Newsletter
- 29 January 2012
MASTERCLASS: finding birth certificates
1911 abduction fears exaggerated
Census hoax email prompts ONS warning
Could you spot a fake heir hunter?
Your life in their hands
British Newspaper Archive proves too
popular!
Electoral Rolls disappoint
Using the Address Search at findmypast
"On the Street Where You Live"
More clues from newspapers
Do you have ancestors from Kent?
When was your grandfather born?
Don't leave it too late!
Peter's Tips
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MASTERCLASS: finding birth certificates
It's very frustrating when you can't
find an ancestor's birth certificate - but often the 'brick wall' only exists
in our imagination. Let's look at some of the key reasons why a certificate
can't be found....
·
The forename you know your ancestor by may not be
the one on the birth certificate: sometimes
the name(s) given at the time of baptism would differ from the name(s)
given to the registrar of births; sometimes a middle name was preferred,
perhaps to avoid confusion with another family member, often the father. There can be all sorts of reasons why a
different forename is used - one of my ancestors appears on some censuses
as 'Ebenezer' and on others as 'John' (which I imagine was the name he was
generally known by).
·
Middle names
come and go: at the beginning of the
19th century it was rare to have a middle name, but by the beginning of the
20th century it was unusual not to have one. Some people invented middle names,
some people dropped middle names they didn't like, and sometimes people simply
forgot what was on the birth certificate. For
example, one of my relatives was registered as Fred, but in 1911 his father -
my great-grandfather - gave his name as Frederick.
·
The surname on
the certificate may not be the one you expect: if the parents weren't married at the time of the
birth then usually (but not always) the birth will be recorded under the
mother's maiden name (the exception is where the mother was using the father's
surname and failed to disclose to the registrar that they weren't married).
·
You're looking
for the wrong father: often the best
clue you have to the identity of your ancestor's father is the information on
his or her marriage certificate. Unfortunately marriage certificates are often
incorrect - the father's name and/or occupation may be wrong. This is
particularly likely if your ancestor never knew his or her father, whether as a
result of early death or illegitimacy. Not many people admit to being
illegitimate on their wedding day - and in Victorian Britain illegitimacy was
frowned upon, so single mothers often made up stories to tell their children
(as well as the neighbours). Whether or
not the birth was legitimate young children often took the name of the man
their mother later married, so always bear in mind the possibility that the
father whose name is shown on the marriage certificate is actually a
step-father.
·
You may be
looking in the wrong place: a child's
birthplace is likely to be shown correctly when he or she is living at home,
but could well be incorrect after leaving home. Many people simply didn't know where
they were born, and assumed it was the place they remembered growing up. The most accurate birthplace is the one
given by the father or (especially) the mother of the person whose birth you're
trying to track down; the least accurate is likely to be the one in the first
census after they leave home.
·
You may be
looking in the wrong period: ages on
censuses are often wrong, as are the ages shown on marriage certificates -
especially if there is an age gap between the parties, or one or both is below
the age of consent (21). Sometimes people didn't know how old they were, and
ages on death certificates can be little more than guesses. Remember too that
births could be registered up to 42 days afterwards without penalty, so many
will be recorded in the following quarter - and they could be registered up to
365 days afterwards on payment of a fine. In
my experience, where the marriage certificate shows 'of full age' it's often an
indication that they were under 21!
·
The birth was
not registered at all: this is usually
the least likely situation, but it did happen occasionally - most often in the
first few years of registration, though it wasn't until 1874 that there was a
penalty for failing to register a birth.
·
The GRO
indexes are wrong: this is also quite
rare, but did happen occasionally despite the checks that were carried out.
How can you overcome these problems?
First and foremost keep an open mind - be prepared to accept that any or all of
the information you already have may be wrong. This is particularly likely if
you have been unable to find your relative at home with their parents on any of
the censuses.
Obtain all the information that you can
from censuses, certificates, and other sources (such as Army records): the less
information you can find, the more likely it is that the little you already
have is wrong or misleading in some way. For example, if you can't find your
ancestor on any censuses prior to his marriage, you can be pretty certain that
the information on the marriage certificate and later censuses is wrong in some
material way.
Don't assume that just because something
appears in an official document, it must be right. Over half of marriage
certificates I have seen include at least one error, and as many as half of all
census entries are wrong in some respect (I'm not talking about transcription
errors, by the way). Army records are
particularly unreliable - one of my relatives added 2 years to his age when he
joined the British Army in 1880, and knocked 7 years off when he signed up for
the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1914.
