Newsletter
- 5th September 2017
GRO progress update
due shortly
Loyalty Discount to continue at Findmypast
Save on 12 month subscriptions to Findmypast.co.uk EXCLUSIVE
Tithe maps for Leeds free online
DNA Success Stories #1: Jill's tale
DNA Success Stories #2: Chris's tale
The LostCousins newsletter is usually
published 2 or 3 times a month. To access the previous newsletter (dated 20th
August) click here; to find earlier articles use the
customised Google search below (it searches ALL of the
newsletters since February 2009, so you don't need to keep copies):
Whenever possible links are included to the websites or articles
mentioned in the newsletter (they are highlighted in blue or purple and underlined, so you can't miss them). If one of
the links doesn't work this normally indicates that you're using adblocking
software - you need to make the LostCousins site an exception (or else use a
different browser, such as Chrome).
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!
GRO progress update due
shortly
On Friday 15th and Monday 18th September
the General Register Office will be meeting with user representatives in London
and Southport to discuss the latest developments. I and others who attend will
be required to sign Confidentiality Agreements so I won't be able to report
back to you after the meeting, except in the most general terms, but I wanted
readers to know that the GRO are continuing to make progress and - equally
importantly - continue to value the input of users.
Loyalty Discount to
continue at Findmypast
As you will know, I met with Findmypast
last week, and I was favourably impressed by what they are planning for
2017-18, although I can't provide specific details as I was sworn to secrecy.
What I can tell you, however, is that they are committed to ensuring that
existing subscribers get a fair deal, and so the 15% Loyalty Discount for
renewals will be continuing, which is excellent news.
Findmypast's policy is commendable -
rather than offer big discounts to new subscribers and make existing customers
pay top dollar (as some of their competitors do), they believe in keeping their
customers happy.
However I was able to persuade them to come up with an
exclusive offer for LostCousins members who take out a new 12 month
subscription, although because of the short notice it only applies to their UK
site….
Save on 12 month
subscriptions to Findmypast.co.uk EXCLUSIVE
From now until midnight (London time) on
Sunday 17th September you can save 10% on a new Britain or World subscription at
Findmypast.co.uk when you use the link below:
And if you stick with Findmypast, as I
suspect you will, you'll benefit from a 15% Loyalty Discount when you renew
next year. So at a time when prices generally are
going up, the cost of researching your family history could fall!
Whilst the first year discount might be
lower, I'm going to make up the difference by giving you a free LostCousins
subscription worth up to £12.50 - just make sure that when you click the link
you can see the words 'content=LostCousins' on the browser command line when you
arrive at the Findmypast site (it might be off the screen, but if so just place
the cursor on the command line and move to the right until you see it).
IMPORTANT: please
also check that you haven't disabled tracking in your
browser - and ask me for help if you're not sure where to find the setting.
To claim your free subscription forward
to me the email receipt that Findmypast will send you (you can use any of the
LostCousins email addresses, including the one I wrote from to tell you about
this newsletter). Please make a note of the precise time of your
purchase in case the email doesn't arrive - I must have that time to confirm
your entitlement. Your LostCousins subscription will run from the date of your
Findmypast purchase unless you already have a subscription, in which case I'll
extend it by 12 months.
Thanks to everyone who submitted
suggestions ahead of my meeting with Findmypast last Thursday. There wasn't
time to go through them one by one, so I gave them a two page list of your
suggestions together with a handful of my own - I'll be getting feedback from
them in the coming weeks.
Because it is such a large site, with
thousands of datasets and multiple ways of searching, it was inevitable that quite
a few of the suggestions were for features that already exist! The most common
'blind spot' was the Useful Links &
Resources section at the bottom right of the Search page - you'll normally
have to scroll down to see it, so it's easy to miss. For example, if you're
searching an individual census, you'll find links to the preceding and
following censuses; if you're searching parish registers there will often be a
link to a schedule showing which parishes are included, and giving the dates of
coverage (information you rarely, if ever, get at other websites).
