Newsletter - 24th November 2017
1910 'Domesday' goes online NEW
Catholic registers for Cincinnati & Chicago dioceses to go
online NEW
1901 & 1911 Ireland censuses to be updated - at last!
Which DNA testing company should you choose?
Black Friday offers around the world
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1910 'Domesday'
goes online NEW
The Genealogist have just
announced that they will be publishing the 1910 Valuation of England which
reveals who was living where and who the owner of the property was. Even if you
know where your ancestors were living at the end of the Edwardian era, being
able to pinpoint the location on a map will be an enormous help in areas where
the modern landscape is greatly changed as a result of
wartime damage or redevelopment - or simply by a change in the way that the
properties are numbered.
The maps and registers for
the City of London and Paddington in the west of London are already online, and
I was delighted to find the business premises of my great-great uncle Henry Francis Wells, a tailor,
amongst those first entries (his is the second name up from the bottom):
© TheGenealogist
© Crown copyright images reproduced courtesy of The National Archives, London,
England
I've included the whole page
so that you can get a feel for these wonderful records, which have been scanned
in high resolution - and in colour. From the register there is a link to the
map:
© TheGenealogist
© Crown copyright images reproduced courtesy of The National Archives, London,
England
Note that the address of the
property has changed in the past century - and that it was opposite the
workhouse. The press release states that "Future releases will expand out
across the country with cross linked maps wherever they are available",
but doesn't give any timescale - for my part I hope that the rest of London
will be amongst the first areas to go online as many of my ancestors and other
relatives were living there before the Great War turned their lives upside down.
Tip: you can save £20 on a Diamond subscription to The
Genealogist and get a free subscription to the "Discover Your Ancestors"
digital magazine when you follow this link.
Catholic
registers for Cincinnati & Chicago dioceses to go online NEW
This week Findmypast announced
plans to extend their Catholic Heritage Archive by adding millions of sacramental
register entries for the Archdioceses of Cincinnati and Chicago.
Findmypast already have an
enormous collection of Catholic records from England and the US - you can find
out more here.
1901 & 1911
Ireland censuses to be updated - at last!
Since the 1901 and 1911
censuses for Ireland went online some years ago many users have submitted
corrections to transcriptions - but until recently those corrections seem to
have been disappearing into a 'black hole'. Now leading Irish genealogist John Grenham, in conjunction with the National Archives of
Ireland, is involved in processing all of the suggested
updates, the first batch of which went online on Thursday.
You can find out more about
the project here.
Thanks to LostCousins member Colm for alerting me to
this news.
There was a time when the
only DNA tests available were very restricted in what they could do, and they
weren't suitable for most people. On top of that they were expensive and many
of the DNA companies around at that time made unrealistic claims for their
tests.
Now there are just a handful
of companies offering DNA tests for family historians, most of them highly
respectable (and respected), and the price has come down to a level that most family
historians can afford. More importantly, the tests on offer are almost all
autosomal tests - which work for anyone, male or female, and can potentially
resolve problems in almost any part of your tree.
So the simple answer, to "who should take a DNA
test" is YOU!
Look at the situation I'm in
- 15 years ago, when I started my research there was just one England & Wales
census online, and no parish registers at all. Now all of
the censuses that can be published are online, plus the 1939 Register, and
parish registers for much of England and all of Wales are online. Some of my
'brick walls' have been blocking my path for almost all of
those 15 years - the chances that they're going to be solved by new records becoming
available online is minimal.
DNA is a form of
record-keeping, because all of our DNA comes from our
ancestors. That doesn't mean to say that all of our
ancestors have contributed to our DNA, but almost all of our ancestors from the
last 6 or 7 generations will have done, plus many of those who are further back.
So we can use the information in our DNA to identify
our ancestors. It won't identify them by name, but it will allow us to identify
cousins who share our ancestors, and that's a great step forward - especially
for those of us who have 'brick walls' caused by illegitimacy, infants who
weren't baptised, or vicars who forgot to enter a baptism in the register
(which some researchers believe was quite common).
Of course, one DNA test isn't
going to solve everything - we also need some of our cousins to test. But you
can hardly ask your cousins to test if you haven't tested yourself, can you?
Which DNA
testing company should you choose?
I originally tested with
Family Tree DNA, but Ancestry - who only offer autosomal DNA tests - now have
around 10 times as many results in their database. So earlier this year I re-tested
at Ancestry - and made more progress in a few weeks on some of my highest 'brick
walls' than in the preceding 15 years. I had over 6000 matches initially, now I
have over 9000! In general you can expect to be
matched with between 5000 and 15000 genetic cousins, and whilst most of them
will be distant cousins that isn't actually a bad thing (see my recent Masterclass).
