Newsletter
- 27 July 2012
My
cousin held the Olympic flag!
Findmypast
offer ENDS MONDAY
Even
more Scottish directories online
Ancestry
release Lancashire registers
Did you
sign up as an organ donor?
Fathers
on marriage certificates
Applying
quantum theory to family history
Genes
Reunited tree changes prove controversial
Do
you have a challenge for LostCousins members?
The LostCousins newsletter is
usually published fortnightly. To access the previous newsletter (dated 14 July
2012) please click here; for an index to articles
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My cousin held the
Olympic flag!
As the 2012 Olympics begins
I've been thinking back to the last time the Olympic Games came to London, in 1948.
The 1948 games have been called the 'Austerity Olympics' - so not so different
to today (although what passes for austerity now would have been regarded as
luxury back then).
I'd like to share with you three photographs from the Opening Ceremony of
the 1948 Olympics which show my grandfather's cousin Sir Frederick Wells (my
1st cousin twice removed). Mind you, he was no more of an athlete than I am -
he was there because he was Lord Mayor of London from 1947-48.
Two of the photographs show him holding
the Olympic flag in front of more than 100,000 people in Wembley Stadium; the
other photo shows him sitting in the Royal Box (between the Shah of Iran and
Princess Margaret, the late sister of Queen Elizabeth II). There's a larger and
better quality version of the first picture here.
I won't be at the Olympics, though I do
have tickets for the Wheelchair Tennis at the Paralympics - that should be
amazing!
Note:
my grandfather was also called Frederick Wells - but he never aspired to such
great things, and spent his entire working life as a boiler maker (working for
another rich cousin). After 47 years he retired on a pension of just £1 a week!
I never really knew him (I was just 4 when he died), but I'd like to think that
he'd be proud of what I'm doing to bring families back together.
The exclusive offer I have arranged for
readers of this newsletter ends at 11.59pm (London time) on Monday 30 July.
Full instructions were given in my last newsletter here -
follow them to the letter to ensure that you qualify for a free LostCousins
subscription!
Following my article article
about the way the General Register Office (responsible for civil registration
in England & Wales) is falling behind other countries, including Scotland
and Northern Ireland I received numerous supportive messages, including this
one from John in Leicester:
"Your latest
newsletter carries the usual interesting mixture of items, but I was
particularly drawn to the piece about the GRO.
"Reading
what Sarah Rapson actually says in her article about
the office's 175th anniversary, it is very noticeable that there is nothing
about future developments; it's basically a history lesson which lauds
yesterday without considering today or tomorrow.
"It will
take only a very small further drop in sales of certificates, or an equally
small rise in costs, for the GRO to return to a deficit position when, no
doubt, more price rises will be imposed; the inevitable cycle of increased
prices resulting in reduced sales will then be repeated. Given how little their
services have changed since 1837, I fear they will have to be dragged into the
20th century before the terrors of the 21st can even be contemplated, let alone
embraced.
"How is
it that this nation, which was once at the forefront of all such innovation, is
now falling so far behind?"
John also sent me a copy of an email
he'd sent to the GRO asking when their web page Modernising
Civil Registration was going to be updated. When I checked today the
last posting (from November 2011) stated that "During the financial year
2011/12 IPS will decide the future plans for the digitisation of its remaining
records."
Since the 2011/12 financial year ended
nearly 4 months ago, I'm sure we'd all like to know what has been decided. Or
as mere customers of the GRO are we to be kept in the dark?
Even more Scottish
directories online
Thanks to Chris Paton for the
information that over 830 Scottish directories are available through the Internet Archive,
even more than you'll find at the National Library of Scotland's website (as
mentioned in my last
newsletter).
Note:
Chris Paton has one of the best genealogy blogs around - you'll find it here.
Ancestry release
Lancashire registers
Late yesterday Ancestry released a
collection of Lancashire parish registers with over 2.8 million entries. The
links below will take you to the new datasets:
Lancashire
Births & Baptisms 1813-1911
Lancashire
Marriages and Banns 1754-1936
Lancashire
Deaths and Burials 1813-1986
Lancashire
Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials 1538-1812
Lancashire
Confirmations 1856-1922
I have had very
little time to check these records out, so I don't know how accurate the
transcriptions are, nor how comprehensive the collection is (I didn't find ANY
relatives from my Lancashire branch, but perhaps they lived in the wrong part
of the county). I'd be interested in feedback from members with ancestors from
the area.
I reported in my last newsletter
how a member had a terrible experience at the Probate Office in London, and
this prompted an email from another member who had a similar experience at the
Liverpool Probate Office when a very small penknife was discovered on her keyring.
It's ironic that an 11 year-old boy can
get on a plane from Manchester to Rome without a ticket, boarding pass, or
passport (see this BBC news
report), yet family historians get treated like terrorists!
Did you sign up as an
organ donor?
Since my last newsletter less than two
weeks ago nearly 200 more people have signed up as organ donors through the Save5 campaign, but I'm told that only 6
specifically mentioned that they'd heard about the campaign through this
newsletter.
I'm sure that it isn't a true reflection
of the numbers - do please mention LostCousins when you email Save5.
Fathers on marriage
certificates
One of the biggest pitfalls for us
researchers is our trust in authority - if we see an official document, we
assume that it's correct. But the fact is, even government officials make
mistakes - and that assumes they're given the right information in the first
place!
We'd all like to believe that the birth,
marriage, and death certificates we've acquired - at considerable expense - are
always correct, but when it comes to marriage certificates that's very unlikely
to be the case.
