Newsletter
- 27th November 2015
GRO consultation
process begins - at last
Unmissable
Black Friday offers
DNA
study confirms diversity of London's inhabitants
1939
Register: new records revealed
Finding
recent deaths in England & Wales
1916-18
Military Service Appeals at ScotlandsPeople
Using
your FREE Ancestor Chart
2021
Census: summary of consultation responses published
The world's oldest newly-weds!
The LostCousins
newsletter is usually published fortnightly. To access the previous newsletter
(dated 14th November) click here, for an index to articles from 2009-10
click here, for a list of articles from 2011
click here and for a list of articles from
2012-14 click here. Or do what I do, and use the customised
Google search below (it only searches these newsletters, so you won't get
spurious results):
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). If one of the links doesn't work this normally indicates that you're
using adblocking software - you need to make the LostCousins site an exception (or else use a different
browser, such as Chrome).
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!
GRO consultation process
begins - at last
Almost a year after Baroness Scott
proposed in the House of Lords that the GRO should be allowed to issue electronic
copies of birth, marriage, and death certificates, and nearly 8 months after the
change in the law received Royal Assent, the General Register Office this week
invited some of the key people in British genealogy to provide their thoughts:
"I am writing to you as a member of the family
history community regarding the certificate services provided by the General
Register Office (GRO).
"Whilst at the current time the information held
in the civil registration records can only be provided to customers in hard
copy form, legislation came into force earlier this year that could allow GRO
to issue copies of this information in ways other than a paper
certificate. The provisions in the
Deregulation Act 2015 will require further regulations to be made in order to
allow any new products to be offered, and of course there are considerations
around IT system changes and funding.
However, GRO is currently analysing the different options available
around implementation, and would welcome the opportunity to hear further the
thoughts of those with a particular interest in the genealogical field."
Most of those invited to attend one of
two events, to be held at the GRO in Southport on 18th December and at the Home
Office in London on 21st December, are representatives of family history
societies. Even so, I was rather disappointed that I wasn't on the guest list -
since I've probably done more than most to make the case for change over the
past 10 years.
Undaunted, I have responded to the
invitation (kindly forwarded by a LostCousins member)
in the hope that the GRO will allow me to be there. I'll let you know in due
course whether I've been successful.
Unmissable Black Friday offers
There are some amazing offers for family
historians this year - I can't remember anything like it. These offers are not
exclusive to LostCousins but click the relevant link
and you will be supporting LostCousins as well as
grabbing yourself a bargain!
SAVE 50% ON 12 MONTH SUBSCRIPTIONS TO FINDMYPAST
Note:
Findmypast state that their offer is for new and lapsed subscribers ONLY; the
offer ends at midnight on Monday 30th November.
If you live in the USA check out the amazing
offer at Findmypast.com (World
subscriptions only)
Ancestry DNA
UK £69 (saving £30)
Ancestry DNA
US $69 (saving $30)
Ancestry
DNA Canada $119 (saving $30)
Tip:
watch out for the shipping charge (it's £20 for
customers in the UK).
Family Tree
DNA are also discounting their DNA tests, and they
charge the same price worldwide (although shipping varies):
Family
Finder (similar to Ancestry DNA) $89 (saving $10)
Y-DNA
37-marker test $139 (saving $30)
To re-read my series of
articles (which take the mystery out of DNA) start here and follow the
links to the previous articles in the series.
Black Friday - the day after
Thanksgiving - is a new arrival in Britain (I believe Amazon are primarily responsible for bringing it to our shores) but in the United
States the term has been used since the 1950s.
Thanksgiving, a public holiday in the
US, is always on a Thursday in late November (since 1941 it has been the 4th
Thursday), and it became increasingly common for workers to take the next day
off, often by calling in sick, in order to make a 4-day weekend. Enterprising
retailers saw it as an opportunity to kick-off the Christmas selling season -
and now it is established as a major event.
DNA study confirms
diversity of London's inhabitants
As genealogists we use DNA testing in
order to learn more about our ancestors, but archaeologists use it as a way of
learning more about the individuals whose remains they uncover.
