19 December 2005 LostCousins Christmas newsletter
Newsletter - Christmas 2005
CONTENTS
* Round-up of exclusive offers for members
* Hints & Tips: finding ‘lost cousins’
* Unusual Names - competition results
To visit the main LostCousins site please go to www.LostCousins.com
Christmas 2004 was the busiest period ever at LostCousins, and so Christmas 2005, with three times as many members, is the ideal time to find your ‘lost cousins’. Imagine the thrill of discovering a new cousin at Christmas when you’ve got your family around you!
If you’ve yet to find your first ‘lost cousin’ keep reading, because there are plenty of tips later in this newsletter. You’ll also find out about the new Index of Maiden Names, a unique resource that’s available only to LostCousins members.
And if you’ve spent a little more than you intended this Christmas, why not take part in our free competition? Just use your ‘My Referrals’ page to tell your friends and relatives about LostCousins and you could win FIVE HUNDRED POUNDS in cash. There are also 50 prizes of a year’s subscription to LostCousins (worth 10 pounds each) - and all for a few minutes of your time.
Quick link to LostCousins: http://www.LostCousins.com
Log-in email address: ~1~
Password: ~2~
The Index of Maiden Names came about when we realised that in our own research we'd focused on the sons and brothers of our ancestors simply because it was easier to track them through the censuses than the sisters and daughters. At the same time, we knew from our own experience that it tended to be the women of the family who would safeguard photographs and other heirlooms.
But because in the second half of the 19th century people were more mobile than ever before, it can be difficult and extremely time-consuming to identify the correct marriages, especially when all you’ve got to start with is the name of the bride, and you have no idea of who, when, where, or even if she married!
To search the index just log-in at LostCousins and click on Index of Maiden Names in the menu: full instructions are given on the new page. And though there are just 40,000 names in the index at launch, new names are being added all the time, so this is a resource that will get more and more useful as time goes on.
ROUND-UP OF OFFERS FOR MEMBERS
During 2005 we’ve had numerous special offers exclusively for LostCousins members, and there are three that are still running.
Until December 31st you can save 20% on an Annual subscription to Ancestry.co.uk, which means that for around 15p a day you could get unlimited access to the complete and fully-indexed 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, and 1901 England & Wales Censuses (plus all the other British and Irish resources at Ancestry.co.uk). To access this offer you must log-in at LostCousins, and then click on the Ancestry logo on our home page.
FamilyRelatives.org is offering 10 free units to LostCousins members (and carefully utilised 10 units at FamilyRelatives can be worth more than 50 at other BMD sites!). Register at http://www.FamilyRelatives.org then enter the code LC2005 on the Purchase page (leave the password box blank - there is no password for this offer). Full details were in our December newsletter.
Archers Addicts, the official fan club for listeners to the world’s longest-running radio serial, is offering discounted memberships and gift memberships for LostCousins members: http://www.thearchers.co.uk/lostcousins
HINTS & TIPS: FINDING ‘LOST COUSINS’
To find your ‘lost cousins’ just enter your relatives from the 1881 British Census on your ‘My Ancestors’ page, then click the Search button.
Sounds simple, doesn’t it - but which relatives should you enter? Which are most likely to lead to ‘lost cousins’?
The fact is that any one of your relatives could lead you to a previously unknown cousin. That’s why we recommend entering all the relatives you’re able to find on the census. This means entering not just your direct ancestors and the people who were living with them, but also their brothers, sisters, and cousins - many of whom would by 1881 have their own families.
You see, we can’t identify another member who is your ‘lost cousin’ until you have BOTH entered the same relative on your ‘My Ancestors’ page - and obviously the more relatives you enter, the more likely that is to happen.
By the way, this common relative need not be a direct ancestor - indeed, the vast majority of the matches we make involve more distant relatives, because our sophisticated automated matching is able to identify your cousins even when the common ancestor died long before 1881.
How many relatives do you need to enter before you’ll find a ‘lost cousin’? Currently the chance that any one relative you enter has also been entered another member is a little better than 1 in 100. So if you enter just 1 relative the odds of finding a ‘lost cousin’ immediately are not great - but if you enter 100 or more, clearly the odds are much favourable! It’s like holding Premium Bonds - the more you own, the more likely you are to win a prize (though there’s still an element of luck involved).
If you’ve entered all of the relatives you’ve found on the 1881 Census, but still haven’t discovered any ‘lost cousins’ just email info@LostCousins.com and after reviewing your ‘My Ancestors’ page we’ll suggest what you could do to improve the odds.
In our last newsletter we announced our Christmas Competition, which has a main prize of 500 pounds in cash, and 50 runner-up prizes of a year’s subscription to LostCousins (worth 10 pounds each).
To enter just use your ‘My Referrals’ page to tell your friends and relatives about LostCousins. Each one who registers using the allocated referral code, and then logs-in before midnight on January 8th will receive one month’s free subscription - and will take you closer to winning the biggest prize we’ve ever offered.
At the half-way point the competition leader has made 12 successful referrals, which probably took him or her about 15 minutes. 500 pounds for 15 minutes effort - not a bad rate of pay is it?
The 50 members who are currently runners-up have made an average of 2.7 referrals each - that’s about 3 minutes to earn a 12 month subscription worth 10 pounds!
Will you be one of our winners? You could be, if you can spare just a few minutes of your time. And remember that when you use ‘My Referrals’ you can choose whether you give us your friend or relative’s email address - it’s entirely up to you. If you do, we’ll only send them only one email, with their referral code and brief details about LostCousins (and we won’t send them a reminder unless you specifically ask us to).
Note: the full rules of the competition were in our December newsletter - if you’d like a copy please email info@LostCousins.com
Are you finding it difficult to get started with your family history? Or are you up against a ‘brick wall’?
Our ‘buddies’ are waiting to help! Just send brief details in an email to info@LostCousins.com with the words ‘Help wanted’ as the subject of the email.
Remember that unlike other sites the help we provide is confidential; your details and those of your ancestors won’t be posted on the Internet for all to see.
UNUSUAL NAMES - COMPETITION RESULTS
We had an incredible number of entries for our competition to find the most unusual names in the 1881 Census, and there were so many excellent entries that in the end we decided to award two prizes, one to Gloria for her distant relative Nimrod Wiffen, and the other to Steven for his great-great-great grandfather Fretchfield Leather.
Congratulations to Gloria and Steven who will each receive a year’s subscription to LostCousins. Thanks to everyone who entered - we had many chuckles at the strange names that you came up with!
Before we leave the subject of unusual names, Eric in Devon told us of a Yorkshire miner called Richard Holmes who was clearly a fan of Conan Doyle’s famous detective, for he called his sons Sherlock and Mycroft. (If you want to look them up on the 1901 Census you’ll find them indexed as ‘Holmer’.)
All that remains is for us to wish to you a very enjoyable Christmas, and a wonderful New Year! We’ll be open throughout the Christmas period, but we’re sure you’ll understand that at times it may take just a little longer than usual to respond to your emails.
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?