Newsletter
- 1 June 2012
Did your
relative work in the Royal Household?
National
Archives reprise Victoria's jubilees
Queen Victoria's journals go online
The
challenges and benefits of longevity
Why
you should organise your research
It's
never too late.... or is it?
Using the Historical Research category
Ancestry
extends probate coverage to 1966
Genes
Reunited upgrades search
Plymouth
& West Devon records finally online
Genealogists
for Families hits milestone
London
is the 6th most populous French city
Dickens
exhibition ends June 10th
DNA
analysis may reveal yeti secrets
The LostCousins newsletter is
usually published fortnightly. To access the previous newsletter (dated 18 May
2012) please click here.
Whenever possible links are
included to the websites or articles mentioned in the newsletter (they are
highlighted in blue or purple and underlined,
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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!
Did your relative work in
the Royal Household?
50,000 records of employees who worked
in the Royal Household between 1526-1924 have gone
online today at findmypast.co.uk - and you can search
them free of charge (viewing a record costs 10 credits if you're not a
subscriber). For full details of the records click here.
National Archives
reprise Victoria's jubilees
The National Archives have created an online exhibition of
congratulatory addresses sent to Queen Victoria on the occasion of her Gold and
Diamond Jubilees in 1887 and 1897. There are also links to exhibitions to this
year's jubilee.
If you're visiting the National
Archives, don't miss Queen Victoria's school workbooks in the museum - they are on
loan from the Royal
Archives.
Queen
Victoria's journals go online
My initial excitement at hearing that
Queen Victoria's journals had been made available online was tempered by the
discovery that most of the originals were destroyed after her death, so that
for most years all that survives is the edited version created by Princess
Beatrice, Victoria's youngest daughter between 1901-1931.
So don't expect to find any revealing
details of Victoria's relationship with John Brown, the trusted companion immortalised
in the film Mrs
Brown - and certainly no confirmation of the allegation that she gave
birth to Brown's child!
On the other hand, whenever I read about
Queen Victoria I find out something new. On this occasion I learnt the name of
the book
the young Princess was reading as she waited to become Queen - and discovered
that on most days Victoria would stay in bed until 8 or even 9 o'clock (not all
what I expected). More significantly after further research I discovered that
Victoria was unable to become the ruler of Hanover because she was a woman -
instead her uncle, the Duke of Cumberland, became King Ernest Augustus.
What will you learn, I wonder? Do let me
know if you make any interesting discoveries!
The challenges and
benefits of longevity
When Queen Victoria died she was in her
82nd year, and had been on the throne for 63 years and 7 months, a record for a
British monarch (though one that I hope Queen Elizabeth II will break in a
little over 3 years' time). Princess Beatrice was 87 when she died in 1944.
In the Queen's Speech last
month it was announced that the State pension age will to rise to 67 for both
man and women by 2028, and that further rises will be linked to longevity.
Accountants PWC have calculated that this will mean that children born in 2012
will be 77 years old before they qualify for their state pension - on the other
hand, the latest projections from the Office for National Statistics suggest
that one-third of them will live to at least 100.
There was a similar increase in
longevity about 30,000 years ago, when the number of humans living beyond the
age of 30 increased dramatically, and some anthropologists believe that the
positive influence of grandparents set homo sapiens apart
from other hominids such as the Neanderthals (see this
article for more details). Will there be another step change as
great-grandparents, and even great-great grandparents influence the lives of
our descendants?
Why you should organise
your research
However long you live, eventually
someone will have to take over your research - which is why there's a box on
your My Details page where you can
enter their email address (please fill it in if you haven't already done so -
just in case you get run over by the proverbial bus).
But we all have our own way of recording
and filing our research, and it can be a big challenge
for someone else to understand it. The following article by LostCousins member
Frances will, I'm sure, get you thinking about how you can make it easier for those who come after:
"In 2006 my husband
and I joined Lost Cousins but have only had our first matches this year. While
they are well worth the wait, they are tinged with sadness as one was for my
maternal grandmother’s family but the other was for my husband’s Francis clan.
Sadly he died very suddenly in 2009 so has missed out on the excitement. His
lost cousin is descended from his great aunt, so I know he would have been so
pleased had he still been alive to have made contact with that branch of the
family.
"Making contact with
both cousins has spurred me on to get back to Family History research – a hobby
we used to enjoy together. In fact we bounced ideas off each other and
therefore knew a lot about what we were both doing. We thought we had many
years of research ahead of us and planned more visits/holidays to areas
associated with all our family branches – one of the joys of having ancestors
from many different places even if it is more challenging at times.