Consider how and why the information you
have might be wrong by working your way through the list above - then come up
with a strategy to deal with each possibility. Sometimes it's as easy as
ordering the birth certificate for a sibling to find out the mother's maiden
name; often discovering when the parents married is a vital clue.
If you can't find your ancestor on the
census with his or her parents then you should be particularly suspicious of
the information you have - it's very likely that some element is wrong, and it
is quite conceivable that it is ALL wrong.
Middle names that could also be surnames
often indicate illegitimacy - it was usually the only way to get the father's
name on the birth certificate. Unusual
middle names can provide clues - I remember helping one member find an ancestor
whose birth was under a completely different surname by taking advantage of the
fact that his middle name was Ptolemy!
Make use of local BMD indexes (start at UKBMD), and also look for your ancestor's
baptism - sometimes we forget that parents continued to have their children
baptised after Civil Registration began. Consider the possibility that one or
both of the parents died when your ancestor was young - perhaps there will be evidence
in workhouse records. Have you looked for wills?
Could the witnesses to your ancestor's
marriage be relatives? When my great-great-great
grandfather Joseph Harrison married, one of the witnesses was a Sarah Salter -
who I discovered (after many years of fruitless searching) was his mother. Her
maiden name wasn't Salter, by the way - nor was it Harrison - but I'll save the
story of how that particular mystery came to be solved for another time!
Finally, remember that you're probably
not the only one researching this particular ancestor - and one of your cousins
may already have the answers you're seeking. So make sure that you have entered
ALL your relatives from 1881 on your My Ancestors page, as this is the
census that is most likely to link you to your 'lost cousins'.
Note:
this is a revised version of an article first published in April 2010; it
covers such important issues that I think it's worth repeating, especially
since there are nearly 10,000 new members who have joined since then.
1911 abduction fears exaggerated
If you stumbled across the census form
of Mr Richard Woodward of 4 Avon Road, Drayton Park, Highbury
you might be surprised to see that he records his wife and daughter as having
been abducted. Had they been kidnapped or were they, perhaps, abducted by
aliens (HG Wells had published War of the
Worlds only 13 years previously)?
All is revealed in a recent findmypast blog entry, which includes a
full-size scan of the census form. Click here
to find out what really happened....
Census hoax email prompts ONS warning
A century later, and the census is still
the subject of hoaxes. The Office for National Statistics issued a warning on
Friday about a hoax email headed 'Population Census: a message to everyone -
act now' which has recently started to circulate. Click here
to see the announcement on the ONS site.
Could you spot a fake heir hunter?
Whilst we're on the subject of scams, I
wonder whether you can tell me which (if any) of the following three heir
hunter websites are scams? There's a free LostCousins subscription for the
member who comes up with the right answer and gives the best
explanation.
Send your entries to the usual address
(the one I used when I told you about this newsletter) to arrive by Monday 6th
February at the latest. Please head up the email "Spot the scam"
followed by the numbers of any sites that you think aren't genuine, and include
succinct reasons for your verdict in the body of the email.
By the way, I should point out that
nearly all of the members who contacted me following my article in the last
newsletter had been contacted by genuine
heir hunters (as I was), and in most cases had already received an inheritance
(as I have). The amounts of money received varied from under £100 (in my case)
to over £100,000! I will be writing at length about my experiences and those of
other members in a future newsletter, and I believe it will be a useful primer
for anyone who is contacted by heir hunters in the future.
Your life in their hands
This was the title of an article in New Scientist magazine recently which
revealed changes in the way that Facebook works. I realise that most people
reading this aren't ardent Facebook users, and some of you may never have
visited the site - but there are some good reasons for all of us to be
concerned about what's happening.
The new Timeline
feature updates a user's Facebook profile by sorting everything they've ever
done at the site into reverse chronological order. In itself that's not a major
change, but Facebook is also allowing people to go back in time, adding
information about past events in their life. In other words, your entire life
history could be on Facebook.
If you're not a Facebook user you might
think this is irrelevant - but what about your friends, cousins, nieces and
nephews, children and grandchildren? You can bet that some of the things
they'll post will relate to you.
