6 April 2005 LostCousins Easter newsletter
Newsletter - Easter 2005
CONTENTS
* 1871 SCOTLAND CENSUS NOW ONLINE
* ARE YOU RELATED TO A POLITICIAN?
* COMPETITION – WIN FREE TICKETS
To visit the main LostCousins site please go to www.LostCousins.com
It’s a very exciting time in the world of family history, with so many different resources now available online. In the last newsletter we mentioned that the 1861 Census of England & Wales was being made available at 1837online, and now we’ve heard that the 1871 Census of Scotland has been released on the Scotlandspeople site.
Three years ago there wasn’t a single British census that could be accessed online – now there are five English censuses, four Scottish censuses, and four Welsh censuses that you can search and view online at a modest cost!
It’s incredibly difficult to keep up to date with what’s happening, so perhaps it’s not surprising that there are still some LostCousins members who haven’t logged-on at http://www.LostCousins.com since the major update at the beginning of March.
In case you’re one of them – here are just a few comments from members who are obviously impressed by the changes:
“I like the Search button!”
“The Search button is a great addition”
“The new Search facility is a real bonus”
“The Index of Incorrect Surnames is a great idea”
“Very pleased with the improvements you’ve made”
“I like all of the improvements”
“This site is really good. It could be the best connection site if more people would enter their data.”
Take a look for yourself today! And if you’ve mislaid your password just visit:
http://www.lostcousins.com/pages/login/forgotten.mhtml
and enter your email address to receive an instant automated email reminder.
The 2005 Family History Show (organised by the Society of Genealogists) takes place in London on 30th April. It’s aimed at beginners as well as experienced family historians, and to emphasise this there’s an optional conference the previous day entitled “A Taste of Family History”. For full details visit:
http://www.sog.org.uk/events/pdf/show2005.pdf
You can win a free ticket to the Show! We’ve 10 tickets for LostCousins members – see the end of this newsletter for more information.
1871 SCOTLAND CENSUS NOW ONLINE
The official Scotlandspeople site has added the 1871 Census to its collection, and now has a complete set of censuses from 1871 to 1901. If you’ve got Scottish ancestors Scotlandspeople is one site you can’t afford to do without – LostCousins members have rated it the second best site on the My Links page!
Did you know that the most important information on our website is on your My Ancestors page?
We’ve recently been advising some of our members on how they can increase the number of ‘lost cousins’ that they find - and in many cases we’ve been able to make recommendations that will double or treble their chances! So here are our top tips:
(1) COMPLETE THE ANCESTOR CHART - print out the free Ancestor Chart and fill in the names of your direct ancestors. You’ll soon identify any gaps in your research, and it’ll give you the ‘ancestor numbers’ for each of your direct ancestors, so that you can add them to your My Ancestors page.
(2) IDENTIFY DIRECT ANCESTORS – make sure you identify the relatives who are your direct ancestors. Your direct ancestors are your parents, your grandparents, your great-grandparents and so on – the same people who appear on the Ancestor Chart.
(3) ENTER BLOOD RELATIVES TOO – even though it’s most important to enter your direct ancestors, most ‘lost cousins’ are found because one of our members entered a blood relative!Why? Because there are more of them! Victorian families were so large that for every direct ancestor you can find on the census there are probably between 5 and 10 blood relatives that you can find. Blood relatives enable us to bring together ‘lost cousins’ even when the common ancestor died before 1881.
(4) COPY THE CENSUS TRANSCRIPT EXACTLY – even if the information on the census transcript is wrong or incomplete, it’s still what you should enter on your My Ancestors page, otherwise we won’t be able to match your relatives against those entered by other members. (Note: any corrections or additional names can be entered in the separate section provided – they will then appear in italics.)
At the end of 2004 we ran a very popular offer in conjunction with 1837online and we’ve delighted to be able to offer another equally good deal. Between now and the end of April you can get 20% more units when you enter the copy LCAP2 - which means that for the minimum price of 5 pounds you currently get 66 units instead of 55 (they’re valid for 45 days).
That’s under 8p to view a page from the complete indexes of births, marriages, and deaths, from the start in 1837 right up to 2003 - and under 23p for a page from the 1861 Census! If you buy more units you get an even cheaper price (as much as 50% less), and a longer validity (up to 365 days).
ARE YOU RELATED TO A POLITICIAN?
According to the pundits there’s going to be a General Election in the United Kingdom in early May – and so we thought it might interesting to find out whether any of our members are related to politicians!
If you are related to a member of parliament, past or present, we’d like to hear from you. Just send an email to info@LostCousins.com with ‘MP’ in the title, and tell us who you’re related to and how.
COMPETITION – WIN FREE TICKETS!
Would you like a free ticket for the Family History Show? It’ll cost you 8 pounds at the door, but we have ten tickets to give away to lucky LostCousins members!
All you need to do is answer two simple questions and a tie-breaker. Your entry must be received by 6pm (BST) on April 15th and should be sent by email to competition@LostCousins.com
One entry per member only!
Here are the two questions, both of which can be answered by visiting the LostCousins site at: http://www.LostCousins.com
Question 1
Who is the TV personality whose photograph appears on the LostCousins site?
Question 2
Which actor from a long-running radio programme is a LostCousins member?
If more than 10 members answer both questions correctly, then the tickets will go to the members who most accurately answer the tie-breaker:
Tie-Breaker
How many registered members of LostCousins will there be at 6pm on April 15th?
AND FINALLY……
We’re doing everything we can to help you find your ‘lost cousins’ - but there’s a limit to what we can achieve without your help, because ultimately the number of ‘lost cousins’ we can find depends on how many members there are. Twice as many members equals four times as many ‘lost cousins’, 10 times as many members equals 100 times as many ‘lost cousins’.
Whether it’s called word-of-mouth or personal recommendation, there’s only one way to grow 10 times in a matter of months. We did it last year, and – with your help – perhaps we can do it again this year!
Thanks for all your help!
The LostCousins Team
© Copyright 2005 Peter Calver & Lost Cousins Ltd
Please do NOT copy or republish any part of this newsletter without permission - which is only granted in the most exceptional circumstances. However, you MAY link to this newsletter or any article in it without asking for permission - though why not invite other family historians to join LostCousins instead, since standard membership (which includes the newsletter), is FREE?