only $149! Ends 28 May 2024.

 

 

Investigating disinheritance: can you help?

Many of you will have attended one of Professor Rebecca Probert’s talks and lectures over the past 12 years – including the exclusive presentations she gave to prize-winners in this year’s competition. In return many LostCousins members have helped by providing data from their own family trees to assist research that Professor Probert has been carrying out. On this occasion Professor Probert would appreciate your help on a different topic.

 

From 1 January 1926, English law set out clear rules as to who would inherit in the absence of a will. The Inheritance (Family Provision) Act 1938 introduced the possibility of a spouse, unmarried daughter, or infant or incapacitated son, challenging a will on the basis that it did not make reasonable provision for them. Not until 1 April 1976 was it possible for ANY child of the deceased to bring such a claim. This project aims to investigate disinheritance in this period, with the aims of (1) informing academic research and (2) collating and disseminating the information in a way that will help the wider family history community understand this area.

 

What information is being collected?

 

Did any of your ancestors leave a will that was admitted to probate between 1 January 1926 and 31 March 1986 that did not leave anything to a surviving spouse or children?

 

If so,

·        what date was the will admitted to probate?

·        who were the other beneficiaries under the will?

·        were any reasons given on the face of the will for not leaving anything to the surviving spouse or children?

·        are you aware of any reason (eg previous substantial lifetime gifts to that person, the greater need of other beneficiaries, estrangement or disapproval) for not leaving anything to the surviving spouse or children?

 

If you would like to share this information please email Professor Probert at R.J.Probert@exeter.ac.uk with these and any further details you would like to share (or if you have any questions about the project).

 

Emailing the information will be deemed to be consent to it being used as set out below. Taking part in the research does not pose any foreseeable risks to those providing information.

 

How will the information be used?

All data will be entered into an Excel spreadsheet on a password-protected computer. If anyone wishes to withdraw from the project prior to publication, they can email me at the address above to request the deletion of the data they provided. Otherwise the data will be kept for 10 years and then destroyed.

 

The findings will inform a chapter on disinheritance for an edited collection. A summary of the findings will be made available to all those who provided information and will be disseminated to the family history community more widely.

 

All personal data (eg email addresses) will be processed in line with the data protection principles under the GDPR.

 

Who has reviewed this study?

This project has been reviewed by the FHASS Social Sciences and International Studies Ethics Committee at the University of Exeter (Reference Number 5450195).

 

Further information and contact details

If you are not happy with any aspect of the project and wish to complain you are welcome to contact Ethics Committee for the Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at fhass-ethics@exeter.ac.uk or the Research Ethics and Governance Team at cgr-reg@exeter.ac.uk.

IMPORTANT: in case anyone is concerned about providing information of this kind, Professor Probert has asked me to add that the information can be provided without naming the individuals involved, and that no identifying information will be stored or published.

 

 

Save 25% at the British Newspaper Archive ENDS MONDAY

Until 11.59pm (London time) on Monday 27th May you can save 25% on subscriptions to the British Newspaper Archive. The offer applies to 1 month, 3 month, and 12 month subscriptions, but bear in mind that the discount only applies to the first payment, so the longer the subscription the more you’ll pay. For example, under the offer a 12 month subscription will cost £74.99, but a monthly subscription would cost £11.24 for the first month and £14.99 for each month after that – so after just 5 month you will already and have paid over £71.

 

Bear in mind that you can also access the British Newspaper Archive through Findmypast – provided you have a Pro or Premium subscription. So you might find it more cost-effective to purchase a Findmypast subscription, or upgrade your subscription if you currently have a Plus subscription.

 

To take advantage of the British Newspaper Archive offer and – hopefully – support LostCousins with your purchase, please use the link below:

 

British Newspaper Archive – SAVE 25% until Monday 27th May

 

 

Naming traditions in England & Wales

20 years ago I discovered a very interesting article online – unfortunately I was never able to find it again. But last week I was sorting out the books, files, and papers in my study when I came across a copy of the article that I’d printed on 4th September 2004, and which gave the URL in the footer.

 

The bad news was that it was a personal website at a Freeserve address – and Freeserve disappeared long ago. So I headed off to the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive where I could see that the page had been captured on 4th August 2004, exactly one month before I had printed it out.

 

What I found particularly interesting about the article at the time – and still do now – is the way that it looked at forenames across time, starting before the Norman Conquest and continuing into the 20th century. However, because I’ve researched back further than I had in 2004 there are aspects which are more relevant than they were then, such as the changes after the Reformation.

 

I recommend that you follow this link to the archived version of the article – it is well worth reading.

 

 

The Bourne ultimatum

In the last issue I explained that the name of the town of Bourne in Lincolnshire was generally spelled Bourn until the late 19th century, though at the time of writing I had no idea what had triggered the change. But the next day I received an email from Peter, a reader who lives in the area, and had been investigating the spelling of the name since I first mentioned Bourn(e) two newsletter ago.

 

Apparently the Post Office added the ‘e’ unofficially in an attempt to distinguish the town in Lincolnshire from the village of Bourn, about 50 miles away in Cambridgeshire. This didn’t, however, solve the problem and by the spring of 1893 the confusion had become so onerous that a meeting was called to settle the matter. The Grantham Journal set out the arguments in an article published on Saturday 3rd June 1893 ahead of a meeting in the town hall on Monday 5th June, which was to be chaired by Mr Alderman Wherry. There was another article the following week which reported that the change in name had been unanimously approved – you can read about it here.  

 

 

Save 25% on Ancestry DNA UK ONLY

If you are in the UK you can currently save 25% on Ancestry DNA tests – and do remember to follow the advice in my DNA Masterclass, otherwise you’ll not only be wasting your time, you won’t make nearly as many discoveries!

 

Save 25% on AncestryDNA®. Terms Apply.

 

Tip: I’ve attached a direct ancestors-only public tree to my DNA results – it’s my only public tree, as I’m very conscious of my relatives’ privacy. But whatever tree you attach to your DNA results, it must be searchable – even if it is private – otherwise most of the wonderful features won’t work.

 

 

Who Do You Think You are? magazine OFFER ENDS 31ST MAY

I've been a reader of Who Do You Think You Are? magazine ever since issue 1, and I can tell you from personal experience that every issue is packed with advice on how to research your family tree, including how to track down online records, how to get more from DNA tests, and the ever-popular readers' stories. Naturally you also get to look behind-the-scenes of the popular Who Do You Think You Are? TV series.

 

There's an extra special introductory offer for members in the UK, but there are also offers for overseas readers, each of which offers a useful saving on the cover price:

 

UK - try 6 issues for just £9.99

Europe - 13 issues (1 year) for €74.99

Australia - 13 issues (1 year) for AU $125

Rest of the world - 13 issues (1 year) for US $89.99

 

To take advantage of any of these deals (and to support LostCousins) please follow this link.

 

 

Did your ancestors shop at Sainsbury’s?

The Sainsbury Archive documents the history of Sainsbury’s from its foundation in 1869, and also provides a unique record of the changes in retailing since the mid-19th century. Most of those changes have occurred during my lifetime, and I found a superb photo of the Seven Kings store in 1955 – it was a wonderful reminder of what it was like when I went to buy shopping for my mother in the late 1950s.

 

Tip: I found the photo by following a link to an article in the JS Journal, the staff magazine. It wasn’t immediately obvious so it’s worth experimenting with the site.

 

 

Stop Press

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......

 

 

Description: Description: peter_signature

 

Peter Calver

Founder, LostCousins

 

© Copyright 2024 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?

 

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