LostCousins newsletter 17/10/09

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Free information from the 1911 Census

Now that the 1911 England & Wales Census can be accessed at two sites, and paid for in two ways - credits or a subscription - it's a good time to make sure that you're not missing out. If you've already paid to view the original census schedule there are several more pages that you can now view for no extra charge.

To view all the extra information, log-in at the 1911 Census site, then click on my records in the menu that runs across the top of the page. Go to any of the records listed as 'Address Original Page' or 'Household Original Page', then click VIEW. When the page appears you'll see a list of other pages across the top, all of which are FREE once you've paid for the main image.

These usually include details of the enumerator, a brief description of the enumeration district, and an image of two pages listing addresses and householder names: typically one page will list your relative and 24 neighbouring householders, the other will show 25 householders from a nearby street (because of the way the Enumerator's Summary Book has been photographed the pages are usually not consecutive).

Tip: look out for names you recognise - relatives often lived near to each other

If there's a name that looks familiar, you'll probably want to know who else was in that household (apart from the householder), and the good news is that this information is also FREE! All you need to do is note the Schedule number shown for that household, then carry out a Census Reference Search, which is easiest to do at findmypast.com (but see the tip below).

Apart from the Schedule number you'll also need the Piece Number and the Enumeration District which were shown for the original household (look for the references which begin RG14PN and ED). The other references can be omitted, at least in my experience.

Tip: if you carry out a Census Reference Search at the 1911 Census site you'll see the ages of the household members - this information isn't given in the free search results at findmypast.com

Sneak preview or 'free for all'?

In my last newsletter I wrote that, unless you were already a findmypast.com subscriber, you wouldn't be able to buy a 1911 Census subscription until October 21. But as far as I can see after visiting the site under a nom de plume, ANYONE can take out a 1911 subscription right now (or a joint subscription, which includes ALL of the records at the findmypast site).

You'll need to get in quick, since the 20% introductory discount only lasts until the end of the month. Click here to go straight to the relevant page.

Save time and money with a free viewer

I spend an awful lot of time viewing, saving, and printing images at Ancestry & findmypast.com but it takes me far less time than it used to - and I get better results too! It's all thanks to a program called Irfanview that you can download free (it works on all versions of Windows released in the last 15 years). It isn't the most powerful graphics program in the world - it isn't even the most powerful on my hard drive - but it is so quick and easy to use that I use it more than any other.

Although I call Irfanview a graphics program, it isn't a program for creating graphics - instead it does all the things that a busy family historian wants to do, such as converting files from one format to another, cutting the size of files so that they can be emailed, trimming off the bits that you don't want to print (some people waste a fortune in black ink printing the blank bit around the edge of census pages!), and brightening or darkening the image so that it is easier to read. And when you print something out it will automatically fit it to the paper you're using.

Until I discovered Irfanview I used to find DjVu files really difficult to handle: now I can download a DjVu image and save it as a JPG or any other format, all in a few seconds - the program opens automatically!

[Thinking about it, perhaps that's why some people don't get on as well with findmypast.com as I do? DjVu files can be a nuisance if you don't have Irfanview, and while there is an alternative format, the images download an awful lot quicker if you use the enhanced viewer.]

I'm not an expert in using Irfanview - I don't need to be in order to do the things I've described. Try it!

Can YOU get free access to Ancestry?

Antonia wrote in to remind me that many libraries in the UK and elsewhere have a subscription to Ancestry Library Edition, and if your library is one of them, you may find that you don't need a subscription of your own - particularly if you already subscribe to a complementary site such as findmypast.com (and so can access most of the records from the comfort of your own home).

If your library doesn't offer this facility, or if getting to the library is a problem, another option is to take out a Monthly subscription to Ancestry, then cancel it a few days before the end of the first month. £12.95 may sound like a lot for just one month, but if you're focusing on a record set that's unavailable elsewhere (for example the London Metropolitan Archives registers) you can probably blitz through them in a couple of weeks.

On the subject of libraries, many offer access to online databases such as The Times and other newspaper archives - and best of all, you may be able to access them from home, simply by entering your library card number. Sadly - but perhaps understandably - this option doesn't seem to be available for Ancestry.

What is 'fair usage'?

