11 May 2005 LostCousins Newsletter
Newsletter - May 2005
CONTENTS
* Getting started – it’s easy!
* New features for Lost Cousins subscribers
* 1861 census now complete at Ancestry
* 1841 becoming available at Origins
* FamilySearch tips – searching the I.G.I.
To visit the main LostCousins site please go to www.LostCousins.com
It was great to see so many Lost Cousins members at the Family History Show in London – and it was a wonderful reminder of how much has been achieved in our first year!
With your help our second year could be even better – and that’s why we’d like each of your to consider what you could do to spread the good news about Lost Cousins.
When we first started the chance of finding a ‘lost cousin’ immediately was about as likely as winning the jackpot in the National Lottery! But now, whenever 10 new members join, the odds are that one of them will find a ‘lost cousin’ within minutes of completing their ‘My Ancestors’ page.
Do you know 10 people with British ancestors who are interested in family history? You’ll be doing them a big favour when you tell them about LostCousins.
If you’ve yet to enter any of your relatives from the 1881 Census on your ‘My Ancestors’ page, don’t worry – you’re not alone. However, the sooner you do enter them, the sooner we’ll be able to put you in contact with other members who are your ‘lost cousins’.
If you’ve already found your relatives on the census, then it’s really easy to enter them – all you need is a print-out of the ‘Household Record’ from the FamilySearch site. In our last newsletter there was a helpful article on how to use the census at FamilySearch, but if you don’t have that newsletter to hand we’ll be glad to send you a copy - email info@LostCousins.com and ask for a copy of our Spring Newsletter.
Perhaps you’re having trouble finding your relatives on the 1881 Census? In that case maybe it’s time to ask for help. Just email us with the information you have, and we’ll do our very best to find them for you.
Our programming team is currently working on a batch of new features for subscribers only. When we are ready to ‘go live’ with the changes all subscribers will receive a special newsletter with full details of the improvements.
Are you a Lost Cousins subscriber? If you are, then you’ll find a message later in this email confirming your status and showing the date on which your current subscription expires.
How can you become a subscriber? Surprisingly – in this day and age - it’s something that money can’t buy. You can only become a subscriber, and get these additional privileges, by helping to grow the LostCousins membership. Just use your ‘My Referrals’ page to tell three people about LostCousins and you’ll qualify for subscriber status until the end of June (next month we’ll tell you how you can extend your free subscription beyond June).
A number of members have asked whether we would allow them to link to Lost Cousins from their own websites.
We’re very happy for members to do this – and can provide you with HTML code to display a Lost Cousins banner on your site (all you need to do is paste it into the HTML source for the relevant web page, so you don’t need to be a programmer). However we do ask that you first provide us with the address of your website so we can check that it conforms to normal standards of decency.
It needn’t be a family history site – if you have a website of any kind you can link to Lost Cousins (subject to the proviso above). Please note that we are currently unable to link back to your site, but we will mention the most interesting sites in our newsletters – and one of the best we’ve seen so far is Wendy Beckett’s site at http://www.pluggedout.com/familytree/
Any member who links to our site and includes the Lost Cousins banner will be awarded subscriber status until the end of 2005.
1861 CENSUS COMPLETE AT ANCESTRY
We were amazed - it was only two months ago that 1837online made half-a-dozen counties available, then Ancestry announced at the Family History Show that it has the entire England & Wales Census for 1861! This is an incredible bonus for Ancestry subscribers, who now have unlimited access to all five England & Wales censuses from 1861 to 1901 for a fixed quarterly or annual fee.
1841 CENSUS BECOMING AVAILABLE AT ORIGINS
Several counties from the 1841 Census of England can now be searched at Origins (http://www.BritishOrigins.com). At present the only counties available are Cambridgeshire, Devon, Essex, Gloucestershire and Suffolk – but Origins claims that within a matter of months the whole of England & Wales will have been made available.
FAMILYSEARCH TIPS – SEARCHING THE IGI
The International Genealogical Index contains over 600 million birth/baptism, marriage, and death/burial records from all over the world – and fortunately for those of us researching our British ancestors, a large proportion of the entries relate to the British Isles (not only England & Wales, but also Scotland and Ireland). You should note, however, that there are very few death or burial entries – for these the National Burial Index published by the Federation of Family History Societies is a much better source.