"Now I am left with
the task of trying to complete my husband’s hard work but where to start? I am
sure he knew exactly what he was doing and his unique filing system no doubt
worked for him but is a challenge for me. For years I had nagged him to collate
and write down all his memories but he always thought he had plenty of time and
resisted putting pen to paper. I did write a few articles for him about some of
his relatives but now so much has died with him. I will do my best to remember
but it will never be the same. I am left with mountains of paperwork and
several trees entered into Generations which I have transferred to Family
Historian including two copies of the main Francis tree - but which one is the
latest or are they both the same?
"A tip for other
researchers - make sure that if you
duplicate your tree you make it clear which one is the up to date version! His online notes are just cryptic comments
entered as he came across information, rather than in chronological order. Not
easy to decipher! Another tip – remember
that if someone else has to complete your work your 'shorthand' may make sense
to you but is unlikely to be clear to other people.
"His box files
contain a random selection of computer print outs, photocopies, brief notes on
scraps of paper etc, all 'filed' within a piece of
folded paper – so easy to detach the contents from their cover. Mine at least
are in labelled plastic wallets within each box file. Tip 3 – make sure your filing system will stay
intact when someone else sorts through it.
"My son arranged for
his father’s emails to be forwarded to my account so that I did not lose
contact with people he had family history links with. Great - until you want to
unsubscribe from ones you are not interested in! Then there is the problem of
accessing his membership of various sites as I do not know his passwords or pin
numbers. I tried to guess some but with a low success rate. Cancelling emails
from third parties or even memberships is still ongoing
as many websites will not let you unsubscribe unless you are doing it from the
email address first registered with them – this includes genealogy sites. I
think I have managed to extricate his name from most but there are still some
that I cannot get disconnected from and have resorted to blocking them as spam.
Tip 4 – get emails redirected to you BUT
be prepared for frustration if you need to unsubscribe from any you are not
interested in.
"I too am in danger
of doing the same with my research especially if I spend too long sorting out my
husband’s work which I feel I should as it is after all related to the main
family name. You never know how long you have got to complete your work or when
you might suddenly disappear as my husband did. I thought we had years ahead of
us as did he. I have however made a start on writing down my own memories as
however hard it is to admit it our own lives are family history and will be of
interest no doubt to future generations. Being a war baby I have lived through
almost as much history as my late husband who had wonderful memories of our
home area during WW2.
"Don’t let your memories die with you or leave it all to your relatives
who may not have the knowledge or interest to do justice to all your hard work.
You may have less time than you think!"
Thanks, Frances, for sharing your
experiences with the LostCousins membership. None of us likes to think about
dying, but unless they come up with a cure for old age, it's something we'll
all have to face one day.
By the way, when I save a copy of my
family tree - which I do whenever I make a change - I include the date in the
filename. That way I've always got older copies I can go back to in the event
of any disaster, but I also know which is the most recent
version.
Tip:
when you include a date in a filename use the format yymmdd
(eg 120529) so that the files are automatically
sorted into date order when you sort them by name.
It's never too late....
or is it?
Frances told us how sad it was that it
was only after her husband's death that she discovered his 'lost cousin' - and
I'm sorry to say that this is a story that could be repeated time and time
again, because there are so many members who have been registered with
LostCousins for years, yet haven't added any relatives to their My Ancestors page (or have entered no
more than a handful).
Some members complete their My Ancestors page on the day they join
LostCousins - and more often than not they find a new cousin immediately! It's
therefore hard to understand why so many others just let things slide, especially
when it only takes 1 or 2 minutes to enter an entire household.
Tip:
if every reader of this newsletter were to spend just 27 minutes entering
relatives from the 1881 Census on their My Ancestors page they'd find an
average of 1.5 new cousins each!
Although I was brought up to think of my
cousins as being the sons and daughters of my uncles and aunts, the term can
actually be applied to anyone who shares
your ancestors. 'Blood relative' means exactly the same thing.
When you're linked with another member
at LostCousins you can easily see whether the other person is a cousin of yours
or related to you only by marriage. Once the two of you have both agreed to
make contact the entry on your My Cousins
page moves from the New Contacts
section of the page to the Cousins or
Relatives section - but you can also
find out in advance what the relationship is by referring to the My Contact page for the relationship.
How do you get to the My Contact page? By
clicking on your relative's name or initials. This brings up a list of
all the relatives that you have both entered, and - equally importantly - shows
how each of you are related to each of them.
If any of those relatives is shown as a
'direct ancestor' to both of you, then clearly you're both cousins. But, less
obviously, if any of those relatives is a 'direct ancestor' to one of you, but
a 'blood relative' to the other then that also makes you cousins.
Should neither of these apply, then it's
probable that you're only related by marriage - although a closer relationship
may become apparent when more common relatives are shown.