For example, I already use Facebook to
track down members whose email address no longer works so that I can tell them
that a cousin of theirs wants to get in touch. Very often the person I'm
looking for isn't an active Facebook user, so sometimes I look for their
children instead. How do I know who their children are? By looking them up in
the Electoral Roll - it's usually obvious which members of a household are
parents and which are children of 18 or over. Most of the time there will be
some snippet of information that one of the children has posted that identifies
their parent as the person I'm trying to track down.
But can you imagine how much easier it
will be when the children start adding in information about their early lives?
The chance of their parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles remaining
anonymous will be far, far lower - but it's not just about privacy, because
your security (both physical and financial) could also be at risk. Suppose that
it’s obvious from your daughter's timeline that the family goes away at the
same time every year - imagine how useful that information would be to a
burglar!
Think too about the information that
banks ask for so that they can verify your identity. These days they don't ask
for your mother's maiden name any more, but about your first school, first pet,
and where you were born. You might not post any of this information online,
but can you be absolutely certain that nobody else will?
British Newspaper Archive proves too
popular!
A number of members have reported
problems with the British
Newspaper Archive website running very slowly, and in at least one case
this prevented the member concerned spending all of the credits in the 2 Day
package they purchased. I suspect that one of the problems is that a site like
this inevitably appeals to much wider range of people than a dedicated family
history site.
There are two ways you can combat the
problem - one is to do as much as possible of your searching outside peak
times, the other is to bookmark articles before subscribing (thanks to Shirley,
who was the first member to suggest this).
Some members have also reported problems
downloading and printing records, and complained about the poor quality
compared to what they see on the screen. Indeed, at the Genes Reunited
site (where the British Newspaper Archive is available as an 'Add-on'
subscription) there doesn't seem to be any way at all of downloading or
printing the articles.
However, I've had no problem saving and
printing the articles I'm interested in. First I view the article on-screen at
the largest possible size, then I press the Print
Screen key to copy the entire screen to the clipboard. Next I paste the
contents of the clipboard into Irfanview,
the free graphics program that I use constantly. Finally I use the mouse to
select the part I want to save and/or print, and choose Crop Selection from the Edit
menu.
Electoral Registers disappoint
Some members have also written to me
complaining about the large number of transcription errors in the London
Electoral Registers recently released at Ancestry.
As regular readers will know, I prefer
to use findmypast when I'm searching records that are available at both sites -
I find the site easier to navigate, and the searches
more reliable - but that didn't stop me from coming to the defence of Ancestry
over the Electoral Registers!
It's true that there are many errors,
some of which look completely stupid (such as road names being indexed as if
they were the names of people) - but that's almost inevitable when such a
diverse set of documents is converted into text by machines using Optical
Character Recognition, or OCR. Because there are nearly 140 million names,
equivalent to 5 or more England & Wales censuses, it would have been
extremely expensive to transcribe the records by hand - so costly, I suspect,
that it could never have been financially viable.
Whether they might have done a better
job we'll discover when findmypast begin to release the British Library
collection of Electoral Registers later this year - but in the meantime I
wouldn't worry to much about the errors because people generally stayed in the
same place for a few years, and if one of your ancestors was living at the same
address in 1894 and 1896, the chances are that she was living at the same
address in 1895, even though you might struggle to find the entry.
Tip:
some of the Electoral Registers have street index at the front.
Using the Address Search at findmypast
I first started to look at findmypast - then known as 1837online - as a
serious competitor to Ancestry was when
I discovered that it was possible to search the censuses by address. So often
we know - or think we know where our ancestors were on census night, but can't
find them because of errors in the data.
A useful trick when you're searching for
a street is to add a wildcard at the end of the street name. For example, if
you search for OXFORD ST you get 62 results, but when you search for OXFORD ST*
you get 209 results.
I don't know whether this is a bug or an
undocumented feature, but it sure makes sense to add that wildcard character!
Tip:
although it implies on the Address Search form that you must complete the
Residential Place box when you use a wildcard in the Street Name box, I
discovered that in practice this isn't always necessary. Experimentation
suggests that so long as there are 6 or more characters before the wildcard you
needn't worry about the Residential Place (except to cut down the number of
search results).
"On the Street Where You Live"
In the March 2012 edition of Your Family Tree, which arrived on my
doormat yesterday, there's an article by LostCousins member Celia Heritage, who
runs Heritage Family History
and is once again giving a talk at Who Do
You Think You Are? Live. (Indeed there are numerous LostCousins members who
will be giving presentations this year - I stopped counting after finding 6 on
the first day alone!)