If you have broadband you've probably come across 'fair usage' limits - these are designed to prevent a minority of users exploiting an unlimited facility and slowing down the connection for others.

There are similar limits at some family history sites which offer unlimited access subscriptions - for example, until recently findmypast.com's terms and conditions stipulated a limit of 1000 credits per month for subscribers (averaged over a rolling 3 month period), roughly equivalent to £1000 worth of credits per annum.

The good news is that with the launch of the 1911 Census at findmypast.com this limit has been increased dramatically, to 5000 units per month, equivalent to an amazing £5000 worth of credits per annum! Check out the new terms and conditions here.

Welsh wills free online

The National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth has put digital images of pre-1858 wills online - and they're absolutely free! You can search by name, date, location, or occupation.

However, if there's a way to download the images I've yet to find it - the Help information might as well have been in Welsh for all the assistance it gave me. The image I printed out was very hard to read, and whilst it was easier to read on the screen, being able to see only a small part of the page at a time was a problem I could have done without. The things I do for LostCousins members!

Sadly if you're planning to visit the library in person, it is no longer open on Saturdays. What a strange decision for a library which claims that "The National Library of Wales is acknowledged as the principal centre for researching Welsh genealogy" - perhaps it's appropriate that the new opening hours came into effect on April Fools Day?

[Whilst I don't support the decision of the National Archives in Kew to close on Mondays, at least it's still possible for those who work Monday to Friday to visit at the weekend.]

Scotlandspeople adds Catholic registers

Until now the only parish records at the Scotlandspeople site have been for Church of Scotland parishes, but I have just discovered that entries from around 700 surviving Catholic registers are being transcribed and added to the site, the first tranche comprising baptisms from 1703-1955. For a PDF list of the missions and parishes included and the periods covered click here; for maps showing the location of Catholic parishes in Scotland click here.

The records added include not only Scottish parishes, but also the records of the RC Bishopric of the Forces, which records all sacramental events for British service men and women serving in the armed forces worldwide.

The piece that surpasseth all understanding

Many new LostCousins members come across census references and source citations for the first time when they join, and a common question is "what is a piece"?

Census records at the National Archives are stored as 'pieces', where each piece is a bundle of enumeration books. Within each bundle the individual leaves are stamped with consecutive folio numbers; the pages were numbered at the time they were printed. Thus the page number, folio number, and piece number together define a unique census page - typically with no more than 25 entries.

It's this precision that leads to the accuracy for which LostCousins is renowned - because the chance of there being two people on the same page who have the same name and are the same age is very small indeed.

PoW records - update

In the last issue I reported that Ancestry have recently added a small but significant database with details of over 100,000 British Army personnel who were held in Prisoner of War camps in Europe during WW2.

Tip: whilst the Search form invites you to enter the first name and last name of the person you're seeking, the database doesn't include any first names, only initials.

Of course, there were many Britons - many of them civilians - held captive in the Far East and Jacqueline wrote in to tell me about COFEPOW, a site which has a wide range of information and also links to many other relevant sites.

I.G.I. tips and tricks

If you're a regular reader of this newsletter, you'll know that I rate the International Genealogical Index very highly indeed. It's always my first port of call when I'm trying to trace people before the commencement of civil registration - and it can still be useful afterwards, as Alexander recently pointed out. He uses the IGI to help verify whether he has found the right census entry, by carrying out a 'parents' search, then comparing the baptisms he finds against the children listed on the census.

If you've never carried out a parents search, here's what you do. First go to FamilySearch, select Advanced Search from the Search Records menu, then choose International Genealogical Index. Set Event to Birth/Christening, set the Region to British Isles, then choose the appropriate country and county (if known).

Finally enter the father's name, and the mother's forename (it's usually best to omit the maiden name, since this is rarely shown in the register after 1813, and is often omitted even before).

Please remember that the IGI is not a complete index, and that even for the parishes that are included there may be some omissions. I've even seen the occasional error, though they are very few and far between - just so long as you avoid the entries marked "Record submitted after 1991 by a member of the LDS Church" (these are often based on conjecture).

Searching for children born to the same couple is a great way to find out more about your family tree, and to help confirm whether you have found the right parents.

My favourite tree program

People often ask me to recommend a family tree program. By far the most powerful program I know is Family Historian, but whilst I have a copy, it isn't the program I use most of the time. My needs are very simple, and if yours are too, then I suggest you read on….

