Newsletter – 17th
November 2020
Save 30% at Findmypast ENDS MONDAY 23RD
Sussex registers at FamilySearch
Don't ignore Bishop's
Transcripts
Why Ancestry and Findmypast add FamilySearch
records
Last chance to save on DNA tests? ENDING SOON
Review: Tracing Your Prisoner Ancestors
Review: Henry VIII in 100 Objects
The LostCousins
newsletter is usually published 2 or 3 times a month. To access the previous issue
(dated 5th November) 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!
The
recent announcements that the first COVID-19 vaccines are over 90% effective have
been very encouraging – at least we now know that there is light at the end of
the tunnel, even though we still don’t know how long the tunnel is.
I
don’t know about you, but the response of my wife and
I to the news has been to redouble our commitment to preventing the infection
reaching our household. We've succeeded for 8 months,
we can manage for another 4 months - or however long it takes to get to the head
of the vaccination queue. Some people might regard it as a year wasted, but for
us it has been a year to take stock, and to spend time on those important, but non-urgent
things that otherwise never get done.
One
thing we certainly won't be doing is taking risks at
Christmas – nowadays we don’t need our relatives to be within spitting distance
in order to talk to them. I can remember from my childhood that you used to have
to book several days in advance if you wanted to speak to friends or relatives
in Australia on Christmas Day and it cost an arm and a leg. Now, thanks to
the Internet, even a video call to the other side of the world won’t cost us a penny.
Note:
although I've written Christmas, it could be Hanukkah,
Thanksgiving or whatever occasion is most special for you and your family.
Staying
safe doesn't mean that we can't see our friends and
relatives at Christmas – it simply means that we can't be in the same house. Things
have changed dramatically since March – most of us have used some form of
video-conferencing to talk to others, and in so doing we've overcome all sorts
of hurdles that we might not previously have attempted.
So
why not use Zoom or some other free service to connect with people you love on
Christmas Day? Set up a screen in the right place and you could even have
Christmas Dinner together. At this time of the year many of the things we eat are
prepared in advance, so why not organise things so that you all eat the same
food – each person, even the children, could take responsibility for preparing a
different item that's shared with everyone else in the same Zoom conference. It
doesn’t have to be food - it could be party hats, or
decorations – just so long as everyone gets involved.
Did
you see the article
on BBC News about the Bridport couple who combined their surnames when they
married, becoming Mr & Mrs White-Christmas? Apparently
they first met at school, aged 12, so they've had plenty of time to find
someone else with an even more appropriate surname!
Sadly
2019 was a year of divorces in England & Wales – the total increased by
nearly a fifth over the previous year, to the highest level since 2014. You can
read more in this BBC News article. And
supposedly 'lockdown strain' is going to lead to even more divorces in 2020,
though I'm not so sure…. we shall see.
Save up to 30% at Findmypast ENDS MONDAY
23RD
Until 23rd November you can save between 25% and 30% on any new or upgraded 12 month subscription to Findmypast when you follow the
appropriate link below:
Findmypast.co.uk
– SAVE 30% until 23rd November
Findmypast.com
– SAVE 25% until 23rd November
Findmypast.ie
– SAVE 25% until 23rd November
Findmypast.com.au
– SAVE 25% until 23rd November
At the UK site this brings the cost of a PLUS subscription
(British and Irish records) down below £84, and means that a PRO subscription
(which includes virtually unlimited access to ALL of Findmypast's billions
of worldwide records as well as their entire newspaper collection), at around
30p a day, costs less than the normal price of a PLUS subscription!
(At the US site the subscriptions are called ESSENTIAL and
ULTIMATE, but they're equivalent to PLUS and PRO – but
please note that the link provided by Findmypast was not working properly when
this newsletter went to press).
And because this is first time I've been able to offer you a
discount on Findmypast subscriptions since April Fools
Day I'm going to give you a FREE LostCousins subscription when you support
LostCousins by using the link above to buy a 12 month Findmypast subscription
(and to ensure that your purchase is tracked as coming from this newsletter by
following the advice below).
You'll qualify for a 6-month
LostCousins subscription when we receive commission on your purchase of a 12-month
PLUS subscription, or a 12-month LostCousins subscription if you go for a 12-month
PRO subscription. Findmypast are also offering discounts on shorter
subscriptions but you'll do much better to lock in your savings for a full 12
months, so I'm not offering any bonus on subscriptions under 12 months, or on any
Starter subscriptions (which, quite frankly, are unsuitable for LostCousins
members – they're strictly for beginners).