So my advice is to test with Ancestry if you possibly can.
You can always download your results and upload them to Family Tree DNA to find
more cousins there - but you CAN'T go the other way round.
There are also some sites where people who have tested with different providers
can connect - I recommend GEDmatch, by far the
largest - but only a small fraction of people who have tested currently use
those sites.
DON'T GET CONNED into testing
with some other company just because their price is lower, especially if that other
company hasn't been recommended, or even mentioned, in my newsletters. You're not really
buying a DNA test, you're buying connections to cousins, so the size of the database
is what matters. Ancestry have twice as many results in their database as ALL of the
other companies added together!
Tip: for an independent comparison see
the table at the ISOGG website. But remember to come back to this newsletter
so that you can click on my link!
Black
Friday offers around the world
Although initially a uniquely
American phenomenon, used to describe the day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday
(and Cyber Monday) have spread across the English-speaking world. Most of the
offers are only available in specific territories so I'm going to run through
them by territory - and whichever offers you take up PLEASE use the links I've
provided, as it will help LostCousins to remain independent
for another year.
Tip: I will be continually updating this article in
response to feedback from members - so please check back before taking up any
offers elsewhere!
USA
Some amazing offers from Ancestry
- but only available to US customers. Until Monday you can get an Ancestry DNA
kit for just $59 by following this link, or buy a
subscription for 50% off the normal price when you click here. After Cyber Monday
the same DNA link will give you a holiday price of $69, not quite as attractive,
but still a good saving if you missed out on the Black Friday price.
Findmypast are offering a
discount of 75% on 1 month World subscriptions when you click here,
or 10% on 12 month World subscriptions when you click here
(if you have English or Welsh relatives note that only the 12 month
subscriptions include the key 1939 Register). These offers run until Monday.
Living DNA have cut their price again
for Black Friday, and it is now down to $89, the lowest ever. The Living DNA tests offers
more detailed information about your British Isles, especially English, ancestry but I
wouldn't recommend it as the first DNA test you take. Click here to find out more.
Canada
Ancestry are reduced the
prices of DNA kits to just $79 until Monday - please use this link.
Findmypast don't have a
Canadian site, so you can shop around - by my calculations the Australian site
offers the best value at current exchange rates (see offers and links below).
UK & Ireland
Get an Ancestry DNA kit for
just £49 plus the usual shipping cost (£20 on the first kit and £10 on any
subsequent kits ordered at the same time and sent to the same address). The
offer runs until Monday - please use this link.
There are no offers at
Findmypast.co.uk but there's something in the pipeline that I'll be able to
tell you about next week.... but at Findmypast.ie you
can save 75% on 1 month World subscriptions when you click here,
or 10% on 12 month World subscriptions when you click here
(if you have English or Welsh relatives note that only the 12 month
subscriptions include the key 1939 Register). These offers run until Monday.
Living DNA have cut their price again
for Black Friday, and it is now down to £89, the lowest ever. The Living DNA tests offers
more detailed information about your British Isles, especially English, ancestry but I
wouldn't recommend it as the first DNA test you take. Click here to find out more.
Australia & New Zealand
Until Monday you can save $50
on an Ancestry DNA kit, down from $149 to $99 (plus the usual $29.99 shipping)
- all prices in Australian dollars. Please use this link.
Findmypast are offering a
discount of 75% on 1 month World subscriptions when you click here,
or 10% on 12 month World subscriptions when you click here
(if you have English or Welsh relatives note that only the 12
month subscriptions include the key 1939 Register). These offers run
until Monday.
Worldwide
Family Tree DNA have
discounts on most of their DNA tests, including Family Finder (autosomal DNA)
priced at $49 until Monday, and Y-DNA. Please follow this link
for all the latest prices.
The Office for National Statistics
told us that the heritage value of the 2021 Census isn't a factor they can take
into consideration - so the pleas from thousands of family historians for
precise birthplaces to be included in this (possibly) final census have been
ignored.
Yet when the ONS advertised
for a new staff member recently they highlighted how the heritage of the census
stretches back more than 200 years. You can see this example of two-faced poppycock
here.
(If you want to apply you'll have to be quick!)
Findmypast.co.uk have
juggled around their subscription packages, but the good news is that existing subscribers
can stay with the old packages as long as they want. More to follow in my next newsletter mailing....
Thanks to
everyone who has written in with tips and suggestions - I'll be back with a
more normal newsletter soon!
Peter Calver
Founder,
LostCousins
© Copyright 2017
Peter Calver
Please do NOT copy or
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