Newsletter - 3 July 2011
Ancestry add West Yorkshire registers
Militia records at findmypast
Dad's Army records to go online?
National Archives User Advisory Group
Black Sheep Index updated
Tracing Your East End Ancestors
The Genealogist
Distant cousins
Anne takes her tree back to 1521
Unusual census entries - update
Limited free access to the 1911 Census
Still tracing relatives after 1911
Are you receiving my emails?
Peter's Tips
Have you tried...
About
this newsletter
The LostCousins newsletter is
published twice a month on average, and all LostCousins members are notified by
email when a new edition is available (unless they opt out). To access the
previous newsletter (dated 19 June 2011) please click here. Each newsletter links to
the one before, and you can go back to February 2009
when the newsletter first went online; there will shortly be an online index to
articles thanks to the sterling efforts of members Elizabeth and, especially,
Gill.
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). Note: 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 you are
still using Internet Explorer you may need to enable pop-ups (if a link seems
not to work, look for a warning message at the top of your browser window).
Ancestry add West Yorkshire registers
If you have ancestors who lived in West
Yorkshire you'll be delighted to hear that the parish registers held by the
West Yorkshire Archive Service are now online at Ancestry (though as with all
records of this type you'll need a Premium subscription). Register entries from
1512-1812 can be found here;
baptisms from 1813-1906 are here;
marriages from 1813-1921 are here,
and burials from 1813-1985 here.
Some recent releases of new datasets at
Ancestry have been marred by unfortunate errors - the type of things that you
wouldn't expect the world's biggest genealogy company to get wrong. I
understand that the West Yorkshire records are also coming in for criticism - there
is a problem with Huddersfield records, tens of thousands of which have been
recorded under a non-existent parish called 'Nomina',
and I've also heard that some burial records have been indexed as if they were
baptisms, though I don't know which parishes are affected.
I don't have any ancestors from the area
so I'd appreciate feedback from members who do - when problems are out in the
open it's easier to find ways to overcome them.
Tip:
remember that you can get a free 6 month Ancestry Premium subscription by
buying Family Tree Maker Platinum 2011 - click here
for details. Whilst I can't recommend the software - I've never used it, and
opinion about it seems to be mixed - there's a substantial saving compared to
the normal cost of a subscription even if you don't use the program.
Militia records at findmypast
At the end of June findmypast added over
half a million militia records covering
the period 1806-1915. An often forgotten source of information, they can tell
us about ancestors who served in the militia - part-time forces organised by
county that were a forerunner to the Territorial Army. The records held in WO96
at the National Archives are the attestation papers completed at the time of
recruitment, but in many cases they were annotated up to the time of discharge.
Click here
to find out more about militia records on the findmypast website, and here
for the TNA guide.
Dad's Army records to go online?
The National Archives is planning to digitise
a sample of the 4.6 million records for the Home Guard, a volunteer force that
protected Britain between 1940 and 1944. Best known to most of us as Dad's Army, and immortalised in the television
series of that name, the outfit was originally called the Local Defence
Volunteers.
National Archives User Advisory Group
The information in the previous article
came from a report of the inaugural meeting of the new TNA User Advisory Group
on June 22 - you'll find a brief report
of the meeting by Else Churchill of the Society of Genealogists on the SoG website.
I was delighted to note that the names
and contact details of the members of the group are to published on the TNA
website - you may recall that when I tried to find out the names of the members
of a previous TNA Advisory Group I was informed that the information could not
be published because of the Data Protection Act!
Black Sheep Index updated
The website that hosts the Black Sheep Index and
many other unique indexes has recently been updated - if you haven't visited
before it's well worth a look.
Tracing Your East End Ancestors
I've just finished reading an excellent book called Tracing Your East End Ancestors by Jane Cox, who worked for the National Archives for a quarter of a century. All of my ancestral lines passed through the East End of London before finally ending up in Essex, and I've discovered all sorts of potential new leads.
If your ancestors lived in the parts of the East End that are now in the modern borough of Tower Hamlets, this book is well worth buying even if you have to pay full price (though you won't have to if you follow this link to Amazon). I'm certainly looking forward to looking up records at Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives that I was previously unaware of!
Tip: many of the records at Ancestry
described in the book as unindexed have subsequently been
indexed - no printed publication can possibly keep up with the Internet!
The Genealogist
Nearly a year ago I took out a
subscription to The Genealogist
so that I could review it on behalf of LostCousins members. Whilst it isn't one
of the two big sites, it gets lots of favourable comments in family history
magazines, and has some datasets that you won't find at other subscription
sites.
As the only major site that doesn't use
the FamilySearch transcription of the 1881 England & Wales census it's an
opportunity to find relatives who are proving elusive, since whilst there are
no doubt just as many transcription errors, the chances are they won't be the
same ones. For example, the Keehner family in Bethnal
Green were transcribed as Keckuer by the FamilySearch
transcribers (who were volunteers from local family history societies), but as Keckner by The Genealogist.
