Newsletter
- 7 June 2010
Ordinary people doing extraordinary
things
A new opportunity to find cousins
Save money with this great pre-launch offer
Ireland 1901 now online - and it's free!
Less than 300 days to the 2011 Census
Half a million Army pensioners' records online
Getting copies of register entries
Finding records in the London area
National Trust supporters get Ancestry
discount
Free 24-hour access to findmypast
Australia
Where there's a will there's often a way
If you are looking for the Census Special newsletter dated 16 June please click here.
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 21 May 2010) please click here. Each
newsletter links to the one before, and you can go back to February 2009 when
the newsletter first went online; in due course there will be an online index
to articles.
Whenever possible links
are included to the websites 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.
Although the newsletters
are hosted at LostCousins, they are not part of the main website. Click here to go to the main website and search
for your living relatives.
Ordinary people doing extraordinary things
Last week when I gave a
tribute at the memorial service for my Aunt Hala, who would have been 94 in
September, I spoke about the things she did which to her seemed ordinary, but
which for the people they helped and influenced were quite extraordinary.
After I returned home I came
across an obituary for Miep Gies, who died in January at the age of 100. She
too was an ordinary person who did extraordinary things: sheltering Otto Frank
and his family between 1942 and 1944, and - after they were arrested - rescuing
the diary that his daughter Anne had written during their 25 months in hiding.
A new opportunity to find cousins
Great news! LostCousins
members now have a new way to search for living relatives - using the 1911
England & Wales census. Although for now this opportunity is restricted to
existing members, we will be opening it up to new members in the near future.
Over the past month 1500 of
our most-experienced members have been taking part in a pilot project, and
thanks to their phenomenal efforts there's a good chance of finding new
relatives almost immediately. (I have already found a whole new branch of my
own family in New Zealand - one that I had no reason to suspect existed, even
though the lady I'm now in touch with is my father's 2nd cousin.)
Entering relatives from the
1911 Census is easier than for other censuses, because there are only two
references that we need to know, the piece number (which is prefixed RG14PN)
and the schedule number (prefixed SN). These are the first and the last of the
references, which makes them really easy to identify.
For example, if the census
references shown are:
RG14PN9571 RG78PN510A RD188 SD6 ED15 SN377
then you would to enter 9571 as the Piece Number, and 377 as the Schedule Number (please do
NOT enter the prefixes). The other references aren't required, but I would
recommend that if your relative was in a large institution or barracks you
record the Enumeration District in the Notes box, as large institutions are
generally covered by just one Schedule Number (typically 1 or 9999).
Because the 1911 Census
schedules were digitised directly, rather than being microfilmed and then
digitised at a later date, the references aren't shown as part of the
census image (though they are displayed above the image). That's why when I
wrote about the census earlier this year I suggested that you include the
references as part of the file name when you save the image (see the article
mentioned below for an example).
IMPORTANT: for the 1911 Census please correct any transcriptions
errors as you make your entries, in other words enter what the head of
household actually wrote, not what the transcriber thought he wrote.
However, if you want to include any information not shown on the
census form do this ONLY in the optional part of the form for corrections and
additional information. In other words, if your ancestor's name is transcribed
as 'John P Smith' but you know that he actually wrote 'John Psmith' then that's
how you should enter him. However if he had a middle name that isn't shown on
the census form, don't enter it - other than in the optional section of the
form. Similarly, if he spelled his wife's name incorrectly (as one of my
great-great uncles did!) please show what he actually wrote, not what he should
have written.
You'll find a compilation of
the articles I've written about the 1911 Census in my newsletter on the Help
& Advice page at the LostCousins site: Mastering
the 1911 Census of England & Wales
Even if you read the
articles when they came out, it's worth taking another look as there may be information
that did not seem relevant at the time. If you have still have any questions
after reading the article I'll do my best to answer them.
Save money with this great pre-launch offer
For a limited time you can
save 10% on any findmypast subscription which gives unlimited* access to the
1911 Census AND get a free one-year LostCousins subscription worth up to
£12.50.