Why would you want to search the IGI? Civil registration (ie BMD certificates) only began in 1837 for England & Wales, and in 1855 for Scotland. Prior to these dates parish registers are the primary source of information for family historians, and most of the British entries on the IGI have been systematically transcribed from parish registers (or in some cases from early transcripts of the registers). These entries are usually highly accurate, though there are inevitably occasional errors, but you need to be extremely wary of those IGI entries that have been submitted by individuals. Indeed, when no precise date or church is quoted you may do well to ignore the entry altogether, since it could be downright misleading.
It’s always advisable to check the original register entries whenever you can, not least because they often contain information that isn’t in the index. For example, baptism entries from 1813 onwards show both where the family was living and the father’s occupation, whilst marriage entries from 1754 show the names of the witnesses - all items of information not included in the IGI. There may also be clues to the identity of the father of an illegitimate child. Most records offices offer a research service and will (for a fee) look up the original entry and send you a photocopy.
If the records for the parishes in which your ancestors lived are amongst those that have been systematically transcribed, then searching the IGI is far quicker than trying to decipher the handwritten registers or microfiche copies. Indeed, if you are lucky enough to be able to visit the records office for the area you’re researching, it’s invariably better to spend your limited time there searching the records of parishes that aren’t on the IGI, and looking in the registers for entries that you’ve previously found in the index.
TO SEARCH THE IGI go to the FamilySearch site, click on ‘Search’, and then choose ‘International Genealogical Index’. Don’t use the ‘All Resources’ search – you won’t get the best results.
Always select the ‘Region’ (British Isles) and if possible the ‘Country’ and ‘County’, otherwise you’re likely to get far too many results. By the way, if you’re searching the London area remember that many suburbs that we now consider part of London were once in Middlesex, Surrey, Kent, or Essex.
Enter an approximate date rather than an exact one – specify both a Year and a Year Range. And if you are searching for a baptism, remember that baptisms always took place after the birth (sometimes many years later), and never before!
Unless you enter a ‘batch number’ (of which more later) you must enter at least the first name or last name of the person whose baptism you’re seeking - or else the father’s full name and the mother’s first name. As with census searches you shouldn’t be too specific – otherwise you might miss the very record you’re looking for. It’s hardly ever advisable to tick the ‘Use exact spelling’ box, as the spelling of names varied so much before 1900.
Once you’ve found the right entry try searching again, this time specifying just the names of the parents. You may well discover brothers and sisters that you didn’t know about!
Whilst you will often want to search the records of a particular parish there’s no drop-down box that lets you choose the parish. Fortunately you can achieve the same result using the batch number, because generally the records for a particular parish were batched separately from those of other parishes.
How can you find out the batch number for the parish you want to search? There’s a very useful site run by Hugh Wallis showing which parishes are included in the IGI and listing each of the batch numbers:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~hughwallis/IGIBatchNumbers.htm
Once you’ve found the right batch you can just click on it to search the IGI - though you’ll have more options if you go to the FamilySearch site and enter the batch number there.
We hope you’ve found this short article useful. In our next newsletter we will explain how to make the most of FreeBMD.
At every show we attend there’s one stand we always visit – Bill Bennett’s postcards are an absolute delight!
There are plenty of people who sell postcards, but we’ve never found anyone who has them as well sorted and displayed as Bill. You’ll find him at most family history shows, but you can also deal with him by post.
You can write to Bill Bennett at 152 Boroughbridge Road, York YO26 6AL or phone him on 01904 790826; his email address is postcardsuk@yahoo.co.uk (mention LostCousins and you may get special treatment!).
YOUR SUBSCRIBER STATUS
Sorry - you are not currently a subscriber. However you can secure an upgrade to subscriber status by using your ‘My Referrals’ page to tell three friends and relatives (who are not already members) about LostCousins.
We will send each of them a single email showing you as the sender. We will not send them any other emails unless they register at LostCousins, and in accordance with our Privacy Policy we never pass email addresses to third parties.
AND FINALLY…….
A reminder that every relative you enter brings forward the day when you find your first (or next) ‘lost cousin’. We’ve spotted several members who – despite previous entreaties - have entered only their male relatives, and others who have entered only direct ancestors! Given how easy it is to enter people from the same household using ‘Add Similar’ (click the plus symbol at the end of the line), it really does make sense to enter as many of your relatives as you possibly can.
We’re always available to help, and if we don’t know the answer, more often than not our great team of ‘buddies’ will be able to help. This free service is confidential – your email address and surname will not be disclosed.
Best of luck with your research!
The Lost Cousins Team
http://www.LostCousins.com
info@LostCousins.com
© 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?