Entitled "House records",
Celia's article explains how to build up a more complete picture of our
ancestors' lives by researching the places where they lived, using sources such
as Hearth Tax listings, manorial records, tithe
maps, and the Land
Valuation Survey of 1910.
This reminded me that some of the
records we use to research our ancestors can also be used to research the
places where we live, sometimes even the house where we live. For example, I've
found quite a few articles in the British Newspaper Archive
which relate to the street where I live - and not only do I know from the
censuses who was living in my house in 1911, I also know from the 1910 survey what
the rent was!
If you live in London you may be able to
use the London
Electoral Registers to find out who lived in your house in the early 20th
century - and hopefully many more of us will have that opportunity when
findmypast digitise the British Library collection of Electoral Registers.
Note:
if you're wondering why it sounds familiar, On
the Street Where You Live was a song from the musical My
Fair Lady.
More clues from newspapers
There's a lot than newspapers can tell
us that perhaps isn't immediately obvious. For example, you'll probably find
mentions of the schools and churches they attended,
and in many cases the firms that they worked for.
Sports and hobbies could also provide
useful leads - for example, if you know that an ancestor took part in amateur
dramatics, and can identify the society, you'll probably find articles about
the performances they gave - and even though your ancestor might not be
mentioned by name, at least you'll have a better idea of how they spent their
time.
Perhaps we'll never know as much about
our ancestors as future generations will learn about us from the archives of
Facebook (or whatever succeeds it), but that shouldn't stop us searching!
Do you have ancestors from Kent?
Findmypast have just announced that in
the next few weeks they will putting online scanned copies of parish registers
for the Archdeaconry of Canterbury, over a quarter of a million images with
more than a million entries.
This launch has been timed to coincide
with the imminent closure for refurbishment of the Canterbury Cathedral
Archives, but I don't know when the records will be indexed.
Note : if you have ancestors from Kent, Surrey,
or Sussex you might find some useful information at The Weald, which was recommended to me by
Muriel, who is one of LostCousins' greatest supporters.
When was your grandfather born?
Only one of my grandfathers was born
before the 1881 Census, so I was impressed when an old schoolfriend
told me that his grandfather was born in 1840 - but a few days ago I read an
even more impressive story in Dick
Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter.
John Tyler was born in 1790, and became
the 10th President of the United States in 1841; his son Lyon Gardiner Tyler
was born in 1853, when John Tyler was 63 years old. Lyon's son Lyons Junior and
Harrison were born in 1924 and 1928 respectively - and are still alive today,
222 years after their grandfather was born!
I have to go back 5 generations in my
tree to find an ancestor who was born before 1790, but perhaps a LostCousins
member reading this can beat the Tylers' incredible
record. If you or one of your living relatives have a
grandparent who was born before 1790, do please get in touch.
Don't leave it too late!
This
article was written by William J P Turner, a LostCousins member, and an experienced
family historian
A few years ago, my Great Grandmother
died. Since her death, I have (naturally!) aged, and so, as a result, I have
developed many questions in my head that I wish I had asked her before it was
too late.
These questions are mainly concerned
with her own grandparents. The older the relative, the more likely they are to
give details on earlier ancestors - not rocket science perhaps, but nevertheless
it is something that we often overlook. We can get so involved with parish
records and censuses that we forget that there is so much more that we can find
out about our ancestors simply by asking our elderly relatives. I began
tracking down my elderly relatives to locate new information before it was lost
forever. After all, the census will be around forever, but 97 year old great
aunt Hilda won't!
A cousin of my grandfather told me that
my great, great grandmother "walked with her right arm swinging, and her
fingers wiggling" - this is something that no census form will ever tell
me. I then began to contact other individuals who could shed light on my
ancestors - and not just people I am related to.
It is truly amazing how many people can
aid in your research: for example, if your grandmother was a member of the
Salvation Army contact her local branch, because some members may still remember
her. Talk to local history groups - you may find that relatives (or even direct
ancestors) were recorded on tape at some point in the past, perhaps for a 'Village
Voices' book. If you're lucky, as I was in the case of my great grandmother, the
recording will still survive.
