Newsletter - 12th November 2018
Save 50% on Findmypast monthly or quarterly
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Thousands more errors found in GRO indexes EXCLUSIVE
Precisely when did the Armistice take effect?
WW1 service records free online
Suffolk parish registers EXCLUSIVE
Guest article: Transportation
and Marriage
Couple spend last hours together - on their 66th
anniversary
Radio Times website
still promoting scam
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Thousands more
errors found in GRO indexes EXCLUSIVE
Last week I exclusively
revealed that over 5000 birth entries from 1881 are completely missing from the
GRO's own online indexes, and asked whether members
had spotted any other similar omissions. Within 48 hours of publication of the
article I'd established that there are at least 2 more similar anomalies in the
birth indexes, and at least 1 in the death indexes!
- Elizabeth wrote to let me know that she'd been unable to find any
of the entries on page 409 of volume 11A in the final quarter of 1902 -
and when I investigated I discovered that as many as 11,000 births from
that volume are missing from the online index.
- Helen spotted a problem with volume 6C in the December quarter of
1860: this took a bit of unravelling, but I eventually realised that not
only were 4000 birth entries from volume 6C missing, they had been
replaced by 3000 duplicated entries from volume 4B in the June quarter!
- The error that George noticed affected the death indexes for the
first quarter of 1863 - about 2000 entries from volume 1C have been
omitted, and 4500 from volume 2C have been duplicated in their place.
We're still only talking
about a drop in the ocean - there were over 63 million births in England &
Wales between 1837 and 1917, so the 20,000 that are missing represent a very
small percentage - but nevertheless these are the sort of errors you would have
expected the GRO themselves to have picked up, either prior to the release of
the indexes or in the 2 years since. Instead users who pointed out missing
entries were told that their query had been investigated but that no amendment was required.
If you think you've spotted a
similar anomaly the first thing to do is check whether other entries on the
same page are also missing - the easiest way to find out which entries are on
the same page is to search at FreeBMD using the
volume and page number, ie:
Once you've established that
the other entries on the page are also missing from the GRO's own indexes
please get in touch with me so that I can investigate further and pass
the information to my contact at the GRO.
Precisely when
did the Armistice take effect?
This might seem like a stupid
question - everyone knows that the Great War ended at 11am on 11th November
1918. On the other hand, anyone who has travelled to France will know that
their clocks are one hour ahead of London time - so did the Armistice between
the Allies and Germany, which was signed in a railway carriage in the forest of
Compiègne, take effect from 11am London time or 11am
Paris time?
I already know the answer -
but do you?
WW1 service
records free online
Many of you will have taken
advantage of the free access offers this weekend, but did you know that some
records are available free online? Canada made available the attestations of
soldiers in the Canadian Expeditionary Force several years ago, but it was only
this year that the project to put online all 620,000 service files was
completed - you'll find them here.
Many of the WW1 records for
New Zealand soldiers are available free online through the Archway website of Archives
New Zealand - it isn’t a particularly easy site to navigate (like many archive
sites) but if you type your relative's name in to the Simple Search on this page you'll be able to
find out what they hold.
Australian service records
are also online - you'll find more details here.
Note: the contributions of British Commonwealth
countries to the Allied war effort were important, although in countries that
didn't have conscription (such as Australia) the proportion of the male population
who served was inevitably lower. There was also no conscription in Ireland,
even though it was part of the UK at the time, but over 200,000 Irish soldiers
served.
Suffolk
parish registers EXCLUSIVE
At the beginning of this month
I revealed that Suffolk Record Office are planning to digitise their parish
registers - and promised an update when new information became available. On
Wednesday I received a reply from the Lowestoft Record Office Consultation Team
which explained what the current plans are:
"Suffolk Record Office has investigated various
options for the digitisation of its parish register holdings, including that of
digitising the master microfilm and fiche.
Although not yet finalised our current proposal is to create high
quality full colour TIFF digital images from the original registers, which will
be preserved on our server. Colour
access copies generated from these will then be available for the public to
search and view. At this stage we cannot
provide any further information as it has not been agreed."