At the Museum of London DNA analysis of
skeletons from 2000 years ago has shown that Londinium
- as London was known under the Romans - was predominantly inhabited by
immigrants. This BBC article talks
about one of them, a girl of about 14 who grew up in North Africa, but whose
DNA is typically European; another skeleton analysed at the museum appears to
belong to a gladiator - his DNA suggests Eastern European and Middle Eastern
ancestry. In fact, only one of the skeletons analysed so far belonged to a
native Briton.
1939 Register: new
records revealed
On the day that the 1939 Register launched
(2nd November) I submitted a request for my father's record to be opened. It
would have been opened next year in any case, because he was born in 1916, but
I wanted to see how long it would take if I submitted his death certificate.
It was 16 days later that I received an
email from Findmypast to let me know that the record had been opened. As I had
already paid to view the household where he was living (he was at home with his
parents) it cost nothing extra to see the new information. I knew that he had
been in the ARP before joining the army, because a few years before Dad died I
filmed him talking about his experiences on the first night of the war, but I
hadn't realised that he was a stretcher bearer.
Not only is my father's entry in the
register now viewable, he has
also been added to the index (however you may find that entries aren't added to
the index immediately).
Incidentally, I understand that some
researchers - although not, so far as I am aware, readers of this newsletter -
have been confused about the difference between unlocking a household and
opening a closed record. When you're searching the register and find a household
that you think is the one you're looking for you will be shown a preview;
typically this gives the name of the person you searched for and the name of
the head of the household.
At this point you're also told how many
other open records there are in the household, and how many closed records
there are - here's an example (by the way, despite the surname, they're not my
relatives):
When you Unlock the household, which costs
60 credits, you will be able to see all of the open records but you won't be
able to see any of the closed records until they are opened. So, in this
example you would initially only see 3 of the 10 people in the household.
Note:
overall two-thirds of the records in the 1939 Register are open,
and only one-third closed.
As I mentioned in the last newsletter,
Findmypast are hoping to be able to match GRO death index information - which,
from 1969 onwards, includes the precise date of birth of the individual - in
order to open millions of records that are currently closed. However it isn't
their decision - it's up to the National Archives (and, ultimately, the
Information Commissioner) to determine what evidence is sufficient.
Finding recent
deaths in England & Wales
As you will probably know, in 2008 the
General Register Office decided to stop selling indexes to births, marriages,
and deaths - as a result of which the most recent official indexes that are
online, eg at Findmypast,
date from 2007. Wendy wrote from Canada recently to ask how to find more recent
deaths:
"I have a third cousin
who has been living in Widnes for more than 24 years. I have sent
several e-mails with no response so I am wondering if she has died, but how do
I search for deaths in England since 2012?"
These were my suggestions to Wendy:
Have you searched the electoral register
to see whether she has moved (which is often when people change their email
address)? Have you tried writing a letter? Have you looked for her in the phone
book?
If all these fail the best option is to
look for a will, or to try a Google search which might pick up a mention on an
online obituary site (these are allied to local newspaper groups). There also
some deaths since 2007 recorded in an index at Ancestry
- it's not a complete index by any means.
Or contact someone else in that part of your family tree - there must be
dozens of relatives who are more closely related than you are.
The last resort is to ask a cousin in the
UK to visit one of the seven libraries that hold up to date BMD indexes -
there's a list of them here
on the GRO website.
1916-18 Military
Service Appeals at ScotlandsPeople
ScotlandsPeople have made available an
online index to the Appeal cases of 5,820 men seeking exemption from military
service between 1916 and 1918. You can find out more about the records here.
Note:
after the article
in my last newsletter George wrote in to say that he had found a lot of information
about appeals tribunals by searching at the free Welsh Newspapers Online web site.
Using your FREE
Ancestor Chart
Whilst it was originally intended primarily
for beginners to collect data from their relatives, there all sorts of uses for
the blank Ancestor Chart that I've been providing since 2004 (you can download it free
from the LostCousins site, and you don't even need to
be a LostCousins member).