Simply follow these three
steps: first, click here to go to the
findmypast site (that way, when you subscribe we'll get a small commission that
will help support the LostCousins site); second, choose your findmypast
subscription (12 month subscriptions are the best value) and enter the offer
code JUNEDISCOUNT (as one word,
ie no spaces); third, send me a copy of the confirmation email you get
from findmypast so that I can verify your entitlement. I'll then upgrade your
account and also that of your spouse or partner (please quote the email address
if it is different from your own).
This offer ends on June 20th
and cannot be used in conjunction with the 20% loyalty discount for renewals,
or with a free trial. To qualify for a free LostCousins subscription you must
click on the link above, or on the findmypast advert in this newsletter,
immediately BEFORE taking out your subscription.
* fair-usage provisions
apply - see here
Ireland 1901 now online - and it's free!
You can now search both the
1901 and 1911 Censuses of Ireland at the National Archives of Ireland website.
The 1911 Census is the one that we are using to find 'lost cousins' - see my
article Using
the 1911 Census of Ireland on the Help & Advice page for an
illustrated guide.
A useful tip if you're
having trouble finding relatives in the Irish censuses is to swap the names
around. LostCousins member Rosemary discovered that some of her relatives were
recorded with the forename and surname interchanged, and a quick check revealed
814 people with surname Mary in the 1911 Census!
Less than 300 days to the 2011 Census
The United Kingdom 2011
census will be carried on Sunday 27th March 2011, and for the very first time
respondents in England & Wales will have the opportunity to complete the
census form online (although all parts of the UK are being surveyed on the same
date, the censuses for Scotland and Northern Ireland will be carried out
independently).
You can find out more about
the official plans for the 2011 Census here, but what I'm going
to focus on in this article is something that the Government probably hasn't
thought of (and possibly wouldn't approve of). We all know how valuable it has
been to find out about our ancestors and other relatives on the 1841-1911
Censuses - and how frustrating it is that we will have to wait until later
censuses are 100 years old before we can discover what they say. "We can
confirm that the personal census data is to be kept confidential for 100 years",
a spokesman from the Office of National Statistics told Who Do You Think You Are? magazine recently.
Imagine that we could keep a
copy of our census form and store the information securely until a date of our choosing, not a date arbitrarily set
by Parliament - wouldn't that be a wonderful gift for the genealogists of the
future? We might even go further, and add information that isn't asked on the
census form, but which is important to us, and which we'd like our descendants
and their cousins to know.
Is this something that you'd
personally be interested in? If there are sufficient members who think it could
be a good idea, I'll take a closer look at how it might work.
Half a million Army pensioners' records online
From a quarter of a million records
in March, to half a million today - the database of Army pensioners' service
records at findmypast has doubled in
size, and it now covers the entire period from 1855-1900. I made some
interesting discoveries in the original release, which covered the period from
1883-1900, and I look forward to making further discoveries in the enlarged
database.
Getting copies of register entries
A few months ago I explained
how inexpensive it was to obtain copies of original register entries from
FamilySearch. You'll a little more information about how to do this in the Research Wiki
at the Family Search site.
Something I should have
mentioned in my earlier
articles is that before placing your order it's important to check that the
source of the data is the register itself, and not a transcription (eg
Bishops's Transcript) or some other secondary record. For example, if the notes
state "Form submitted by a member of the LDS Church" or "Record
submitted after 1991 by a member of the LDS Church" there is no point
requesting a printout.
Finding records in the London area
AIM25 is a major project
that provides information about the archive collections held by over one
hundred organisations within the Greater London area (ie within the M25). It's
hard to describe how broad the coverage is - but if you have family connections
with London or the surrounding area it's worth visiting the website.
Most of my relatives lived
in London during the 19th century, but I've had enormous difficulty discovering
where they were buried - because by the middle of the century most churchyards
were full. During my research I came across the London Burial Grounds
website which explains what happened next - and also attempts to track down the
burial grounds that have survived.