Reading between the lines it
sounds as if they may be planning to emulate what Essex Record Office have
done, which is to host the images themselves and offer subscriptions - which
isn’t going to be a cheap option for users (Essex charge £85 for a year,
although you can buy subscriptions for shorter periods). But if the colour
scans are as good as those that Essex provide, they'll be a pleasure to use.
If they do choose to host the
images themselves it's likely that users will have to rely on existing
transcriptions to find the entries they're looking for. Existing sources
include FamilySearch and FreeREG, but the biggest
collection of Suffolk register entries is at Fndmypast,
who host the Suffolk Baptism Index and Suffolk Marriage Index (both compiled by
Suffolk Family History Society) as well as Boyd's Marriage Index (licenced by
the Society of Genealogists) and the National Burial Index.
Guest
article: Transportation and Marriage
I'm delighted that Rebecca
Probert, Professor of Law at Exeter University, and author of two of the books
that every genealogist with English or Welsh ancestors should have at their
side (Marriage
Law for Genealogists and Divorced, Bigamist, Bereaved), has written
an exclusive article on an oft-ignored topic:
What was the impact of transportation on
a marriage? In 1806, the Morning Post commented that ‘When a man is sent to
Botany Bay for bigamy, it is called a transporting divorce.’ Others clearly
regarded the transportation as equivalent to the death of the spouse, with marriage
registers referring to women as being widows ‘by transportation of first
husband’ when they remarried.
However, under English law
transportation did not dissolve an existing marriage. If seven years had
elapsed since a woman had seen or heard of her transported husband, and she had
no reason to believe that he was still alive, then she would at least have a
good defence to a criminal charge of bigamy if she remarried but he
subsequently turned up alive and well.
If the validity of her second marriage was
disputed in court for some other reason – for example in a dispute over
settlement – then depending on the facts of the case the court might presume
that her first husband had died, even if seven years had not elapsed. In such
cases the court would take into account evidence such
as whether the husband was in a risky situation, or in poor health, when he was
last heard of.
But if it transpired that her transported
husband was still alive at the time of the second marriage, that marriage would
be void. It was only in 1937 – long after the end of transportation! – that a
formal procedure was established for applying to the court for a declaration of
presumed death and dissolution of the first marriage – up to that date there
was always the risk of the second marriage being void.
© 2018 Rebecca Probert - All Rights
Reserved
The law was different in
Australia - there a man who had not heard of his wife for 7 years could
remarry, so in theory a man and his wife could both remarry, but under English
law she would still be married to him, even though under Australian law he was now
married to somebody else.
I'm still receiving wonderful
stories about adoption experiences, and I'm going to continue featuring these
stories in the newsletter as I feel that there's a lot we can learn from them.
The first contribution is
from a member in the UK who not only shares details of her own experiences, but
is able to tell us about the experiences of others:
"I
am an adoptive parent of 2 boys now in their 30s whom we were lucky enough to
adopt as healthy babies, one at 6 months and one at 2 months. They had a happy,
supportive childhood but to date neither has wished to trace their natural
parents.
"As
a child, my younger son expressed an interest in searching for his natural
mother when he came of age, but my older son has always rejected the idea
outright (the boys are not genetically related.) The elder boy’s natural half-brother
(placed with a foster family who later adopted him) contacted him on 2 separate
occasions aged 16 and 19 in a bid to find their mother, but my son had no
interest whatsoever and on reaching 18, my younger son had lost interest in
tracing his natural mother. Obviously, as an adoptive parent, I am happy that
my sons feel content with the life we have given them and have no desire to
find their natural mothers, but if they did want to at any time, I would
support them fully in whatever capacity I could, because in their position, I
think I would possibly be curious to know more about my heritage.