For the past 7 years I've been using Genopro, which is the only program I know that allows me to arrange my family tree the way I want it. Something else I like about Genopro is being able to cut a branch off my tree to send to a relative, so that I don't have to give them my entire tree, 95% of which will be irrelevant to them.

Genopro have agreed to offer a 10% discount to LostCousins members, which brings the price down from $49 to $44 (that's about £27, or £28 by the time your credit card company takes their cut). Don't buy until you've tried the program out - there's a free 14 day trial - but when you do, be sure to click here so that you get your discount.

Online trees - a horror story

You'll know from my last newsletter that I don't have my tree online - for a whole range of reasons. And whilst I occasionally find a useful connection as a result of somebody else posting information online, my advice has to be - DON'T DO IT!

If I hadn't come to that conclusion before, I certainly would have done after reading Pauline's email. A few years ago she posted her tree on a US site called GenCircles. It seems that at some point GenCircles got taken over, because without her knowledge or permission Pauline's tree ended up on the MyHeritage site. MyHeritage is based near Tel Aviv, and therefore not subject to US or European data protection legislation, but fortunately after a long series of emails Pauline eventually managed to get her tree removed.

I should point out that MyHeritage is an apparently respectable site - one of their Advisory Board members is a former Chief Operating Officer of Ancestry.com; however I wouldn't put my tree on this site or any other. Posting information on the Internet is like opening Pandora's box - once it's on the web you've lost control of it.

Genes Reunited offers map feature

At Genes Reunited it's now possible to map out where your ancestors were born, although if you import or export a Gedcom file all the information will be lost. If you've already tried out this feature did you find it useful, or was it more trouble than it's worth?

Fair shares for heirs?

The BBC programme Heir Hunters has been very successful television - but the fees of up to 30% of the legacy charged by some of the companies who search for heirs are causing concern, as there are other companies prepared to do the tracing work for fixed fees.

When somebody dies, and no heir can be found, ownership of their property eventually passes to the Crown - but a government department known as Bona Vacantia advertises such estates in the hope that an heir may come forward or be traced.

There are currently over 130 estates advertised on the Bona Vacantia website - and there's also a chart in PDF format showing which relatives of the deceased are entitled to share in a legacy. Claims should be made within 12 years of the death, although the Treasury Solicitor has discretion to allow claims for up to 30 years.

Peter's Tips

Everyone knows that before long all terrestrial TV in the UK will be digital, but did you realise that the Government are planning a similar transition for radio? With a TV or video recorder you can buy a set-top box that converts it to digital, but when radio goes digital every crystal set, wireless, and transistor radio manufactured since Marconi first experimented in the late 19th century will be transformed into useless junk (including most of the radios we have in our cars). DAB digital radios will be the ONLY ones that continue to work.

At a time when the country - and most of the world - is struggling with recession and a debt burden that our grandchildren will still be paying back in 50 years' time, it seems crazy to make 150 million working radios obsolete with a stroke of the ministerial pen!

From that sour note to one that is rather sweeter - jam. My favourite isn't strawberry, raspberry, plum, or blackcurrant - it's tomato! Unfortunately it seems to be impossible to buy tomato jam in the UK, and even on the continent it's difficult to find anything that's acceptable - so I decided to make my own, and it was delicious! I'm not going to recommend a particular recipe, as there are so many on the Internet (just make sure you choose one that includes lemon and ginger), but my advice is to forget about skinning and deseeding the tomatoes. However, you do need to strain off surplus juice, otherwise it will end up far too runny.

Jams and chutneys are an ideal way to take advantage of the fruit and vegetables that supermarkets sell off at the end of the day - often the prices are reduced by 80% or more. Making your own takes a little longer, but when you utilise left-over produce it's far cheaper - and of course the flavour is incomparable!

Have you tried….?

Searching using Google is a very useful way to track down information about your ancestors that you might not find through more conventional research sources - but how can you focus the search on the right period? It's easy - simply add the dates separated by two full stops, for example:

Cholmondeley 1800..1840

Stop Press

This is where updates or amendments will appear.

That's all for now - I hope you've found some of it relevant to you and your family tree. Please do keep sending in your comments and suggestions for future issues.

Peter Calver

Founder, LostCousins