Rita wrote in this week to tell me how
useful she'd found the chart:
"Have opened an account for my
husband. I have to say I found your Ancestor Chart
invaluable for working it all out, so much so that I am about to revisit my
family's details to put my father's side on."
If you're trying to persuade a friend or
relative to start researching their own family tree handing them this free
chart could make all the difference!
Peter joined LostCousins
just 2 months ago, but there are already 20 contacts listed on
his My Cousins page. What's Peter's
secret? It's very simple - he's entered all of the relatives in his tree who
were recorded on the 1881 Census.
Meanwhile the 1939 Register has provided
a fantastic breakthrough for Sheridan:
"I cannot believe it but I have gone
some way to resolving a family mystery.
When the 1911 Census came out, I was completely floored to find my grandmother
living at the address I expected with some of her siblings and my great-grandfather - but
with three more children I had never heard about plus a housekeeper. On obtaining birth certificates, these
children (plus another born just after the census) proved to be the offspring
of my great-grandfather and the housekeeper.
Absolutely no-one in the family (including members of my father's
generation) had ever heard mention of them, neither had my father (deceased)
ever spoken of them to me so it would seem that this 'second' family was kept
secret even though most of them were living together in 1911.
"I have always wondered about this
'second' family - don't think anyone else in the family believed me although I
had all the birth certificates - but, try as I might, I could not find any
trace of them after 1911 (my great-grandfather passed away in 1912).
"Until the 1939 release..... I have now found one of them! All the births were registered in the name of
Evans (my great-grandfather's surname) BUT it now seems as if they reverted to
their mother's name of Hammond. The one I have found was registered at birth as
Bert, not Albert and I found a Bert Hammond in 1939 with the exact birthdate. His
wife's name was Ivy and I found a marriage between a Bert (not Albert) and an
Ivy Proud so I sent off for the marriage certificate. His father is shown as
James Hammond (deceased) - my great-grandfather was actually James Evans - and
his profession as brass burnisher - exactly what my
great-grandfather did.
"At present, I still can't find the
other children but this is a real breakthrough for me. I just had to join the
others who have had success."
2021 Census: summary
of consultation responses published
A summary of the responses to the recent
consultation has been published here.
A total of 592 responses were received from genealogists, 21 representing
organisations and 571 from individuals - over half of all the responses, and
nearly twice as many as responded to the previous consultation.
Of course, this doesn't guarantee that
we'll what we asked for - the most requested addition being the place of birth
of each person - but it does demonstrate how important the census is to the
genealogical community.
The world's oldest newly-weds!
According to the Independent a "British couple has
officially been recognised as the oldest in the world to marry with a combined
age of 194 years and 280 days after their wedding day this summer, according to
Guinness World Records. Proud
groom George Kirby, 103, described how he proposed to his new bride Doreen Luckie, 91, on Valentine’s Day. Remembering the moment he
asked the new Mrs Kirby to be his wife, he said: “I didn’t get down on one
knee, because I don’t think I would have been able to get back up."
You can read more and see a picture of
the happy couple here.
At the end of October I wrote
that BBC1's Family Finders were
looking for cousins who were about to be reunited. I wrote then that there were
only looking for 1st cousins, but I've now been informed that they will also
consider 2nd cousins. See the original article for more information - and do
let me know if you're going to be appearing!
Two of the websites that I frequently
use myself have Black Friday offers: The
Book People (who solve a lot of my Christmas present problems) always have
very low prices, but there's an extra 10% off today when you follow this link and use the code FRIDAY10
(I'd love to tell you what I've bought
but my wife is reading this…..)
The other favourite of mine is AllBeauty,
where the prices on fragrances usually beat anything you'll find in the
duty-free shops at airports.
Of course there are also LOTS of offers
at Amazon.co.uk
- I'll leave you to explore.
This is where any last minute updates
and corrections will be highlighted - if you think you've spotted an error
(sadly I'm not infallible), reload the newsletter (press Ctrl-F5) then check here before writing to me, in case
someone else has beaten you to it......
Peter Calver
Founder, LostCousins
© Copyright 2015 Peter Calver
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