"Would
I be hurt if my children did search for their natural parents? I don’t know is
the honest answer. I would like to think not, but it would depend upon the
circumstances. If it was a matter of curiosity and the need to know where they
came from, then I could understand that, but if it resulted from a breakdown in
family relationships, then that would be upsetting and
I would feel that I had failed them. In my experience, adopted children feel
very aware of the fact that they have been rejected by their natural parents,
so for some, I think it gives closure to find that the reason for their
adoption was the mother’s desire to give their child a better life or the
demands of family that an illegitimate child is given away against the mother’s
wishes.
"In
the case of my son’s half-brother, he wanted to trace his natural mother and
half-brother in the hope of finding a close relationship with someone he could
genuinely feel belonged to him. He was adopted into a family with 4 natural
children and a set of adopted twins whom the family also fostered prior to
adoption. He felt that the natural children ‘belonged’
and the twins had one another, but he often felt isolated and didn’t feel able
to discuss the matter with his parents. Whether he eventually traced his
mother, I don’t know, as my son lost contact, but as adoptive parents, if the
reason for tracing a natural parent was anything other than curiosity and a
need to know where they came from, I would feel rightly or wrongly that I had
failed that child in some way.
"Some
adoptive parents I know well are totally against their daughter (now 40+)
seeking her natural mother as they feel that they have brought their daughter
up, looked after her and cared for her and the natural mother gave up her right
to her daughter’s affection when she offered her for adoption. They won’t pass
on any details regarding the adoption and out of respect for her parents, the daughter
has decided not to pursue the issue as she doesn’t want to upset her adoptive
parents, with whom she has a loving and supportive relationship. However, the
daughter is still curious and I suspect will try to
trace her natural mother after her parents have died, but currently knows that
her parents will be deeply offended by her interest. Their daughter contacted
me, as another adoptive parent and friend of her mother to ask what her
mother’s attitude would be, prior to starting the investigation process, as she
suspected her mother would be very hurt.
"No
parent or child knows what the search for natural parents will bring. Further
rejection is an obvious possibility, in which case the adoptive parents need to
be supportive, as I know this would upset both my children considerably. The
formation of a strong natural mother/child bond could feel threatening to an
adoptive parent, though where children have had a happy and loving childhood
and remain close to their adoptive parents, hopefully this shouldn’t cause
problems as long as the child makes it clear that they are not seeking to
replace their adoptive parents and there is an open dialogue during the
process. After all, without the selfless actions of the birth mother, adoptive
parents wouldn’t experience the joy of having a child in the first place.
However, the process is bound to be very emotional for all concerned and
peoples’ feelings need to be very carefully considered.
"You
mentioned treading carefully with regard to contacting
birth families – we were advised to bring our children up always having known
they were adopted and to ensure that if they wished to trace their birth
parents, it was done through the proper channels. However, if the father’s name
was never on the birth certificate and the mother is not alive or refuses to divulge
his name, the only way to trace him might be via DNA and a reason for tracing
natural parents might be to ensure that adoptees are not unwittingly
romantically involved with siblings or half siblings. Another reason might be
to find out family medical histories. Others may have very different attitudes
and interests to their adoptive parents and as such might feel that they don’t
fit in, which again can make children feel that they want to seek natural
parents, especially if siblings appear to have more in common with their
parents and believe me, this is a difficult problem to solve, esp in the teenage years!
"Others
can feel that their adoptive parents perceive that they are failing if they
aren’t very academic and it can be difficult to persuade them that it doesn’t
matter what grades they achieve, only that they have done their best.
Frequently they feel in these cases that they might have more in common with
their natural parents......... which can be upsetting to adoptive parents.
"Having
adopted children often draws others to mention that they are adopted, but I
have yet to find anyone who has made contact with
their birth mother, despite knowing a lot of adoptees and adoptive parents.
Most, it seems either have no wish to know anything about the person whom they consider
rejected them or they think it might upset their adoptive parents, so don’t
want to pursue that route."