Note:
when you enter relatives from the 1881 England & Wales census on your My Ancestors page, even if you find them at The
Genealogist please use the FamilySearch transcription, (which you can access
free at findmypast, Ancestry, and - of course - FamilySearch). Entering
different information could prevent me matching you with your cousins!
But the key datasets from my point of
view are the pre-1858 wills, which would normally cost me £3.50 each at DocumentsOnline
(the National Archives site), and the Non-Conformist registers that are held by
the National Archives in RG4, RG5 and RG6, but are not available online anywhere
except at The
Genealogist. As it happens, I'd already found the non-conformist register
entries for my Essex ancestors by visiting the Essex Records Office in
Chelmsford , which is just 25 miles away from my home - but not everyone is
able to attend the records offices (nor will everyone be aware that their
ancestors were non-conformist).
Other TNA records that you'll find
include the Fleet Marriages held in RG7. It is said that by the 1740s nearly
half of all the marriages in London were performed at the Fleet prison, and
this was one of the reasons that clandestine marriages were made illegal in
1754 by Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act.
There are lots of different subscription
options (possibly too many!), and you can also buy credits. I personally
wouldn't give up my subscription to findmypast or Ancestry in favour of The Genealogist,
but everyone's family tree is different - so I'm sure there are plenty of
people who would disagree with me. It's also worth bearing in mind that
searching a new website invariably turns up new clues - whilst there's usually
a lot of overlap-(typically BMD indexes and censuses) all of the subscription sites
have records that you won't find anywhere else.
Note:
if you're a subscriber to The Genealogist
(or a former subscriber) I'd be interested in your views about the site.
Distant cousins
I wrote recently how useful my contacts
with 5th cousins have been in helping me to piece together my family tree, and
I've subsequently had numerous emails from members who've also benefited immensely
from their contacts with distant cousins.
One of the first people to join LostCousins
in 2004 was the actor Tim Bentinck, best-known for
his role as David Archer in "The Archers", a radio serial that began
on New Year's Day 1951 (precisely 3 months after I was born - although I should
stress that Tim is a few years younger than me, and didn't make his debut in
the programme until 1982).
Tim is a very talented man; not just a
first-rate actor, but also a writer, accomplished computer programmer, and a
family historian who has traced his ancestors back to 1233! Although I've heard
him on the radio thousands of times over the last three decades and seen some
of his TV appearances, today (Sunday) will be the first time I've seen him live
- he is giving a one-man show at the Watermill Theatre in Newbury.
Anyway, to get back to the subject of
distant cousins, on Tim's website he
writes "I doubt if anyone expects to receive anything from their half 6th
cousins when they die - I don't imagine most people know who their half 6th
cousins even are."
When the 9th Duke of Portland died in
1990, the dukedom died out, but the earldom passed to the duke's half 6th
cousin, Henry Bentinck - Tim's father - and Tim became
Viscount Woodstock, which was a pretty cool title for someone who grew up in
the 1960s (though it dates from 1689). When Tim's father died in 1997 he
inherited his title, becoming not only Earl of Portland and a member of the
House of Lords, but also a Count of the Holy Roman Empire.
Anyone still think that distant cousins
are unimportant?
Note:
a copy of the script for the very first
episode of 'The Archers' will be auctioned at Sotheby's on 14th July with an
estimate of £3500!
Anne takes her tree back to 1521
I get a lot of emails from members who
have made discoveries thanks to the 'lost cousins' they've found, and you'll
find a few of them on the Success Stories page. But Anne's story was a little
bit special:
"Just to let you know that I recently
found a 'Lost Cousin' who was able to tell me the maiden name of one of my
great-great-great grandmothers. From this I was able to trace that line back to
1521!
"Up to now, any cousins I found I
either knew about already, or they had no more info than I had myself. A big thank you for this website."
It's worth bearing in mind that even if
the cousin you're linked with hasn't progressed any further than you on a
particular line, finding someone who has independently reached the same
conclusions helps to validate your research. And, of course, every extra
researcher has an extra pair of hands and an extra pair of eyes - which makes
ongoing research much easier!
Unusual census entries - update
In the last newsletter I mentioned a
most unusual household that Bill in Australia had found; however, not long
after my newsletter went online, John (also in Australia) wrote to point out
that it was a (relatively) modern forgery. Someone had gone to the trouble of
creating an entire household using an original census page - one that seems to
have been blank.
The forged entry must have been created
before the census was transcribed, which I believe was in the 1980s, but
because it refers to Pakistan - a country which only came into existence in
1947 - it must be post-war. My guess is that it was perpetrated by someone
involved in microfilming the census - I can't imagine that a family historian
would have carried out such a crime.