However I did recently
discover the burial place of one of my great-great-great grandparents - thanks
to the new London Non-Conformist Registers database at Ancestry (starting from the
home page click on 'View all new records').
National Trust supporters get Ancestry discount
Are you a National Trust
member? The National Trust, which works to preserve the buildings, countryside,
and coastline of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland is offering supporters a
25% discount on Ancestry subscriptions. Members of the National Trust already
get free entry and parking at more than 300 historic houses and gardens plus
free access to properties of the National of Scotland; click here
to find out more.
Free 24-hour access to findmypast Australia
It's currently possible to
get a free 24-hour trial at findmypast.com.au and you don't even have to
provide your credit card details. The site is very different from the UK site,
so it's good to have this risk-free opportunity to discover what it does - and
doesn't - have to offer.
Where there's a will there's often a way
You may recall that in the
last newsletter I mentioned how I'd
discovered the wills of my great-great-great-great grandparents in the Diocese
of London Consistory Court Wills index at the London Metropolitan Archives
website. As soon as I'd finished writing
the newsletter I dashed off to the LMA to get copies of the wills, and was
absolutely delighted by what I found! Armed with the information in their
wills, and the will of their son-in-law, I was able to confirm a number of
hypotheses and also solve a riddle that had been nagging at me for ages.
This index was one of many
listed at the Your
Archives site; another extremely useful list of indexes has been compiled
by LostCousins member Andrew Millard, and can be found here.
No matter what historical event I write
about in the newsletter, there always seems to be a LostCousins member with a
personal connection!
In the last newsletter I
mentioned the last London tram, which rain in 1952. Shortly afterwards I
received an email from Jo, who had tickets from that final tram, which I retrospectively
added to the newsletter. But then I heard from Sue, who told me that not only
was her great-uncle Albert Fuller the driver of the last tram, but also that
Sue's family still have the last tram ticket ever to be issued in London.
If
you look closely you'll see that Uncle Albert wrote his name and badge number
on the back, as well as dating the ticket. What a wonderful piece of history!
Also in the last issue I
wrote - in a somewhat jocular fashion - about the 1970 hit record I'm a Neanderthal Man, which was made by
a long-forgotten group called Hotlegs (though they were considerably more
successful once they changed their name to 10cc). It turns out that LostCousins
member Gerald, who at the time worked in the radio and hi-fi shop owned by
Kevin Godley's father, made a small but significant contribution to the unusual
sound using his audio generator. If you have a copy of the song listen for the
low frequency tone that starts after 1 minute and 59 seconds, and gradually
rises in pitch over the next 12 seconds.
While I was hunting for a
copy of I'm a Neanderthal Man, so
that I could hear Gerald's handiwork, I discovered that Amazon.co.uk
are giving away £2 worth of MP3 music when you spend £10 on other items.
Although we tend to think of
MP3 downloads as being for youngsters, it's often the easiest way (and
sometimes the only legal way) to get hold of copies of old recordings. For
example, you can get Vera Lynn singing We'll
Meet Again for 89p, and several different versions of Henry Hall playing Teddy Bears' Picnic from 69p upwards. On
a more serious note, you can also get dozens of Winston Churchill's speeches in
MP3 format for 79p each, and for the same price you can have the first words
ever recorded on a phonograph (by Thomas Edison).
Click here
for full details of the Amazon offer - which runs until June 20th.
This is where any late
updates will be added.
That's all for now - I hope
you've found some of the articles relevant to you and your family tree.
If you want to show your
appreciation then the best way of doing this would be to add an extra couple of
households to your My Ancestors page (it only takes 1 or 2 minutes per
household). Much as I enjoy receiving complimentary emails, the true measure of
my success is the number of 'lost cousins' who make contact, and of course it's
the data you provide that allows me to match you with your living relatives.
Peter Calver
Founder, LostCousins
Copyright 2010 by Peter
Calver & Lost Cousins Ltd except as otherwise stated