So far
the stories in this series have looked at adoption from the point of view of
the children or the adoptive parents, and the next tale - from a birth mother -
tells the other side of the story:
"I
had a baby girl in 1960 when I was unmarried and like the
majority of unmarried young women then, I was forced to give my baby up
for adoption. I suppose, fortunately, I was sent to stay with a recently
divorced woman and her two young sons until I gave birth in a nursing home so I only looked after the baby for 10 days - unlike
Mother & Baby homes where the mothers sometimes had to look after their
children for up to 3 months. On the day I left to go back home, a couple
came for my baby - the matron at the nursing home had a connection to lots of
GPs around the North of England, so if they had a couple who wanted to adopt
they just put them in touch with the matron!
"You
can imagine, I worried for years about who her adoptive parents were, why they
hadn't gone through the normal channels and been vetted by social services
etc. In fact I had been told by the matron to
tell social services I'd changed my mind about the adoption! As it happened I
needn't have worried. The day the couple took my baby, they vowed that,
somehow when she was an adult they would find me, though at the time they had
no idea how they would do this and, of course, in 1960 adoption was supposed to
be final for the birth mother.
"Eventually
around 1996, I got a letter from my daughter. It turns out her parents
were as good as their word and her father, now in his 90s, had searched online
for me, in the way we would search for our ancestors. He got her birth
certificate which gave my name, then he looked for birth certificates for me to
see how old I was at the time of the adoption and who my father was, then he
looked for marriage certificates and found one that showed my father's name so he knew he had the correct birth certificate for
me.
"Then
he decided to search Electoral Rolls for me and my husband. He found that
there were hundreds of couples with the same name - which I thought amazing as
although I have a common Christian name, my husband doesn't, so he looked for
births of any other children I'd had, to see if he could find them on electoral
rolls. One of our sons has a fairly uncommon name
so he looked for him in electoral rolls. There were only 6 with the same
name, so he decided he would telephone each one. He struck lucky first
time, but as he didn't know whether my family knew about the adopted child
(they didn't), he just told my son he was researching family history and was
trying to get in touch with me because he'd found a connection to me and
someone in Ireland (which is where my daughter now lives). Of course, my
son was very helpful giving him my name, address and telephone number, although
he did say he didn't know we had any relations in Ireland.
"I
know social services are supposed to get involved, but in our case it didn't seem to matter. Of course, first I had
to tell my husband and his reaction was 'When are we going to Ireland to see
her?', then I told my children one by one starting with the eldest, a
daughter. I have to say she wasn't particularly happy with the news,
although her brothers were delighted. I've seen my adopted daughter quite
a few times now, my sons are 'friends' with her on Facebook and my husband and
I visit her parents when we are in their area of England.
"Her
father, an amateur photographer, had taken photos of her from the day they got
her throughout all her growing up years and well into adulthood, so I have a
record of everything which, as my daughter-in-law said, is very unusual for
children born in 1960 (unlike today when my grandson posts photos of his
daughter online every week!).
"Although
my dad had died, my mum was still alive when my husband and I went to Ireland
to see my daughter and her children, and when we got back we went to visit my
mum, told her why we'd been to Ireland and showed her some photos. Of
course, she said she was very sorry she'd made me give up the baby but it was just how things were then. After that
she quite often asked how she was and how her children were."
In this case the natural
father of the child didn’t even know that he'd fathered a child - the mother
was forbidden from telling him by her parents. What a shock it will be for him
if he ever finds out! I wonder, is there anyone reading this who only
discovered that they'd fathered a child many years later?
Couple
spend last hours together - on their 66th anniversary
I thought this article on the
BBC News website was sad, but at the same time uplifting.
Earlier this month I mentioned
Talking Machine News, and mentioned
the booths where you could record your own voice. One reader wrote in to tell
me that this was how Elvis Presley made his first recording,
but researching Sun Records online suggests that he used their studios
for the recording he made for his mother.
Barbara wrote in with an
interesting story from her own family history:
"I was fascinated with
article in your latest newsletter about self-made discs. I have four Voice
Records from the 1930's of my father and his mother.