HOW TO SUPPORT LOSTCOUSINS AND GET A FREE
LOSTCOUSINS SUBSCRIPTION
Unfortunately simply
clicking one of my links doesn’t absolutely guarantee that you'll be supporting
LostCousins when you make your purchase, because these days quite a few people
use adblocking software, or have disabled tracking in their browser. Whether
you've done this deliberately or inadvertently, it can have a big impact on
small independent websites like LostCousins - in effect you’re telling the big
website that you're buying from to ignore the information about which site you
just came from. This prevents them from paying any commission on your purchase
- great news for the big website, since it adds to their profits, but very
tough on the small genealogy websites that depend on that income.
If you help LostCousins then LostCousins will help you. Your
subscription will commence on the day you bought your Findmypast subscription
unless you already have a LostCousins subscription, in which case I'll extend it by 6 or 12 months, as appropriate.
Tip: if you are also researching on behalf of your partner or
another family member you can link the two accounts together and get a joint
subscription covering BOTH accounts. Simply enter the other person's Membership
Number (found on their My Summary page, or in a Password Reminder email), in
the relevant box on your My Details page.
First make sure that your purchase is going to be tracked. If you
normally use Firefox, Opera, or Safari I suggest you load up this newsletter in
a different browser, such as Chrome or Microsoft Edge, before clicking the link
above and making your purchase. All major browsers are free, so it makes sense
to have a choice (many problems can be solved by using a different browser).
Tip: it's well worth installing multiple
browsers as some websites for newspapers and magazines only allow a limited
number of free articles each month; if you have two browsers you can usually
have a double helping!
I also suggest you use a computer rather than a smartphone or
tablet, but whatever device you choose, stick to it - clicking my link on one
device and making your purchase on another won't work.
You'll find the 'Do not track'
switch under Advanced Settings in older versions of Chrome, and under 'Privacy and security',
then 'Cookies and other site data' in the latest version, The default setting is OFF, as shown
below, and this is what you want:
The switch should be to the LEFT. If the switch is
to the right (and blue) then please move it to the left.
In Edge you'll find the switch under
'Privacy, search and services' and it works in the same way. If it appears
blue with a white dot, move it to the left so that it is grey with a black dot.
I suggest you also temporarily turn off Tracking Prevention so that it is greyed out.
Once you are satisfied that your purchase is going to be tracked,
click the link and make your purchase, noting
the EXACT time of the purchase, without which I cannot confirm that
you qualify. You may receive an email receipt for your purchase from Findmypast
- if so you can forward this to me to claim your free LostCousins subscription –
but don’t assume it's going to arrive (especially if you have a Hotmail or
Yahoo email address). Otherwise send me an email quoting the precise time and
date of your purchase (including the time zone), and
stating the price you paid for your subscription.
IF IN DOUBT PLEASE CHECK WITH ME BEFORE MAKING
YOUR PURCHASE - AFTERWARDS WILL BE TOO LATE!
Sussex registers at FamilySearch
Over
the years I've written several times about the appearance
and disappearance of Sussex parish registers at the FamilySearch website. I don’t
have any ancestors from Sussex – so far as I know – but some of the branches of
my tree ended up in the county, and this weekend I was taking a look at the
registers for Petworth in West Sussex.
But
although you can view the register pages in a letterbox-shaped window the
download function at the FamilySearch site is disabled in accordance with the
agreement between FamilySearch and West Sussex County Council. However there's nothing to stop you taking a screenshot while
the relevant entry is visible; you can also right-click and select copy image.
Tip:
see this article
for a range of screenshotting techniques – though to keep things really simple I
just use the Print Screen key and paste the contents of the clipboard into the Irfanview
program that I've been using since it was recommended to me by a LostCousins
member over a decade ago..
Some parish registers for East Sussex are also online,
and subject to similar restrictions. To find out what is available for a
specific parish use the Catalog, and specify 'Online',
eg:
Always select the placename from the drop-down list
provided.
Don't
ignore Bishop's Transcripts
Bishop's Transcripts are the Church of England
equivalent of GRO registers – they're manuscript
copies of the registers originally held by the parish church (and now usually
in the county record office). Many of them have been transcribed by FamilySearch,
and they're particularly useful for those counties
where the original registers aren’t available online, not least because BTs are often held in different locations
from the registers.
For example, you can't
view the registers for Cambridgeshire online, but FamilySearch has an extensive
collection of Bishop's Transcripts which you can view online. You can't download the images,
but you can copy them using one of the techniques described in the previous
article. The BTs for Essex will also prove useful if you don’t
have a subscription to Essex Ancestors (and they are downloadable).
Although Bishop's Transcripts are copies, and so
could contain errors, they're generally more reliable than modern transcripts,
not least because the person making the copies would have been familiar with
the handwriting (indeed, it might well have been his own handwriting). And
sometimes Bishop's Transcripts are more accurate than the original registers,
for example where an error or omission has been spotted and corrected.
It's worth bearing in mind that the entries in the church registers were
often copied from notes kept by the vicar or the sexton – so they weren't
original, either. (See this article
from 2016 for more information about the role of the sexton, and the
information recorded in a sexton's notebook.)
