Newsletter – 5th
October 2022
Will 1921 be like 1939 or 1911?
Ordering wills just
got easier
LostCousins is FREE ENDS MONDAY
Whole genome
sequencing to get cheaper still
When is a cousin not
a cousin?
The LostCousins
newsletter is usually published 2 or 3 times a month. To access the previous issue
(dated 28th September) 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!
Will 1921 be like 1939 or 1911?
It’s
13 years to the day since I announced in this newsletter that Findmypast were
planning to allow subscription access to the 1911 Census.
As
I’m often asked whether and when Findmypast are going to add the 1921 England
& Wales Census to their subscriptions, I thought it would be interesting to
look back. After all, as a family historian it’s second nature to look to the
past when I’m asked to make predictions about the future…..
Both
the 1911 Census and the 1939 Register were pay-to-view when they first launched
on Findmypast, and both were eventually made available as part of a subscription.
However this was handled in two quite different ways.
In
the case of the 1939 Register, it was added to existing 12
month subscriptions BUT subscription prices went up by 20% to compensate,
which meant that everyone was paying for it, whether or not they had ancestors living
in England & Wales in 1939. These days the 1939 Register is also included
in the shorter subscriptions, but it was a considerable time before this happened.
But
perhaps more relevant is how the 1911 Census was handled – on 5th
October 2009 that I revealed Findmypast’s plan to create a standalone 12 month subscription which would cost £59.99 per annum (there
was also a 6 month option at £39.99).
The
advantage of a standalone subscription was that it didn’t penalise researchers
overseas whose ancestors had left these shores long before 1911, and it also
made the 1911 Census more affordable for those who already had expensive subscriptions
to other genealogy websites. But whether Findmypast will choose to go down this
route – if and when they decide to expand access to
the 1921 Census – is anyone’s guess.
However the one thing you can be sure of is that when
there is more news, you’ll get the most insightful analysis (and the most reliable
advice) in this newsletter!
Ordering wills just got easier
If
I search for my grandfather’s will at the Probate Service website by simply entering his
Surname, Forename, and Year of death (actually the year of probate), over 1000 pages
of results are returned.
But
if I follow the advice given to John, a member of the LostCousins Forum, by a representative
of Iron Mountain (the contractors who operate the site), I get just 2 pages of results,
one of which contains the entry for my grandfather.
So what’s the secret? The trick is to put a quotation mark (“)
before the surname, and another after the forename. It looks really
weird, as you can see from the screenshot – BUT IT WORKS!
LostCousins is FREE ENDS MONDAY
Yes,
you’ve got a few more days to add to your My Ancestors page, and connect with some more ‘lost cousins’. Remember ‘lost
cousins’ aren’t like the people you’ll find at other sites – they’re experienced
researchers like you, people with family trees who are prepared to collaborate
and share information.
Tip:
remember that it’s relatives from the BRANCHES of your tree who are most likely
to lead you to your ‘lost cousins’ – that’s because ALL of
your living cousins are connected to you via a branch.
If,
like me, you’ve posted DNA kits to relatives in the UK you’ll no doubt have
been frustrated that the boxes are just too thick to meet the criteria for a
Large Letter, which means paying the much more expensive Small Parcel rate.
So
I was delighted to see the announcement
on 30th September that Ancestry are going to be switching to new
packaging which is 35% smaller and 50% lighter. Unfortunately
they don’t give the dimensions of the new boxes, but I’m hopeful that they’ll
be sufficiently slender to meet the Large Letter limit (a maximum depth of
25mm).
I
don’t know whether they’re trying to get rid of their old packaging, but
Ancestry have just launched yet another DNA Sale – the price is down from £79
to £59 in the UK (a saving of just over 25%), from $129 to $89 in Australia (a reduction
of over 30%), and from $129 to $79 in Canada. Prices exclude shipping.
All
autosomal DNA tests use similar technology, so you might think it wouldn’t matter
which test you take – I’m well-known for my moneysaving tips, so you might
expect me to recommend one of the cheaper tests on the market.
And
yet I don’t – because my long experience of working with DNA has taught me that
being able to access the world’s biggest database of genealogical DNA tests is far
more important than price alone. Only by taking Ancestry’s own test can you get
into their database of more than 23 million tests – because, whilst you can
transfer your Ancestry results to other providers, you can’t upload results from
other providers to Ancestry.
The
other feature that sets Ancestry apart from other sites is the way that they integrate
DNA with family trees – they’ve done this far more than any other site, which
not only makes it easier for you and me, it saves us
an enormous amount of time and effort.
Please
use the relevant link below so that you have a chance of supporting LostCousins
when you make your purchase (if you’re not taken to the offer page first time,
log-out from your Ancestry account then click the link again).
Ancestry.co.uk
(UK only) – REDUCED FROM £79 to £59
Ancestry.com.au
(Australia and New Zealand only) – REDUCED FROM $129 to $89
Ancestry.ca
(Canada only) – REDUCED FROM
$129 to $79
Ancestry.com
(US only) – REDUCED TO $59
Tip:
make sure you follow the advice in my DNA Masterclass – doing what comes
naturally won’t work nearly as well, as I explained
in the last issue.
Whole
genome sequencing to get cheaper still
Illumina,
the company that makes almost all of the chips used for
autosomal DNA testing, also sells machines that can sequence an entire genome.
Since the first human genome was sequenced 20 years ago at a cost of billions the
cost of sequencing has tumbled, to around $10 million
15 years ago, $10000 10 years ago, and under $1000 today.