Tip:
connections with other members who are only related to you by marriage can be a
lot more valuable than you might think - as I was reminded when Gill recently
wrote to tell me how useful one of her connections had been. One reason is that
the offspring of the marriage are cousins to both of you - as will be their
living descendants.
Very occasionally the person you're
matched with won't be a relative at all - not because one of you has made
mistake or because the LostCousins system has gone wrong - but because one of
you has deliberately entered someone who isn't your relative. In the next
article I'm going to talk about one of the circumstances in which this might
happen....
Using the
Historical Research category
One of the unique features of the
LostCousins site is that it enables members to make valuable contacts between
people who aren't related.
For example, if you were writing a book
about an event in the 19th or early 20th century you might be keen to contact
living descendants of the people you're writing about. In this case you'd look
them up in the census, and enter them on your My Ancestors page using the 'Historical Research' category.
But you don't have to write a book to make use of this
feature - for example, when Paul in Canada was young his grandmother gave him an old pocket
watch which bore the inscription "Presented to Grenadier James Bancroft,
by his Ovenden friends for his bravery throughout the
Crimean War. August 1856".
James Bancroft was at the Battle
of Inkerman where, as Paul relates, "he
played a prominent role in the defence of the Sandbag
Battery, and the charge down the Kitspur Ridge. He
followed his Company Commander, Edwyn Burnaby out of
the battery with about 18 others and several times threw back the Russian
columns. Of this small group only 7 men survived. James himself was bayonetted in
the mouth and torso, and was grazed by a shell. These injuries were described
as 'slight' in the casualty listings of the London Gazette.
"After the war, Captain Burnaby
encouraged some of the men who were present that day to write down their
version of events, and published them in a book. It is because of this book and
the efforts of Edwyn Burnaby that today I have a first-hand
account of my ancestor's experiences - in his own words. I am interested in
finding living relatives of Edwyn Burnaby - to 'give
back' what has been so carefully preserved for me."
Ancestry extends probate
coverage to 1966
The National
Probate Calendars at Ancestry now cover the years 1858-1966. This expansion
enabled me to find several 20th century entries for members of my family,
including 3 of my grandparents.
Genes Reunited
upgrades search
In my last newsletter I wrote about how
findmypast.co.uk had upgraded its search facility, and this week news came
through that Genes
Reunited have also upgraded their searching. For example, you can now
search using census references, something that wasn't previously an option, and
there are various new options to help find misspelt names. When you're
searching the census you can also enter the first names of other members of the
household - this is particularly useful if the surname is a common one.
Tip:
if you're searching the census by name you must include at least the first
character of the surname, otherwise the only results you'll get are those where
the surname is missing.
Plymouth & West
Devon records finally online
About 6 months ago I exclusively
revealed that findmypast were in the process of adding records from the
Plymouth and West Devon Record Office, and at last they have launched their Plymouth and West Devon Collection, which
currently comprises 3.5 million births, marriages, and burials from 1538-1911.
If you subscribed to Essex Ancestors,
the independent online service run by Essex Record Office, you might have been
expecting to see a steady flow of new registers.
I understand, however, that the
remaining registers will all be added at the same time - but not until later
this year. The big question is whether they'll arrive in time for those who
paid £75 a one-year subscription when the site launched in early November - I
certainly hope so!
Most public libraries in England (and
many in other countries) have a subscription to Ancestry Library Edition which
provides substantially the same features as a Worldwide
subscription - the features omitted mostly relate to family trees and information
sharing.
However one member recently reported
that they were unable to search parish records at their library, which would
suggest that a lower level of subscription also exists, and I'd be interested
to know whether anyone can corroborate this.
Tip:
some libraries offer findmypast instead of Ancestry - a few offer both. Make
sure you know what's available free at your local library!
A lot of members have asked me whether
it would be possible to send them a reminder when their LostCousins
subscription falls due for renewal.
Ironically, I did send out reminders at
one time - but had to stop because of complaints from a very small, but vocal,
minority. I decided at that time that I wouldn't send out reminders again unless
there was some way of distinguishing members who did want to receive a reminder
from those who didn't.
I'm glad to say that you can now
indicate on your My Details page
whether or not you'd like me to send you an email reminder just before your
subscription runs out. It's completely optional - nobody will receive a
reminder unless they explicitly ask for one - but if your memory is anything
like mine it's an option you might like to choose.
Tip:
the expiry date of your subscription is shown near the top of your My Summary
page, the page which is normally displayed when you log-in to the LostCousins
site.
Whilst on your My Details page, please make sure that the information shown is up
to date and as complete as possible - and if you are still using the temporary
password that was issued when you first joined I'd advise you to choose one
that you'll find easier to remember.
