28 July 2006 LostCousins Summer newsletter
Newsletter - Summer 2006
CONTENTS
* Fancy owning a Register Office?
* Dictionary of Victorian London
* Origins offer ends on July 31st
To visit the main LostCousins site please go to www.LostCousins.com
A lot of new members have joined this month, many of them users of the Origins site (which we've featured in recent newsletters).
This is great news for existing LostCousins members - because every new member who joins is the 'lost cousin' of several existing members, and so long as both members have entered the same relative we'll be able to identify the connection automatically.
Of course, the more of your relatives from 1881 that you enter on your My Ancestors page, the sooner we'll be able to identify which other members are your cousins.
For example, a member who has entered 100 ancestors has ten times as many chances as someone who has only entered 10. It's a bit like buying lottery tickets, except that in this case the tickets are free, and they never expire!
Why not log-in now and enter some more of your ancestors? Remember it's the brothers, sisters, and cousins who by 1881 had families of their own who are most likely to be the link to your living relatives.
If you can't remember your password you can get an instant email reminder at any time by clicking "Forgotten your password?" on the home page.
FANCY OWNING A REGISTER OFFICE?
Devon County Council is selling the former Exeter Register Office - and looking for offers in the region of 375,000 pounds for the period property, which could be converted to residential use (subject to planning permission).
If your ancestors came from the area this could be a unique opportunity to acquire the building where they married, or where their birth or death was registered! Or perhaps it was where you got married?
This is such an unusual offering that when we were in Devon recently we decided to go round and have a look at the building for ourselves. You can see a photograph of the property on our website at:
http://www.lostcousins.com/ExeterRegisterOffice.jpg
Do let us know if you decide to make an offer!
DICTIONARY OF VICTORIAN LONDON
Lee Jackson, the author historical thrillers, has created an amazing website full of information about life in Victorian London, much of it taken from contemporary publications.
We spent some considerable time browsing the site, but only scratched the surface - it's a veritable treasure trove for anyone whose ancestors lived in London during Victorian times.
http://www.victorianlondon.org
According to a recent review of Nathaniel Philbrick's book "Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War", an astonishing 35 million Americans are descended from the 102 colonists who arrived in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620.
Considering that within months after landing half of the colonists were dead, it's amazing that there were any descendants at all. Philbrick's masterly tale is available from Amazon:
ORIGINS OFFER ENDS ON JULY 31ST
The discounted offer for LostCousins members ends on Monday. Full details are on our website, on the Latest News page (the article is dated 21st June).
From 1841 censuses were based on the principle that a householder would record the people who slept in his or her house on census night. That suggests that nightworkers were not recorded on the census, and indeed in 1841 that seems to have been the case.
However, from 1851 onwards enumerators were specifically instructed to record any nightworker who returned home the following day, notwithstanding that they were not actually present on census night.
Unfortunately that still means that many nightworkers won't have been recorded on the census - along with people who were travelling on trains and coaches overnight. Just one of the many challenges that make genealogy so compelling!
We've had an amazing response to the article in our last newsletter - it seems that 'brick walls' have been tumbling all over the place!
Within hours of the newsletter being issued we had an email from Gail in Australia who had managed to find her grandfather by making use of our tips - she now has a new family line to research.
Gillian in Berkshire wrote in with a tip of her own:
"www.familyhistoryonline.net also holds the 1881 census. They have the facility of being able to use a wildcard at the beginning of a word. This is really useful as it is often the first letter that is difficult to read especially as it is a capital letter and is often in extremely 'fancy' lettering."
If you missed the original article for any reason we'd be delighted to send you a copy of our July newsletter.
Have you ever considered that your My Cousins page is a great way to keep track of all the relatives you've found?
At another well-known genealogy site there's a list of the people you've contacted, but no way of telling at a glance which are actually related (and at that site, in our experience, most of them aren't!).
By contrast, we tell you exactly which ancestors from 1881 you share with each person listed on your My Cousins page (just click on the entry in the 'Common Relatives' column to see a full list).
Whether the relatives listed are 'lost cousins', or people you were already in contact with, it's a great way of organising your contacts - and another reason to tell your relatives about the LostCousins site using your My Referrals page.
By the way, you can link up with a relative who's already a LostCousins member using 'Add a known cousin', at the top of your My Cousins page.
AND FINALLY.....
Did you know that most of the improvements we've made to the LostCousins site over the past 2 years have been suggested by our members? So if there are changes you'd like to see, why not tell us about them?
The LostCousins Team
http://www.LostCousins.com
info@LostCousins.com
© Copyright 2006 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?