Note:
the primary aim of the article was to ensure that all members know how to look
up a household using the census references - the fact that the entry turned out
to be a forgery doesn't affect this objective (indeed, it will probably
encourage even more people to look it up!)..
Limited free access to the 1911 Census
It's now possible to search the England
& Wales 1911 Census at the new
FamilySearch site, and if you do you'll get rather more free information
than if you search at findmypast. The key
piece of additional information is the individual's place of birth, and even if
you have a findmypast subscription you may sometimes find it easier to identify
the correct record at FamilySearch.
If do you find the person you're looking
for at FamilySearch, and want to see more, you'll be transported to findmypast,
where you'll need to pay (if you don't have a subscription).
Note:
as far as I can tell, at FamilySearch there is no way of specifying the age or
year of birth of the person you're searching for; this may restrict the value
of the search when the surname is a common one.
Still tracing relatives after 1911
Many members have written in to thank me
for the Masterclass article on tracing relatives after the 1911 Census, but a
particularly appreciative email came from Jenny:
"Your stories and tips have really helped me to consider alternative
options when it comes to my family history, especially when researching those harder-to-find
branches.
"My Grandfather and I were so happy to see the MasterClass
that you wrote on tracing families after 1911. We're in the middle of a massive
undertaking: turns out his Grandfather had two brothers and a sister... no one
in our family knew of these two great uncles. Thanks to your article, we've discovered
they never left England, but both married and had daughters. "
If you missed the original article but
would like to read it, please follow this link to my May newsletter.
I'm still finding new 20th century relatives to add to my tree, even though I
must have added in excess of 500 already!
Note:
the article has been republished in family history magazines around the world, most
recently in the journal of the Qualicum Beach Family
History Society in British Columbia. If you would like to include one of my
articles in your society's newsletter just send me an email - I've never yet
said no!
Are you receiving my emails?
I've recently been contacted by a number
of members who have Orange, Freeserve, or Wanadoo addresses but haven't been receiving my emails
announcing these newsletters. I believe all of those services are run by the
same company, so there could be a much wider problem - and some members may simply
have assumed that I'd stopped publishing newsletters (never!!!).
If you have friends or relatives who are
LostCousins members you might want to let them know about this newsletter - and
if they haven't received an email from me within the next couple of days they
should consider asking their mail provider what on earth is going on!
Tip:
there are usually 2 newsletters per month, and it would be unusual for there to
be more than a 3 week gap between newsletters.
Peter's Tips
In my tips column in the last newsletter
I wrote about a website that will convert web pages to PDF files, something
that a lot of members have since found very handy. Then Judi wrote in with an
even better tip - a free program called
Calibre to convert all sorts of files so that you can load them into an ebook reader such as the Kindle.
It works best with HTML files (ie web pages), so as a
trial I used it to convert my last newsletter into Kindle format - it worked a
treat!
Tip:
you can also convert ebooks from one format to
another - just so long as they aren't protected against copying.
I generally catch up on my reading when
I'm on holiday, so it's appropriate that there's a Summer Sale on BBC magazines
including Who Do You Think You
Are?, BBC History, and Gardeners' World. Click here
to go straight to the offer page - there are 21 different magazines in the
offer, and you can get 5 issues of any one of them for just £5 (which in many
cases is about what you'd normally pay for a single issue!).
Recently it has been hard to find offers
at Tesco that offer extra Clubcard points, but I'm glad to say that the tide
seems to be changing. The latest offers aren't quite as generous as in previous
years, but nevertheless to get 50 bonus points when you spend £1.95 on
decaffeinated Earl Grey teabags is pretty good when you consider that they
could be worth as much as £1.50 against a holiday or one of the many other
offers in the Rewards brochure.
There is still the occasional offer
where they virtually pay you to take the goods away - in my local Tesco I
bought some re-useable plastic cutlery for £1.75 and got 80 bonus points, worth
up to £2.40 (though unfortunately this offer doesn't seem to be in every
store).
For my 60th birthday last year I got a
3D television, and I've just watched the Wimbledon Ladies Singles Final on it -
one of the very first 3D transmissions from the BBC. Not only did I feel like I
was actually there, at times it was so realistic that I almost felt I was
playing on Centre Court! Just as well I didn't have a racket in my hand, or
there could have been an expensive accident....
Have you tried...
When you're entering relatives on your My Ancestors page do you enter capital
letters? It's useful to know that initials and the first letter of each name
are capitalised automatically - so you can save time by entering everything in lower
case (or capitals, if you prefer).
Note:
this only applies to the main part of the form, where you enter information from
the census. If you choose to enter data in the optional part of the form then
it will be displayed exactly as you type it (which gives you full control over
what you see).
This where any last
minute amendments will be recorded or highlighted.
That's all for now - I hope you've found
my newsletter interesting. Many of the articles are inspired by you, the
members, so please do keep writing in with your thoughts, comments, and
suggestions.
Peter Calver
Founder, LostCousins