Newsletter
- 11 June 2012
North
American edition
Are
you receiving the right newsletter?
How
to save $$$ on your Ancestry subscription
Will Ancestry be bought by Facebook?
How
to switch back to the 'old' Ancestry search
FamilySearch
begins to close down its old site
Yes! You can still use the old FamilySearch site
The North American edition of the
LostCousins newsletter is published at irregular intervals. This is the first
online issue.
Whenever possible links are
included to the websites or articles mentioned in the newsletter (they are
highlighted in blue or purple and underlined,
so you can't miss them).For you convenience, when you click on a link a new
browser window or tab will open (so that you don’t lose your place in the
newsletter) - if nothing seems to happen then you need to enable pop-ups in
your browser.
To go to the main LostCousins
website click the logo at the top of this newsletter. If you're not already a
member, do join - it's free, and you'll get an email to alert you whenever
there's a new edition of this newsletter available!
Are you receiving
the right newsletter?
Most LostCousins members have some
British or Irish ancestry, and the main edition of my newsletter is aimed at
those members (it also includes important genealogy news from around the world,
including the US and Canada). If you have British or Irish ancestry then you
would probably find that edition - which is published twice a month - more useful.
Currently your My Details page
indicates that you wish to receive news relating to the US and Canada only - if
you would like to receive the main edition simply change the settings in the My Interests section:
If you haven't already done so, now
would be a good time to complete the other parts of your My Details page - and to change your password if you're still using
the temporary one issued when you first registered.
Tip:
you can get an instant email reminder of your password by clicking here.
How to save $$$
on your Ancestry subscription
If you have Ancestry World Explorer membership I've got some
good news for you - you can save over 25% by switching to Worldwide membership through
Ancestry's British website, even though both memberships offer the same
features!
Right now the annual cost through
Ancestry.com is $299.40; the equivalent cost if you subscribe through Ancestry.co.uk
is less than $220!
How can a discrepancy like this exist?
It's partly down to fluctuations in exchange rates over the past few years. At
one time I used to save money by subscribing to the US site (even though I live
in the UK), but now the UK site is much cheaper. I use a free site called XE.com to find out the equivalent cost in
different currencies - here's what it showed when I checked earlier today:
By the way, 135.13 British pounds is
what you'll be billed when you take out Worldwide
membership through Ancestry.co.uk,
so you can see that today the saving is almost $90 (though you should allow
about $5 for the charges the bank that issued your credit card will make).
Don't be put off if, when you go to the
Ancestry.co.uk site, you're initially shown a higher price. The higher price
includes UK taxes, which you won't have to pay. The price you will actually pay
is shown on the page where you enter your credit card details, as shown in the
graphic above.
Tip:
Ancestry will try to take you back to your local site: click here
to go direct to the right page at the UK site (if you get a message about
'cookies' just click Continue).
Although fluctuating exchange rates mean
that the numbers might be slightly different when your Ancestry.com
subscription is due for renewal, there will still be a significant saving to be
made. I recommend you cancel your Ancestry.com subscription now so that it
doesn't renew automatically (you'll still have full access until the expiry
date). I suggest you also bookmark this newsletter so that you can run through
the details before resubscribing.
Tip:
you can use the same user name at all Ancestry sites worldwide, so you'll still
have access to your online tree and other information after you move your
subscription to the UK site.
Will Ancestry
be bought by Facebook?
Ancestry.com has been quoted on NASDAQ
since 2009, and although stockholders who bought in the IPO are showing a good
profit on their investment, anybody who bought at last year's peak is showing a
big loss.
Last month the stock fell about 15% when
news came through that NBC were cancelling Who
Do You Think You Are? after just 3 seasons - but
the price has recovered after a Bloomberg story last week that Ancestry is
looking for someone to buy the company.
Some commentators have suggested that
Google, or even Facebook, might be interested. Others think that is unlikely.
Personally I hope that Facebook don't end up owning Ancestry - the two sites
have very different aims, and appeal to very different demographics.
Since Ancestry began preparing for its
IPO nearly 4 years ago users have seen the introduction of a new-style search,
one that many experienced researchers find harder to use. I've certainly felt
that it's aimed more at beginners than people like you and me. Fortunately it's
still possible to switch back to the old search - if you know how.....
How to switch back to
the 'old' Ancestry search
If, like many experienced Ancestry
users, you find the new search that Ancestry introduced 3 or 4 years ago
doesn't deliver the results - don't worry, in less than 2 minutes you can
restore the old search!
Starting from the Ancestry.com home page
click the Search tab and select Search All Records from the drop-down
menu (this isn't something I'd normally recommend, by the way - searching
multiple record sets simultaneously rarely delivers the best results).
Almost in the top right corner of the
Search page (it may be off the screen - scroll right if necessary) is a text
link which reads Go to Old Search. Click the link, then go
back to the home page and start using the site as you would normally. And
that's it!
Note:
the same sequence should work at all Ancestry sites around the world; however
it doesn't work with Ancestry Library Edition.
FamilySearch
begins to close down its old site
When I started researching my family
tree, Ancestry and FamilySearch were the two sites I found most useful.
FamilySearch was never the easiest site to use, but once you learned how it
worked, you could make some great discoveries (I certainly did).
About 3 years ago FamilySearch started
building a new site that would offer not only simpler searching but also a much
wider range of records. Unfortunately, when it launched some users found that
it didn't do everything that the old site offered - and some of the records
hadn't been copied over from the old site.