Some members had also forgotten about
the 'secret' tricks I came up with: these allow you to construct advanced searches
that can save you hours of scanning through search results - you can re-read
the original articles from last December and this May here
and here.
Others hadn't thought to use multiple
tabs when searching - I typically keep 4 or 5 tabs, sometimes more, open in my
browser at different pages on the Findmypast site. For example, if I'm
searching the GRO BMD indexes I'll have one tab for births, another for
marriages, and a third for deaths.
Tip:
if you’re new to Findmypast, or have struggled to get the results you were
hoping for, there's a Masterclass
that explains the different ways to search, and why using the A-Z of Record
Sets is usually the key to success.
Tithe maps for Leeds free
online
Tithe maps for Leeds are free online here, and you can search the tithe
apportionments by name (for other areas see my July article).
DNA Success Stories #1:
Jill's tale
The response to the DNA Masterclass in
the last issue was amazing - it seems that many of you had been struggling to
make sense of your results until I set out my simple strategies for making the
most of the thousands of matches that you'll get when you test at Ancestry.
There have been many breakthroughs made over the past couple of weeks, but I'm
going to focus on two stories that I'll think you'll find particularly
interesting.
Jill had been searching for her
great-grandfather Eric Lionel Armstrong (that's him in the photo) for a good 20
years - I'll let her tell you the story in her own words:
"I've been looking for Eric for almost 20
years. He first appears in the 1901
census when he was a coal miner age 21.
Later that year when his occupation was a music teacher, he married
Lydia Humphries and they had three children.
One child died in 1909 and Eric reported the death.
"My mother told me that Eric had left his wife
and my grandmother and went to Nova Scotia with the intention of sending for
his family, but only the youngest daughter Amy age seven was sent to join him.
I went to Kew to search Ship's Manifests from 1909-1912 and eventually found
Eric's voyage in March 1912 and Amy's in November 1912 [this was in the days before the passenger lists went online at
Findmypast].
"In 2007 I found his
bigamous marriage to Martha Stevens in 1913 in Ontario. He had changed his name
to Brenhyn Llewellyn Armstrong. Canadian marriage
records give the names of the parents, John and Ruth, and
also where you're from which was Fernall,
Worcestershire. This was confirmed in the
1901 census and eventually the 1911 census and 1921 Canadian census.
"After having searched for Eric's origins for
several years I now had another clue - the names of his parents. I searched the
Worcestershire 1881 census for couples named John and Ruth with a son aged one
and/or two and there was only one, a couple called John and Ruth Gough with
their son Eli, and they were living in Fernhill Heath. After the 1891 census
Eli couldn't be found anywhere. checked the obvious - marriage, death, emigration,
military, newspapers, convictions etc. So Eli
disappeared after 1891 and Eric first appears in 1901, and they were both born
in 1879 in Fernall (Fernhill Heath). However, I
couldn't prove this until I read your newsletter…..
"Eli had a sister called Fanny and I was able to
trace her granddaughter who is 82 and lives near Birmingham. She agreed to take
a DNA test and yesterday I received the results and we're closely related - 2nd
cousins once removed. So thank you once again for the
motivation to pursue my theory which has now become fact and it's made me very
happy."
Jill had only one regret - that her
mother was not still alive to learn the truth about her grandfather. That's the
thing about family history - on the one hand there are the questions we wished
we had asked while the relatives who could answer them were still alive, and on
the other hand there are the discoveries that we would love to have been able
to share before our relatives passed away.
(It's because I'm mindful of the latter
that I get so angry when certain LostCousins members - you know who you are -
keep coming up with excuses, instead of knuckling down and completing their My Ancestors page so that I can connect
them with their living cousins….. whilst they're still
living!)
Jill and I had an interesting chat about
her ancestor's choice of aliases. Jill reckons that 'Eric Lionel' was inspired
by 'Eli', and I reckon she's right. As far the transition from Eric Lionel to Brenhyn Llewellyn goes - you'll find that if you look them
up, they both have a similar meaning, so one is effectively a translation of
the other.