They were nearing the end of a cruise and recorded them to send to my
grandfather. Two are just talking, one 'last night's crowd' and another of
very off-key singing. A fifth record is an advertisement for the cruise line, Lamport and Holt. I had them transcribed onto a CD. These
days you might call it digital remastering I think. Unfortunately
they are not very clear and I have still not managed to decipher them all
though I have the gist. It was quite a shock to hear my father's voice and more
so my grandmother's as she died when I was just 5. These are now the best heirloom
of my father I have. The records had to be played using a wooden needle and I
also had a box with the needles and kit to sharpen them. I passed that on to
the kind man who 're-recorded' them for me."
Sadly the tape recordings I made when I was younger have
all been lost over the years, but a couple of years ago I acquired a copy of a
recording made by my Uncle Les around 60 years ago. At one point in the
recording he asks my mother to say a few words - but she doesn't, which is a
great shame because she died in 1976, and I've long forgotten how she sounded.
I keep listening to it in the hope that next time she will say something but she never does.....
Radio Times website still promoting scam
Millions of people use the Radio Times website to find out what's
on TV - it's a trusted brand, one that my parents and grandparents relied on.
Several months ago I was shocked to find a scam advert
on the Radio Times site, and
yesterday I was very disappointed to once again find the same scam advert,
using fake (or unauthorised) images of Dragon's
Den stars to promote a gambling scam called Bitcoin Revolution. Returning
to the Radio Times site today I found
another scam ad for the same bunch of crooks, this time using (or rather,
misusing) the name of a comedian called Jim Davidson. A Google search reveals
that other celebrities who are livid about their names being used to promote
the scam include (Lord) Alan Sugar and chef Jamie Oliver - and the Daily Mirror are up in arms about the
way the way their site is mimicked in order to provide
credibility for the fakers.
Immediate Media, the
publishers of the Radio Times also
publish Who Do You Think You Are?
magazine - it's a shame to find such reputable names associated with outright
trickery. They probably don’t have much control over the ads that are shown -
the adverts are supplied by Google Ad Services - but they still make money out
of them. I eventually managed to find some instructions (see below) explaining
how to complain about an ad on Google, but I'm not sure if it also applies to
ads which they provide for other websites.
Friday 23rd November is
'Black Friday', a name that for some will bring back memories of disasters or stockmarket crashes, but for most means shopping. Like Christmas
and New Year sales Black Friday promotions often start well before the actual
day, although most sellers hold back their best offers until the last minute.
The challenge is to avoid
buying something that you don’t really need - it's bad enough when we're given
something for Christmas that we're never going to use, but it's far worse when
it's self-inflicted. I generally take advantage of sales to buy things I would
have bought anyway - rechargeable batteries or USB cables, or things on my
Amazon wish list.
But my top tip is to start a
30-day Free Trial of Amazon Prime - it's
a chance to get free and faster delivery on many items, and Prime members also
get early access to sale items. And even though the trial is free, you'll be
supporting LostCousins when you use one of the links
below:
Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com Amazon.ca
Talking of rechargeable batteries,
I've found they generally work in most devices, even if the instructions for
the device don't recommend rechargeables. But don’t buy
them in the supermarket - they're often unbelievably expensive.
I don’t eat out very often,
at least by modern standards, since it's remarkably difficult to find a
restaurant that can beat home-cooked food for quality and nutrition (restaurants
rarely use low-calorie ingredients). But when I do I always write a review on
TripAdvisor - whether the meal was good or bad, because user reviews are
incredibly important. I hope you do the same.
Of course, you have to be wary of reviews - as the latest Which? magazine reminds us. There are
unscrupulous sellers who pay for good reviews - though it's
usually pretty obvious which reviews are fake from the user names or the wording
(or from looking at the reviewer's other contributions). My observation is that
you don’t need to worry about fake reviews when there are hundreds of reviews -
the danger is when there are fewer than 20. To be fair, I do understand the
conundrum that sellers are faced with - many people won't buy products unless
other users have already reviewed them, which makes it very difficult to launch
something new.
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'm not sure
exactly when you'll hear from me again, but I've got so much to tell you that
it certainly won't be long!
Peter Calver
Founder,
LostCousins
© Copyright 2018
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,
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instead, since standard membership (which includes the newsletter), is FREE?