I will now pass on some of my favourite
interviewing tips. The first is that elderly relatives may be difficult to
interview - some will find it hard to hear, understand or interpret your
questions. Often a question needs to be asked in a certain way to elicit a
response. For example, if you wish to know the answer to the question "What
was your mother's date of birth?" asking that question straight off might
not work, as not everyone can rattle off dates at the drop of a hat. Instead, it
may be wise to rephrase the question with some common sense. Pull your question
apart, and see if there are any obvious ways to make the question more
approachable and less puzzling. For example, you might ask, "When was your
mother's birthday?", then "How old was she when she died?", and
finally "What year was that?" in order to find an exact date and year
of birth.
The second tip is: always ask if you can
make copies of any documents and photographs they may have. Incidentally, I
would advise you to take some photos of your own along, not only to get
ancestors identified, but also to trigger your relative’s memories.
Thirdly, unless really specific
information is required, always try to make questions as general as possible,
otherwise you might miss hearing stories about people and events of
which you know nothing. All stories are valuable in their own way, and even if they
don't seem relevant at the time, they may come in useful later on your
research.
Finally, try and spend most time with
the oldest members of your extended family, particular those you have very
little contact with.
Peter's Tips
Before Christmas I suggested that members
in the UK take advantage of the 5% discount that WH
Smith are offering on books of 1st and 2nd Class stamps when you order online
(and postage is free when you order 4 books or more).
But what I didn't realise until recently
is that in April the cost of 2nd Class stamps will be rising dramatically, from
the current 36p to between 45p and 55p (with all the indications that the new
price will be closer to the top end of the range). Even if 2nd Class stamps
only go up to 50p, that's nearly 50% higher than the price you'll pay when you
take advantage of WH Smith's generosity (can you think of any other investments
that offer such a high return?). However, you'll have to be quick, because the
offer is due to end on 31st January.
Note:
1st Class stamps (currently 46p) could go up even more - but by the time the
new prices are announced WH Smith's offer will be long over, so my advice is to
buy some of each - that's what I've done.
I've already made my first jam of 2012! One
of my favourites - Tomato with Lemon and Ginger - it was prompted by Tesco's decision to heavily discount packs of cherry
tomatoes (which I find make the best jam). This is an appropriate opportunity
to announce that I plan to run another jam-making competition in 2012 - so if there's
any possibility that you might enter, make sure you save some small jars (to
keep down the cost of postage).
Great news! It's once again possible to
save £10 on the price of a new Kindle,
by ordering it from Tesco
Direct. Simply click here
and enter the discount code TDX-7PKF
at the checkout. By the way, you can use the same code to save £10 on ANY online
order of £75 or more, but whatever you buy you'll have to be quick, because the
code expires on 1st February.
Some of the energy suppliers in the UK
have cut their prices, but others haven't - and even if a price cut has been
announced it may not affect every tariff. When I want to know whether I'm
getting the best value I use the Which? Switch website, because it's not only a free
service but an impartial one. They reckon that the average person who switches
saves over £230 a year - which is enough to pay for subscriptions to two of the
major genealogy websites!
Every time I visit the Amazon
site I check the price of Family
Tree Maker 2012 Platinum. At £29.99 it's by far the cheapest way to get a 6
month Premium subscription to Ancestry.co.uk (six individual monthly
subscriptions would cost £77.70, and even if you divide the price of a 12 month
subscription by 2 it still comes to £53.70). So far, I'm glad to say, no change
- unlike last year when the price of the previous edition went up and down (mostly
up) like a yo-yo! I've already got my copy, though I won't need to activate the
subscription until July - if I delayed and the price went up I'd be kicking
myself!
By the way, I keep getting emails from
members asking me "If you don't recommend the Family Tree Maker software,
what program do you recommend?". For nearly 10 years I've used a program called Genopro, which does
exactly what I want. Of course, whether or not it will do what you want is
another matter, but if you follow this link there's not
only a free trial but also a 10% discount for LostCousins members.
Finally, as many of the items in Peter's
Tips aren't directly related to genealogy, I'm thinking of setting up a
separate website (how does PetersTips.com sound?). That
doesn't mean that there won't be a tips column in the newsletter, but it will
allow me to go into more detail (and feature more offers) without boring overseas
readers, for whom many of my tips aren't directly relevant. What do you
reckon?
Stop Press
On Wednesday February 1 the WH Smith website was still offering books of stamps at a 5% discount, but I don't know how long this will continue..
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, but please email me first if you would like to
re-publish any part of it.