Tip: at FamilySearch
(or in records at other sites compiled by FamilySearch) transcribed entries
from Bishop's Transcripts don't always include the name of the parish – instead
they might give the name of the archdeaconry, or just the name of the county. I've found this to be a particular problem in west Suffolk,
where events are often recorded as taking place in Sudbury or Bury St Edmunds,
but I'm sure there are many other examples.
Several readers wrote to tell me that there were
links missing from my last newsletter – in each case it transpired that they
were using adblocking software, which was making the links disappear.
Fortunately it seems that you can disable this software
on sites that you trust – so if you use adblocking software I suggest you add
LostCousins to the list now, otherwise you won't know what you’re missing.
Why Ancestry and Findmypast add FamilySearch records
Last month Findmypast added nearly half a million
BMD records from the Bahamas – these added to the tens of millions of records
at Findmypast that have been provided by FamilySearch.
Why, you might wonder, do Ancestry and Findmypast
add records that are already free at FamilySearch? There are two main reasons –
one is that you can attach them to your tree more easily, the other is that they
can provide you with hints that relate to these record sets.
Tip: sometimes you'll
find that the same record appears in multiple datasets, but with a different
year – when this happens it's typically because the event precedes the changes
in the calendar which (in England & Wales) took place in 1752.
In
1948 General Eisenhower commented that "I have heard it said facetiously
that Britain and America are two nations separated by a common language." He
wasn't the first to convey these sentiments – the saying has also been attributed
to George Bernard Shaw, although nobody can find any evidence that he said it;
Oscar Wilde was thinking along the same lines when he wrote "the Americans
and the British are identical in all respects except, of course, their
language".
Growing
up I remember being taught that in the USA a billion was a thousand million,
whereas in Britain it was a million million – the Americans
certainly seem to have won that particular battle. Later
on I discovered that their pints, quarts, and gallons were also smaller – a ten
gallon hat would only be an eight gallon hat in England – and that whilst their
pounds were the same, they didn’t know what a stone was.
As
family historians we not only have to cope with the challenges of the switch
from Julian to the Gregorian calendar, and change in the year-end, we can also
be confused by disparity in the way that dates are written on the opposite
sides of the Atlantic. In Britain we generally write dates as day, month, year –
but in the US the order is month, day, year (see this Wikipedia article for a
global analysis - it's a really complex topic!).
On
the Ancestry.co.uk site dates are usually presented in the English style, for
example this is the death entry for my father:
Note
that the age at death has been incorrectly calculated at 95 years, even though
he was 8 weeks short of his 95th birthday when he died – but at least his birth
and death dates are shown correctly. Sadly, however this isn’t
always the case:
This
entry was highlighted by a close family member who was understandably very upset to see that the birth and death dates were both
shown incorrectly. The correct dates are 12th November and 7th January, so it
seems clear that the problems have arisen because of confusion between the US
and UK dating systems.
The
information in the England
and Wales, Death Index, 1989-2019 record set comes from a variety of sources,
but in both of the above cases the source is the same. Findmypast have an equivalent
index (United
Kingdom Deaths 2007-2017), but show both entries correctly, even though
they use the same source as Ancestry. In fairness I should mention that they
did show my dad's age incorrectly, as 95.
Last
chance to save on DNA tests?
At
this time of year it’s always a gamble – do you buy
now, or hold off in the hope that there are even better prices on Black Friday?
One
reason to place your order now is that even if there is a slightly better offer
at the end of next week (and there's no guarantee that there will be), you'll
be ordering at the same time as hundreds of thousands of others, so your test kit(s)
could take not only take longer to arrive, there could be another delay when
you send your sample back. In a normal year it might be a simple matter to expand
the laboratory to cope with higher demand, but in a year like this one I suspect
that the resources are limited.
To
put it another way, ordering now could make the difference between getting the
results before Christmas, and getting them in January or February.
In
the UK Ancestry have cut the price of their test from £79 to £59 £49 plus shipping
(note that shipping works out cheaper when you buy more than one test). This
offer lasts until 22nd 30th November - please use the link below when you make your
purchase so that you can support LostCousins:
Ancestry
DNA (UK only) £59 £49 plus shipping
Until
23.59 (AEDT) on 23rd November researchers in Australia and New Zealand can purchase
the Ancestry DNA kit for just $89, a saving of $40 (prices are in Australian
dollars and include taxes, but exclude shipping).