Until a few months ago that wasn't a
problem - because the old site was still available. It still is - but when you
select certain features you're automatically taken to the new site, which can
be very frustrating if the record you're looking for can only be found at the
old site. The link to the old site from the home page of the new site has also
disappeared, which certainly doesn't help!
Fortunately, if you know how, it is
still possible to get to the old site and access the old records....
Yes! You can
still use the old FamilySearch site
The easy part is getting to the old site
- which you can do by clicking here.
You'll arrive at the Search page - but don't be tempted to click Home because you'll end up on the home
page of the new site.
Normally I wouldn't search more than set
of records at a time, especially at the old FamilySearch site - I soon learned
that this didn't work very well - but you'll need to do it in order to get to
the individual record sets (if you click on IGI, Census etc
you'll find yourself at the new site).
Enter a dummy search - search for John
Smith, but don't enter any more information. It's not the results that are of
interest but the column at the far right of the page that is headed Sources searched.
Click on the entry for the record set
that you're interested in - for example, the 1880 US census. Now click the refine search text link in the top right
corner of the page, and you'll find yourself on the
old census search page.
Tip:
you may find that as you use the old Search some of the fields disappear. This
was always an occasional problem with the old FamilySearch site (I believe it
indicates that the servers are overloaded).
It can be very frustrating when you're
up against a 'brick wall' in your research. But before turning to the question of
how to get those brick walls tumbling down, it's important to distinguish
between real brick walls and the imaginary ones we create for ourselves. For
example, if there are sources of information that you haven't searched because
you don't have the right subscription or don't live close to the relevant
records office, it's not a brick wall that's blocking your path - it could
simply be your lack of determination to solve the problem.
Yes, of course we all have limited time
and money, but there are usually routes we can take if only we stop and think
for a moment. These might, for example, include free access to subscription
services at your local library or LDS Family History Center.
Of course, sometimes the records you want to search are only available at an
archive that's thousands of miles away - but even then you've got the option of
employing a researcher.
But when you've checked all the
readily-available records, what next? One approach is to find others who are
researching the same line, which is where LostCousins can help: make sure that
your My Ancestors page is as complete
as possible. Finding relatives who are researching the same families can lead
to all sorts of discoveries - even someone who isn't as experienced as you may
well have some clues that you don't have.
Sometimes simply starting from a
different place on the tree can make all the difference. For example, I
recently obtained the will of my great-great-great-great aunt's husband - which
referred to the son of his sister-in-law (but didn't name him). I knew that she
wasn't married at the time the will was written, so it was obvious that the
child was illegitimate - and suddenly I realised who that son must be (and that
the name of the father shown on his marriage certificate was a fabrication). It
was a fascinating discovery even though it didn't break down any of my brick
walls - but for the descendants of that child (and there are hundreds of them)
it was a wonderful discovery, because starting from where they are on the tree
there would have been no reason for them to ever obtain a copy of that will.
That particular find depended on
spotting the link between seemingly unrelated information from three different
parts of my tree. Making such connections usually requires us to have a very
ambivalent attitude towards the information in our tree: in other words, we
always have to have in the back of our minds the possibility that what we've
been told, or what we've read in a register or on a certificate isn't true - at
least until we have found so much supporting evidence that we have to accept
its veracity.
Occasionally we know where the
information that will break down a particular brick wall is likely to come
from. For example, there were a lot of people waiting for the 1911 Census to be
released because it was the only way they could find out where their
grandfather or grandmother was born. Similarly, I was hoping that the indexing
by Ancestry of the London Metropolitan Archives parish registers would enable
me to find the baptism of my great-great grandmother - who gave four different
birthplaces on the census (sadly it didn't).
Often it's serendipity that leads to the
solution - though we still have to be alert to the possibility. For example,
the surname of a visitor staying with my great-great-great grandparents at the
time of the census seemed vaguely familiar, and I eventually realised that it
was the name of a marriage witness whose signature I'd had difficulty
deciphering. This enabled me to confirm that I'd found the right Smith family
on the census (not always easy with such a common surname) and take the line
back another generation.
Seek out inspiration. Read as many
family history magazines as you can, and especially free newsletters - not just
mine, but also Dick Eastman's http://blog.eogn.com/blog.
The information you glean might not solve the present problem, but it could
well solve a problem in the future (it's important to remember that sometimes
the solutions arrive before the problems!).
And yet, more often than not, when I'm
up against a brick wall I choose the "do nothing" option. That's right, instead of running round like a headless chicken I
put that particular problem to one side and focus on another part of my tree.
It's amazing how often some small discovery I make elsewhere provides an
insight into how I might solve the original problem.
Another reason to focus on a different
line is the way that new records are becoming available on the Internet -
there's no point dithering over a problem that will be easy to solve next year,
much better to work on a different line whole you're waiting. You see, to be
really successful we have to be flexible not only in the way we do our
research, but also the order in which we do it!
I hope you've found this newsletter
useful, but remember if your research interests extend beyond North America you
may prefer to receive the main edition, which is published more frequently (to
change your settings follow the instructions in the first article).
All the best for now,
Peter Calver
Founder, LostCousins
© Copyright 2012 Peter Calver
You
may link to this newsletter, and I have included bookmarks so you can - if you
wish - link to a specific article by copying the relevant entry in the list of
contents at the beginning of the newsletter. However, please email me first if
you would like to re-publish any part of the newsletter on your own website or
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