Genealogists for Families
hits milestone
Genealogists for Families has
now helped over 1,000 individuals to expand their small businesses so they can
support their families, educate their children or install windows, running
water etc in their homes. Founded by LostCousins
member Judy Webster, and supported by many other LostCousins members - me included
- Genealogists for Families works through Kiva, a non-profit organisation.
Normally when you give money to a charity
you never see it again, but with Kiva you make loans (typically $25), and when
they are repaid - which they invariably are - you can lend the money out again.
To find out more, or to join us click here.
Tip:
right now, thanks to a generous benefactor, you can make your first $25 loan
without spending a penny of your own money.
London is the 6th
most populous French city
Between 1670 and 1710 as many as 50,000
French Huguenots sought refuge in England, and about half of them settled in
London, primarily in Spitalfields. I know that many
LostCousins members have Huguenot ancestry.
However I was surprised to read in an article on the BBC News
website that there are now so many French people living in London that there
are only 5 cities in France with a greater population!
Dickens exhibition ends
June 10th
This email I received from member Susan
speaks for itself:
"I visited the
Dickens' London exhibition at the Museum of London recently and want to
highly recommend it to anyone interested in the Victorian period, even if they
have no connection with London. Entrance is £5 and it is worth every
penny. The evocation of day-to-day life for the poor and the well-to-do
is brilliant, and the old photographs used throughout are amazing. It
closes on June 10th 2012."
DNA analysis may reveal
yeti secrets
According to a BBC
news report
a team of scientists from the UK and Switzerland are hoping to prove the
existence of the mythical yeti using DNA tests. The project is being led by
Professor Brian Sykes, who came up with the 'Seven Daughters of Eve', a concept
that may be an effective marketing tool for his DNA testing company, but is -
in my opinion at least - of relatively little value to genealogists.
What next - the Loch Ness monster?
I was amazed by the response to my
mention in the last newsletter of The
Blood Detective, by Dan Waddell - dozens of members who'd read the book
wrote in to tell me how good it was, and several mentioned his follow-up book, Blood
Atonement. Frustratingly I still haven't managed to find the time to
read either book!
Tony wrote in to point out that if you
want to buy both books there's a very good deal at The Book People, and if you get so carried
away by the bargains on offer that you spend £40 or more there you can save an
extra 5% using the discount code AFVOUCHER40
(valid until the end of June), or else get a free copy of Jamie Oliver's Great Britain (while stocks last).
Exchange rates have been fluctuating
quite a bit recently, so I thought it would be helpful to recalculate the cost
of an Ancestry Worldwide subscription from Ancestry.co.uk
for members who live outside Europe.
In Australian dollars it currently works
out at $214 (compared to the $449.95 renewal price that Ancestry.com.au
charge), in New Zealand dollars it's $277, in US dollars it would be $208
(compared to $299), and in Canadian dollars the cost is $215. All of these
represent considerable savings compared to the price you'd pay for the same
subscription (albeit with a slightly different name) at your local Ancestry
site. Please note that when you first visit the UK site you'll be shown the price
including UK taxes, which is £155.40 - but the price you'll actually pay is
£135.13 (the reduced price will be shown before you complete the purchase).
Tip: Ancestry will try to send you to your local website;
click here to go direct to the UK site.
The June issue of Which? Magazine
landed on my doormat last weekend, and as usual I've been scouring it for
useful tips. I was amazed to discover in their review of washing powders that
the overall best-performer (Aldi's Almat with Stain-Lift) was also the cheapest, working out at
just 11p per wash. Incidentally, Which? demonstrated
last year that old-fashioned washing powder performs better than liquids and
gels - even though they usually cost more.
Also in Which? a review of ebook readers once again made
the Kindle
a best buy - but please note that if, like me, you value free worldwide
Internet access, the Kindle
Keyboard 3G is still the ONLY model that offers this.
Inevitably there are all sorts of Jubilee-related
offerings: at the BBC
Shop there's free delivery on everything and a 10% discount on all Diamond
Jubilee products when you use the code JUBILEE1.
But don't expect Jubilee items to be an investment - too many of them are produced!
Finally, when I upgraded my computer earlier this
year I switched to Google Chrome as my main browser (I also have Firefox,
Internet Explorer, Safari, and Opera - each of which I use occasionally, mainly
for testing purposes). So, as you can imagine, I was interested to read that last
month Chrome overtook Internet Explorer to become the most popular browser
worldwide.
If you want to download a free copy of
Google Chrome simply type 'Chrome' into Google - it couldn't be easier.
Tip:
one advantage of having two browsers on your computer is that you can be simultaneously
logged into two accounts at the same website - very handy if both you and your
spouse have LostCousins accounts!
This where any last
minute amendments will be recorded or highlighted.
Please keep sending in your news and
tips - many of the articles in this newsletter result from suggestions from
readers like you!
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
in any other format.