Newsletter 10th
November 2021
Free access to all military records at Findmypast ENDS MONDAY 10AM
Ancestry offer free
access to wartime records ENDS FRIDAY
How to get free
access to the 1921 Census yes, really!
Thousands of phone
boxes saved
Interpreting choices:
what can we infer from where our ancestors married?
Whole genome sequencing
pays off
DNA proves that mothers
gave birth to the wrong babies
The LostCousins
newsletter is usually published 2 or 3 times a month. To access the previous issue
(dated 28th October) 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!
Free access to all military records at Findmypast ENDS MONDAY
10AM
For 96 hours, from 10am GMT on Thursday 11th
November, until 10am on Monday 15th November, Findmypast are offering free
access to ALL of their military records. You'll need to register, or sign-in if
you have registered previously, but you wont be asked to provide credit card or bank details (unless you
inadvertently click on the 'Free trial' link).
Even if you have access to the same record sets at
other sites you may unearth records that you couldn't find before. For example,
when Findmypast published the surviving army records from WW1 some years ago I
discovered my grandfather's file, previously assumed to have been lost when 60%
of the records were destroyed by enemy action in WW2.
But it's not just about 20th century records
Findmypast's collection of army records goes back to 1760. For example, I found
an index to the Peninsular Medal Roll
1793-1814 which recorded the campaign medals awarded to my great-great-great-great
grandfather, Bryan Byrne an Irish Catholic who fought in the British Army
during the Napoleonic Wars and ended up living in the Tower of London. Starting
from that index entry I was able to find the original record at another site its
an example of how using multiple sites can pay off. We can't all afford to have
multiple subscriptions, but we can all make the most of free access opportunities!
You can access the free records at any of
Findmypast's worldwide sites please use the relevant link below so that
Findmypast know that you're a reader of this newsletter.
Findmypast.co.uk Findmypast.ie Findmypast.com Findmypast.com.au
Ancestry offer free access to wartime records
ENDS FRIDAY
Until
tomorrow Ancestry are offering free access to wartime records including the
1939 Register (but please bear in mind that some of the records open at
Findmypast are still closed at Ancestry).
How to get free access to the 1921 Census yes, really!
Visitors
to the National Archives in Kew will be able to access the 1921 Census free of
charge following its release on 6th January 2022 and according to an email
from TNA "we no longer have a print to paper service but you can download
and email images to yourself or photograph the screen. There is no charge for
either service."
It's
appropriate that at a time when we're remembering our ancestors who fought and
died for their country, we also remember the contribution that troops from other
parts of the British Empire made during the two World Wars that dominated the
first half of the 20th century.
Records
for 320,000 soldiers from the Punjab who fought in the Great War lay unread in
a basement for nearly a century, and the first batch of 45,000 has now gone online.
You can read all about the project in this article
from the Guardian.
Note:
turbans are predominantly worn by Sikhs, the largest religious group in the
Punjab, though followers of other religions may also choose to wear them.
At
the start of the Great War many young boys, some as young as 13, lied about
their age so that they could fight and die for King and Country.
This
Daily Mail article
suggests that as many as 400,000 recruits lied about their age; the full story
is told in Boy Soldiers of the Great War, a new edition of which has
recently been released - though I'd be tempted to buy the 2006 edition, which
can be found at Amazon
Marketplace for as little as £2.
It was Steve Robinson
who got me hooked on genealogical mysteries, and I've followed Jefferson Tayte through
numerous adventures on both sides of the Atlantic. But two years ago I reviewed
The Penmaker's Wife, the first in a series of historical crime novels
and whilst I enjoyed the book, I'd much rather have read another Jefferson
Tayte story.
So,
as you can imagine, I was disappointed when the next book to flow from Steve
Robinson's pen was another historical crime novel, and for nearly a year it sat
unread on my smartphone. However, when I did eventually get into The Secret
Wife I couldn't put it down I really wanted to know how the story panned
out! Should you be of a nervous disposition I should warn you that whilst it's
not a horror story, there are aspects which are quite horrifying and whilst the
same is true of some of the Jefferson Tayte stories, at least with those you
can be fairly confident who the hero is, and that he's going to survive. In
this book there are no such certainties, and that really ramps up the tension.
The
story has overtones of Rebecca: a house fire at Crows-an-Wra Manor in a remote
part of West Cornwall supposedly takes the life of its mistress, Rosen
Trevelyan. Sometime later, she awakes to find herself locked in an unfamiliar
room, questioning why her husband, Richard, has done this to her. And what of
their daughter? Did Sophia really die in the fire, as Rosen has been led to
believe? Although historical fiction isn't my thing, I did enjoy the book, and the
fact that more than half of those who've reviewed the book on Amazon have given
it 5* is testament to Steve Robinson's writing skills.
The
Kindle version which I read costs just £2.99, but the book is also available
as a paperback (and you might make a saving by purchasing a second-hand copy).
Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com Amazon.ca Amazon.com.au
Having
completed The Secret Wife I can now permit myself to start on Steve
Robinson's next book, which IS a genealogical mystery, and DOES feature
Jefferson Tayte. It's billed as a standalone novella, so there's no need to
have read any of the other books in the series although I know that many of
you have!
As
it's shorter than a novel I should be able to review it later this month, but
if you can't wait please use the relevant link below so that you can support
LostCousins:
Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com Amazon.ca Amazon.com.au
Thousands of phone boxes saved
When
I was growing up there were all sorts of phone boxes along the roadside the boxes
of the Automobile Association and the Royal Automobile Club supplemented the dark
blue police boxes (now only seen on Dr Who), and the classic red Post
Office phone boxes.
Nowadays
only the telephone boxes remain and they're a dying breed or were, until the announcement
from Ofcom, the regulator, that 5,000 boxes in areas with poor mobile signals
must remain. See this BBC article
for more information, including some examples of how phone boxes no longer
required have been repurposed by villagers.
Interpreting choices: what can we infer from where our
ancestors married?
Last
month I included an update
from Professor Rebecca Probert on the work she has been doing with the help
of LostCousins members and I'm delighted to say her research paper has now
been published in The Journal of Genealogy and Family History, and can
be downloaded in PDF format if you follow this link.
Whole genome sequencing pays off
The
DNA tests that genealogists rely on sample only a small portion of the human
genome even the most comprehensive test, an autosomal test, looks at only
600-700,000 base pairs out of 3.2 billion. Some of you will recall that in 2013
the 100,000 Genomes Project was set up to sequence the DNA of NHS patients
suffering from a rare disease, or from cancer but it has taken time for the
findings to bear fruit. This BBC article describes how some patients
have diagnoses for the first time - one medical expert stated that the results
showed "beyond doubt" that human genome sequencing "can
revolutionise medical care for a wide range of human diseases".
My
DNA was sequenced a few years ago at a cost of around £150 a bargain compared
to the $2.7 billion that it cost to sequence the first human genome. Right now
there isnt much I can do with the data, but one day it might prove to be a
lifesaver.
DNA proves that mothers gave birth to the wrong babies
In
2019 a Californian couple were surprised when their baby turned out to look
nothing like them and after DNA testing they discovered that another mother
had given birth to their child. It's hard to imagine how the two mothers must
have felt see this BBC article for the
full story.
If,
like me, you've been wondering why we haven't heard anything about vaccines adapted
to combat the more dangerous variants of COVID-19 you'll find this article from Nature very interesting.
Meanwhile
infection rates are increasing across much of Europe, to the extent that the UK
is no longer the outlier Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, Greece,
and several eastern European countries now have higher infection rates than the
UK, and in many cases lower vaccination rates. Even Portugal, which has the
highest vaccination rate of any European nation has seen a 50% increase in
cases over the past week, although the numbers are still relatively low. It's
difficult to say how much of the deterioration in numbers is the result of the
change in seasons, how much is caused by waning immunity, and what impact human
behaviour is having I suspect all three are involved.
Here
in the UK case numbers have started to decline, but there are still far too
many older or vulnerable people who have not yet had their booster jab, and the
delayed decision to vaccinate 12-15 year-olds has helped to keep the virus
circulating in schools, with a knock-on impact on parents. However many of
those who have not yet been vaccinated, or are too young to have been
considered for vaccination, have developed natural immunity as a result of
prior infection and whilst natural immunity is no more effective than
vaccination, it does help to raise the overall level of immunity. In other
countries where infection rates have been lower in the past the top-up effect
of natural immunity is far less significant.
For
me the most exciting news of the past fortnight was the approval by the UK medical
regulator of Molnupiravir, one of the first drugs that has proven to be effective
in treating COVID-19 in clinical trials, followed by the announcement by Pfizer that
their new drug is 89% effective in high-risk cases. We've known for some time
that the chances of completely eliminating COVID-19 are low, so having
effective treatments is extremely important.
From
today (11th November) care home staff In England who have not been vaccinated
are banned from entering the premises unless they have a medical exemption. This
will undoubtedly lead to staff shortages, but the alternative would be to risk
the lives of some of the oldest and most vulnerable members of the population;
this BBC article explains
the different sides of the story.
I
couldnt help focusing on the comment by one staff member that "she does not know
enough about what the vaccine contains". Perhaps she should have done a bit
of research before turning down the jab and giving up her job, something she
describes as "heartbreaking"? I bet she was quite happy doling out
medication to care home residents even though neither she nor they knew what was
in it, or what the potential side effects were.
Yesterday
it was announced that
frontline NHS staff in England will need to be fully vaccinated probably by
early April. I imagine that some private employers are refusing to take on new
staff who haven't been vaccinated for many, especially those running family
businesses, it's an unnecessary risk.
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 2021 Peter Calver
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