Major site update

22nd July 2004

Today we have implemented the most significant update yet of the LostCousins site, including several features requested by members.

News page
We’ve added a news page (this is it!) to make it easier for you to keep in touch with developments at LostCousins. The first time you log-in after a news item has been added, the words ‘LATEST NEWS’ will be flashing, to alert you to the update.

Buddy Scheme
You may already know about the buddy scheme from our email newsletter. It’s a way for members to help each other – very useful when you’re stuck and can’t think what else to try! After a very successful trial the buddy scheme today becomes a permanent feature of LostCousins, with its own page on the site.

Ancestor Photos
You may have noticed that the photos on our home page have changed – they now show members’ ancestors. If you move the pointer over one of the three photos in the foreground the name and birth date of the individual are displayed. The photos are chosen at random from all the ancestor photos we have received, so every time you go to the home page you’ll see different photos!

Let us know if you would like to see one of your ancestors on the LostCousins home page.

Add Similar
We’ve made it easier to add Ancestors who were living in the same household at the time of the census. Just click on Add Similar to add another person from the same household - it saves you having to type in the census reference numbers and the surname every time!

Sort by Household
We’ve added a new option for displaying the My Ancestors. Previously you could choose to sort by Name, or by Age – now you can also sort by Household, which makes it easy to see whether you’ve entered all of the people in a household (and may enable you to spot input errors).

Create link to known relative
You can now create a link to a relative who has already joined LostCousins, but who doesn’t appear on your My Cousins page (for example, because they are related only by marriage, or because they didn’t enter a referral code that you sent them). Just go to your My Cousins page and click on ‘Add a known relative’. You’ll need to know the email address they use when they log-in.

New registration procedure
If you experienced any difficulties confirming your registration, then you’ll be pleased to know that we have changed the system to make it easier for new members.

Other changes
If an ancestor was born before 1837, when civil registration of births began, you obviously can’t obtain a birth certificate, so an X will be displayed in the birth certificate column on your My Ancestors page.

If you supply corrected information for an ancestor, this will appear in italics on your My Ancestors page.

When you use Refer a Relative, there are two new buttons you can use to help select which ancestors to send to the relative: Select All and Clear All.

For the latest LostCousins member newsletter click here