DNA Success Stories #2:
Chris's tale
I've corresponded with Chris a lot over
the past couple years - and whilst, like many of the older generation, she
might struggle with anything technical, what she lacks in that department is
more than made up by her persistence and determination. She originally tested,
as I did, with Family Tree DNA - for a long time they were the market leaders -
but like me, she chose to re-test with Ancestry:
"In the process of entering new names onto my
tree I am looking at some Ancestry hints, some of which refer to member trees,
which I usually ignore...... but I changed the habit of a lifetime last night
and when I clicked on the trees, it told me whether the tree owner was a DNA
match. What an easy way to find common ancestors, as the surname link is
obvious via the hint! I found two DNA matches via this method and confirmed yet
another longstanding 20+ year query in my G*** tree (all mariners, so very
mobile and hard to be sure of the right person!) with relatively no effort at
all. Can't believe how easy it is.
"I am massively impressed with Ancestry DNA and
getting into this has inspired me to investigate further with FTDNA when I have
exhausted the possibilities with Ancestry DNA (so no time soon at this rate of
success!).
"My success is phenomenal. I have located
descendants of just about all my 'dubious' ancestors on various
different descendant lines to my own, both in the UK and abroad, to
prove my theories. Great stuff! It has also underlined the advantage of having
spent hours trawling through hundreds of Parish Records, Seaman's records and
other primary data over the years at record offices, searching for possible
ancestors and recording any likely candidates, as those 'possible' ancestors
are now becoming realities. Most of them are in areas not covered by IGI with
no online parish data, so the record office data is invaluable. Things can't
all be done online!
"Shame I am so tied up with the new arrivals and
grandson as I have so much family history that I want to follow up!!
"Thank you so much for advocating testing with
Ancestry, as I had got nowhere with FTDNA. (To be fair I haven't really had
time to sit down and get into it properly as I have been so busy this year, but
Ancestry DNA doesn't take any intelligence to work out! FTDNA requires more
computer confidence and the layout/terminology isn't as easy to comprehend, but
I can see that if I spend time on it, I can get to grips with it). It makes all
the difference in the world having a tree on Ancestry though. SO easy. I have
also traced all my lines' descendants down to as close to present day as
possible prior to DNA testing, so that has helped enormously as I recognise a
lot of the descendant surnames and can place them in my tree fairly easily."
When I asked Chris whether she would
mind me featuring her story in this newsletter she responded in a typically
generous fashion:
"Yes, I am all for encouraging others, so use anything
you like. I constantly tell people how helpful LostCousins is, not just in
finding new cousins, but also with the fantastic newsletters which help to keep
me abreast of changes and updates in our hobby. I used to rely on Family Tree Magazine
for info, but no longer subscribe regularly, so your newsletters are of
paramount importance. LostCousins appeals to people like me who aren't name collectors,
but want to contact and exchange information with other researchers, the type of
people I seem to be locating at present. You are doing a sterling job for
genealogy and if others have as much success after following your suggestion to
DNA test, then it helps everyone."
If you decide to follow in Chris's footsteps
by testing with Ancestry DNA please use the relevant link below when you place your
order - you'll be helping LostCousins to stay independent, and ensuring that you can
rely on the advice in this newsletter:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tip: some members who have bought
Ancestry's DNA test have been offered a discounted subscription afterwards -
will you be one of the lucky ones? Update Wednesday 6th: I've just had an email from Tim, who
was offered a 50% discount!
Reading recently about the driver who was driving
across a bridge in New Jersey when it opened up to let
a ship pass, but survived by putting his foot down and accelerating across the gap, reminded me of
a story I heard as a child about a London bus jumping across the gap when Tower
Bridge - probably the most recognisable bridge in the world - suddenly started
opening.
Surely it couldn't be true? In those days there was no easy way to check out stories, but now it
takes just a matter of seconds to find a newspaper report in the British
Newspaper Archive (which can be accessed via Findmypast).