Ancestry
DNA (Australia and New Zealand only) $89 plus shipping
In
Canada you can save $40 until 23.59 (ET) on 26th December:
Ancestry
DNA (Canada only) $89 plus shipping
The
reduction in the US lasts until 25th November – there's a saving of $40:
Ancestry
DNA (US only) $59, reduced from $99
Tip:
while you’re waiting for your test results be sure to read my Masterclass
and follow the advice – there's a lot you can do in advance. Tempting though it
might be to wait until you have the results before making a start, using DNA effectively
requires the same cool-headed approach and analytical skills that work so well
in conventional genealogical research – don't put yourself under unnecessary
pressure by leaving things to the last minute.
Review: Tracing Your Prisoner Ancestors
Most of my forebears
seem to have been on the right side of the law – one of my cousins was a Police
Inspector in the middle of the 19th century, another married the detective in
charge of the hunt for Jack the Ripper, and at least two of my direct ancestors
appeared in court as witnesses to crimes. A couple of great-great uncles
appeared in court for stealing rhubarb, hardly the most heinous of crimes, and a
distant cousin was caught exceeding the 20mph speed limit in his motor car, but
the worst any of my direct ancestors did was to become insolvent, a fate to
which two of them succumbed – one of them spending time in the Fleet prison until
he was able to reach an agreement with his creditors.
The
common thread that links all of those cases is that I read about them in
newspaper reports, either in the British
Newspaper Archive, in The Times Digital Archive (free through my
local library) or in the London
Gazette (in the case of my insolvent ancestors) – and these are also key
sources recommended by Stephen Wade, author of Tracing Your Prisoner
Ancestors: A Guide for Family Historians.
The
book covers a wide range of topics related to crime and imprisonment, and
includes a number of case studies which help to illustrate the subject, though they
won't necessarily be relevant to any entanglements that your relatives might
have had with the law. It reminds us of the records that were kept, and may
have survived, whether at the National Archives or – more likely – in the local
record office. Both Ancestry
and Findmypast
have a number of relevant datasets, though neither website features as prominently
in this book as you might have expected.
More
a compendium than a guide, this book will be of interest to many because of its
subject matter, but I'd like to have found a more
comprehensive index at the back. The price shown on my copy is £14.99, but at
the time of writing there is an Amazon Marketplace seller offering it for
£11.25 including UK delivery.
Ancestry.co.uk Ancestry.com Ancestry.ca Ancestry.com.au
Review: Henry VIII in 100 Objects
In the last issue I reviewed
a book about Edward VIII, so it seems appropriate to review in this issue a
book inspired by the only other English monarch (so far) to have the same
regnal number. Whereas Edward VIII and his namesake Edward VII are best-known
for their mistresses, Henry VIII is best known for his six wives.
Lavishly
illustrated, with around 200 colour photographs, it's the sort of book you
would be happy to leave on a coffee table for guests to glance through – and if
you have any interest at all in history, you'll enjoy dipping into it yourself.
Opening it at random I came across a love letter written by Henry VIII in 1528 to Anne
Boleyn, who became his second wife – it’s one of 17 such letters that came into
the possession of the Vatican around the time that the King was seeking a divorce
from Katherine of Aragon.
When
that letter was written he had been married to Katherine for 19 years. He only
had 19 more years to live, and since it took him a further 5 years to divorce
his first wife it’s amazing to consider that he nevertheless managed to work
his way through 5 further wives.
At
school we were taught to remember the fates of Henry's wives by the rhyme
"Divorced, beheaded, died; Divorced, beheaded, survived". You might,
like me, have been fooled into thinking that Henry's last wife, Katherine Parr,
was the only one to survive him, but in fact Anne of Cleves - his 4th wife -
was the one who lived longest, not only outliving Henry and his last Queen (who
died in 1548), but also Edward VI, Henry's only son.
Not
all of the 100 objects are pictured in the book, and many of those that are
illustrated are buildings, places, or reconstructions - however for the author
to have confined himself to movable objects that have survived for 500 years
would have made the story that links them together less effective.
The
hardback copy I reviewed is priced at £30, but Amazon quote the UK recommended
price as £25, and you can buy it through their site for £20 or less including
shipping. If you're at all interested in this period of English history you'll enjoy it!
Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com Amazon.ca Amazon.com.au
I'm currently reading the latest novel from
Steve Robinson, but sadly it doesn't feature Jefferson Tayte,
the man who introduced me to genealogical mysteries. As readers will know I'm not a great fan of historical fiction, but I'll give it
a go. It's on my smartphone so I can read it in spare
moments – these days I don’t have much time to devote to reading. (There is
also a paperback for those who prefer the old-fashioned ways!)
Reviews
on Amazon are generally good, as you’d expect for a
Steve Robinson novel, although there are some dissenting voices. If you decide
not to wait for my review please use the appropriate
link below so that your purchase can help to support my work. Thanks!
Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com Amazon.ca Amazon.com.au
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......
Peter Calver
Founder, LostCousins
© Copyright 2020 Peter Calver
Please do NOT copy or republish any part of this newsletter without
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