Last
week Illumina announced a new sequencer that is more than twice as fast as
existing models, and has the potential to bring the
cost of whole genome sequencing down to around $200. But don’t expect this to transform
genetic genealogy overnight – the cost and complexity of manipulating such
enormous amounts of data means that we’re likely to rely on existing technology
for many years to come, as the article Near-term
outlook for genealogy explains.
A glimpse of SideView
Yesterday
Ancestry’s SideView technology was briefly enabled
for matches – I was fortunate to be on the website during the few minutes it
was live, and took a couple of screenshots which will give you an idea of what to
look for (since I was reviewing a cousin’s matches at the time
I’ve had to remove identifying data).
This
is the new menu at the top of the Matches page:
This
is what the matches look like:
Note
that Ancestry don’t tell you which parent is which, but this will usually be
obvious. Unassigned presumably means that the evidence isn’t conclusive –
surprisingly one of my matches who shares 159cM of DNA with me was shown as
unassigned.
Tip:
if you’re young enough or fortunate enough that one or both parents have
tested, you’ll be able to use SideView to allocate
their matches between your grandparents.
I’m
really looking forward to this feature going live – it will help me focus in on
the matches that are most likely to help me knock down specific ‘brick walls’!
UPDATE:
it’s back working again (Wednesday evening). If you get a chance check it out!
When is a cousin not a cousin?
Although
the primary purpose of LostCousins is to connect people who are researching the
same ancestors, sometimes the member you’re matched with will only be related
to you by marriage. Typically this is when one of your
cousins married one of the other person’s cousins, and whilst this means you’re
unlikely to be researching the same ancestors, it’s important to bear in mind
that any living descendants of the marriage will be cousins to both of you.
Why
is this important? For a start, because a couple who married in the 19th
century are very likely to have a descendant who is researching their family tree
– but won’t necessarily be a LostCousins member (I know, it sounds unbelievable,
but there are family historians out there who’ve still to discover the site!). Even
if there’s nobody in that branch who is actively researching, one of them might
have inherited family photographs or other documents that show your
ancestors – perhaps even the family Bible.
But
if your tree is anything like mine, there will be people in the branches who
have made a name for themselves – as one LostCousins member discovered recently
when he connected with Gillian. She was able to tell him that one of the
descendants of the couple whose marriage linked the two of them was the late Francis
Bacon, the 20th century artist (according to this article
one of his works sold earlier this year for over £40 million).
As
a child I was frequently fed pork luncheon meat, which we referred to as spam,
although I don’t think we ever had the real thing (invented in 1937 and
marketed by Hormel). Compared to brawn, which my grandmother made from the
brain of a pig, it was a luxury – but the fact that we ate spam so often did
rather dull the pleasure, and when Monty Python later lampooned spam in one of
the programme’s most famous sketches it certainly struck home.
The
good news for Spam lovers is that demand is booming. According to this CNN article,
sales have hit new records for 7 years in a row, and 2022 looks likely to be
another record.
The
bad new for computer users is that the unwanted emails that we call spam are
also on the increase, and many of them are not simply invading our privacy but
threatening to invade our computers and empty our bank accounts – not so much
spam, as scam. One common ploy is for hackers to take charge of the email
account of an unsuspecting user, then write to all the people in their address
book – friends, relatives, and other contacts.
The
trick is that the ‘Reply to’ address is different, sometimes just one character
different, but enough to send replies from unsuspecting friends and relatives
into the welcoming arms of fraudsters. The emails tend to be quite short, and
are designed to elicit a response – some common titles are:
- Hope all are well?
- Keep in touch
- Checking-in
You
might be asked whether you buy from Amazon – that’s a very common ploy. The key
thing about them is that they avoid mentioning things that only a real friend
or relative would know.
This
week a new law came into force in Ireland which will give adult adoptees the
right to access their real birth certificates. You can read more about the
challenges adoptees have faced, and how the legislation will help, in this BBC article.
Last
time I was pondering whether to use up our surplus tomatoes in jam or chutney.
In the end I decided on chutney, as we have more than enough jam to see us
through the next 2 years, and I decided to try out this recipe,
as it has so many glowing reviews. For once I followed the recipe scrupulously (remembering
to substitute cardamon pods for seeds, as explained in one of the comments), but
we haven’t tasted it yet, since chutneys reputedly need a couple of weeks to
mature. Looks good, though!
Despite
what I said about having sufficient jam I decided to experiment with bullace and
apple. The bullaces that grow semi-wild here are known as Essex bullaces, or
Shepherd’s bullaces, and whilst I love the sharp flavour, some find it just a
little too strong. Adding an equal quantity of home-grown apples (mostly windfalls
that can’t be stored) not only took the edge off, it
allowed me to use up the last of the bullace crop or, at least, the ones that
are within reach.
Most
recipes suggest cooking bullaces whole, then sieving through a colander to
remove the skin and stones – but I like the texture and flavour of the skins,
so instead I just stone them before cooking.
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......
I’ll be back again soon with more news from the wonderful world of
family history – in the meantime remember that
LostCousins is completely free until 10th October, so it’s
a great time to connect to your living cousins by entering your deceased
cousins from the census. New cousins for old – what a great offer!
Peter Calver
Founder, LostCousins
© Copyright 2022 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?
Many of
the links in this newsletter and elsewhere on the website are affiliate links –
if you make a purchase after clicking a link you may be supporting LostCousins
(though this depends on your choice of browser, the settings in your browser,
and any browser extensions that are installed). Thanks for your support!