I'm not talking about modern
certificates - the information on them has usually been verified - but 19th
century certificates. Nowadays we have to prove our identity and our age (see
this web
page), but that hasn't always been the case.
In my experience the information most
likely to confuse is the father's name and occupation. For example, when
Gifford Few (the subject of my most recent challenge) got married his father
was shown in the register as "William Few, Gentleman". From that description many entrants assumed
that (a) he was a 'gentleman' and (b) he was still alive. In fact, neither
seems to have been the case - he was a porter when he himself married in 1854,
and there's no evidence that he was still alive in 1880 when his son married.
When the bride or groom's father is
shown on the marriage certificate as 'deceased', then they probably are - but
the fact that the word 'deceased' is missing doesn't mean they were still
alive. It might, but then again, it might not.
Similarly, the occupation shown may not
be a true reflection of how the person spent their working life. It's not only
in modern times that people have changed careers - in the 19th century they had
to take what work they could get. Of course, you won't usually see someone
switching from one highly-skilled trade to another totally unrelated
profession, but my great-great-great grandfather was a tailor in the 1851 Census,
a pork butcher according to his daughter's marriage certificate in 1853, and a
dock labourer on his death certificate in 1868!
But there's also a tendency to make the
occupation somewhat grander than it really is: ag labs become farmers, and seamen become ships'
captains; someone who has no occupation - perhaps because they are deceased -
becomes a gentleman.
That's bad enough - but what if the name
shown is wrong? It might be nothing more than the addition of a middle name -
but it's not unusual for someone who was very young when their mother remarried
to give the name of their stepfather (who may be the only father they can
remember).
And what about
illegitimacy? I've seen estimates
that 10% of children born in Victorian times were illegitimate, but you won't
see gaps in 10% of the marriage register entries - nobody would want to own up
to being illegitimate on their wedding day.
Of course, many people didn't realise
they were illegitimate - often a mother would invent a fanciful story to
explain why a child had no father. Such stories may even have been supported by
a photograph, perhaps of a soldier in uniform, or a sailor carrying his kitbag.
Always ask yourself the question, what
would you have done in their position? Remember that illegitimacy and 'living
in sin' were so stigmatised in Victorian times that unmarried mothers would
usually wear a wedding ring.
Don’t fall for the argument
"so-and-so was so religious, she would never have had an illegitimate
child". Perhaps she was over-compensating for things she had done in her
youth?
Applying quantum theory
to family history
One of the key principles of quantum
theory is that you can't ever know everything about a particle - the more you
know about one aspect, the less you know about another.
In the 1930s the physicist Erwin Schrödinger created the paradox
that you may know as Schrödinger's Cat, the cat in a box which is both dead and alive - until we open the box.
I try to think about family history in
much the same way - I like to keep an open mind about whether the information I
have is true. Most people believe what they want to believe, then
selectively seek facts that will confirm their beliefs - whereas I aspire to a
more open stance, seeking not only confirmation, but also denial.
This may be hard to achieve, but it’s nevertheless
well worth trying. After all, the cost of making a mistake is very high - we
could end up researching the wrong line entirely!
Genes Reunited tree
changes prove controversial
I don't have my tree online - for
reasons that regular readers will be aware of - but I know that a number of
members also use the Genes Reunited
site to search for 'lost cousins'.
Recently I've had some emails about the
changes they've made to their online tree - which it seems haven't met with
universal approval. Now, since I don't have any personal experience I can't
tell you whether the changes are good or bad - but I'd be interested to know
what you think about them.
There have been over 300 entries for the
July
challenge, twice as many as for any other competition in the history of
LostCousins!
About three-quarters of entrants found
the right household, though not all of them came up with sufficiently
convincing evidence. Remember, when you're researching your own tree you won't
have someone to tell you when you hit upon the right answer, so finding
evidence to support your hypothesis is absolutely crucial!
You can still send in your solution, but
you won't be considered for the prize - the winner will be chosen from the
entries received up to July 26. As you can imagine picking one winner from that
many correct entries is a REAL challenge - but I'll let the winner know as soon
as possible, and announce the result in my next newsletter.
Tip:
don't stop looking for evidence when you find the first piece that supports
your hypothesis- and be sure to look for evidence that disproves it as well. If
you've watched as many crime dramas as I have you'll know how important it is
to keep an open mind, even when there's an obvious culprit!
Do you have a
challenge for LostCousins members?
Breaking down 'brick walls' that have
already been solved is the best possible training for breaking down the 'brick
walls' in your own tree - because the techniques you learn can be applied to
many different problems.
But finding great challenges isn't easy.
Not only must they have been solved before, they must be solvable using only
online resources in a finite time. And there mustn't be any 'spoilers', such as
online trees that give the game away.
If you have broken down a 'brick wall'
in your tree that you think might make a good challenge for other members who
are seeking to hone their skills, please send me brief details.
Tip:
if you have 'brick walls' that you haven't solved, why not share them with your
cousins - sometimes a fresh pair of eyes will see things that you can't? You'd
be amazed how many of the people who write to me asking for help haven't taken
the obvious first step of completing their My Ancestors page so that I can link
them with the members who are their cousins!
This where any last
minute amendments will be recorded or highlighted.
I've been so busy dealing with all the
entries to the Gifford Few challenge that I haven't been able to compile my
usual Peter's Tips column - but don't
worry, it will be back in the next issue!
Peter Calver
Founder, LostCousins
© Copyright 2012 Peter Calver
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