A story like this would have featured in
many newspapers, but the search result I looked at was from the Yorkshire Evening Post of 31st December
1952 - it reported how the driver of the number 78 bus, one Albert Gunter, kept
going and managed to land safely on the other side. However
the drop of 3 to 4 feet resulted in a dozen of the 20 passengers being injured,
3 of them sufficiently seriously that they were kept in hospital. There was, of
course, no film footage of the mishap, or even a photograph, though a couple of
weeks later the Illustrated London News
published an artist's impression (this is also in the British Newspaper
Archive).
Going back to the Yorkshire Evening Post, I couldn't help noticing the article which
followed, reporting the death at 97 of Frederic Amos Forster, a draper who was apparently
still working at the age of 90. This reminded me that Robert Richardson, son of
the founder of the Norfolk boatbuilding and boat hire company, still turns up
at the office every day (including weekends), even though he is 91 years old.
Note:
I suspect those self-made men worked on after retirement age by choice - but
nowadays many people are forced to continue working at an age when earlier
generations would have been retired (assuming, of course, that they lived that
long - which many didn't).
Next Monday the original orchestral
score for the Beatles song 'Eleanor Rigby' is being sold at auction (you can
find details here).
It is thought the name was taken from a gravestone in the churchyard of St
Peter's, Woolton, Liverpool - but although the inscription refers to Eleanor
Rigby, it then describes her as wife of Thomas Woods (she was born Eleanor
Rigby Whitfield - Rigby was her mother's maiden surname). Eleanor Rigby Woods died
just 12 days after the 1939 Register was compiled - this is her entry, which
provides her precise birthdate:
©
Crown Copyright Image reproduced by courtesy of The National Archives, London,
England and used by kind permission of Findmypast
Although she left no children behind
some have suggested that she bore a child prior to her marriage - but it’s a
very strange way to interpret the inscription, don’t you think (there's a photo
of the gravestone here).
The real mystery is, not who was Eleanor Rigby, but who were F & E Rigby,
the parents of the 2 year-old child buried in the same grave? Perhaps the
members of the LostCousins Forum can come up with the answer?
Note:
it was at St Peter's, Woolton that John Lennon and Paul McCartney met in 1957.
The latest book to find its way onto my Kindle is The American Candidate by M J Lee. The third book in the
Jayne Sinclair series of genealogical mysteries, I'm really looking forward to
reading it - but first I have to finish How to Code a Human by Kat Arney, whose first book I reviewed earlier this year.
If, like mine, your eyesight is
deteriorating with age you might find that reading this newsletter is a bit of
a struggle. I've had several members complaining that the print is too small,
not realising that the solution is in their own hands - all popular web
browsers include a Zoom function, which allows you to increase the size of text
on your screen. Chrome, the world's most popular browser (and the one I use and
recommend) will even allow you to increase the size of text that you print - in
the Print dialogue click 'More settings' then adjust the Scale (the default
setting is 100).
Tip:
please DON'T print out this newsletter if you can possibly avoid it; not only
is it costly and wasteful, you won't be able to click on the links, so much of
the time you'll only get half the story, nor can you be sure that you've got
the latest version (each issue is updated several times, either to correct
errors or provide important updates). Every newsletter since February 2009 is
still online, and will remain available indefinitely - there is absolutely no
need to print them out.
But there comes a time when what's
really called for is a bigger screen, and you don't have to buy a new computer
to get one - even a laptop will usually allow you to connect an external
monitor (on newer models you'll find an HDMI port). If you follow this link
you'll find a full HD 23.8 inch monitor for just under £90 which not only has an HDMI port but also the older DVI
and VGA ports.
In the last issue
I mentioned how few people pick fruit from the hedgerows these days, and this
was brought home to me when, nearly three weeks after my first visit, I
revisited the wild damson tree I'd discovered. On my original visit I'd carefully left plenty of fruit on the tree for
other foragers, but on my return most of it was laying on the ground, rotting -
so I suspect nobody had bothered to pick any of it. What a waste!
This time we picked as much as we could
carry….
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 in touch again
soon - and will have the results of the Summer Competition!
Peter Calver
Founder, LostCousins
© Copyright 2017 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