1 December 2006 LostCousins Newsletter
Newsletter - December 2006
CONTENTS
* Last chance for Christmas cards
* Where do 'lost cousins' come from?
* Surname Atlas - an amazing program
* LostCousins member spots father in 1944 newsreel
* Scotland 1851 & 1861 Censuses
* Are local dialects disappearing?
To visit the main LostCousins site please go to www.LostCousins.com
This year Christmas is going to be really special for LostCousins members!
We can't tell you just yet exactly what we have lined up (we want it to be a surprise!) but we can confidently predict that over the holiday period there will be more 'lost cousins' found than ever before! Look out for more details in our next newsletter....
LAST CHANCE FOR CHRISTMAS CARDS
There are still a few limited edition charity Christmas cards remaining. Only 5000 of this beautiful exclusive design have been printed, so it's a great way to ensure that you friends and relatives get a card that's really different.
Full details are on our website at http://www.LostCousins.com/peace.htm
Remember, at least 1 pound per pack of 10 will go to the charity you select. This offer is open to UK members only.
WHERE DO 'LOST COUSINS' COME FROM?
When you find a 'lost cousin', just where is that person likely to live? Our analysis of the matches so far threw up some interesting results.
If you live in the UK, then when you find a 'lost cousin' there's 1 chance in 5 that the other person will live overseas, most probably in Australia or North America.
However, if you live in Australia, over 90% of the 'lost cousins' you find are likely to live in another country, usually the UK, though Canada also features.
Should you live in the US or Canada then right now it's almost certain that a 'lost cousin' you find will live in the UK, or perhaps Australia. But this will undoubtedly change now that we've added support for the 1881 Canadian Census.
LostCousins - making connections around the world!
Here's a simple check that will test how effectively we can identify your 'lost cousins'. Go to your My Ancestors page, make sure the information is sorted by Household, then count up how many households there are with direct ancestors.
Now count how many households there are without direct ancestors. If the second figure isn't at least double the first, then you're in danger of missing out on many of your 'lost cousins'. But what can you do about it?
Let's suppose that you've already entered your great-grandparents, and that by 1881 they were married (and might even have children). We'd suggest in this case that you look on the census for their brothers and sisters, your great-great uncles and aunts.
Anyone descended from them will share your great-great grandparents - making them 3rd cousins of yours (or perhaps 2nd cousins once removed if they are from an earlier generation).
3rd cousins are sufficiently distantly-related that you're very unlikely to know them already (unless you've discovered them during your genealogical research), but sufficiently closely-related that you'll be researching several of the same lines.
Victorian families were generally quite large, and if each of your 8 great-grandparents had 5 brothers and sisters, there could be as many as 40 households to be found, each one a potential link to one or more 'lost cousins'.
Remember, we can only link you with other members who have entered the same relative(s). So the more relatives from 1881 that you enter, the more 'lost cousins' you are going to find.
It's like the lottery - the more entries you make, the better your chance of winning. Every additional relative you enter on your My Ancestors page is an extra chance to discover a 'lost cousin'!
If you need help finding those other relatives on the 1881 Census why not ask our 'buddies' for help? Just email info@LostCousins.com with 'Help wanted' as the subject.
Unfortunately, because of the way that Hotmail works, some adjustments may be needed to ensure that you receive the automated emails that we send, including those with messages from your 'lost cousins'.
It's easy to check whether your Hotmail account needs modifying. Just request an automated password reminder by entering your email address on this page:
http://www.lostcousins.com/pages/login/forgotten.mhtml
If the email doesn't arrive, or if it ends up in your junk folder, just follow the instructions on our site at:
http://www.lostcousins.com/Hotmail.htm
SURNAME ATLAS - AN AMAZING PROGRAM
One of the most useful programs we use is Surname Atlas, published by Archer Software. Unusually it does more than it promises, for as well as displaying the distribution of any surname across Britain in 1881, it can do the same for forenames.
A clever feature is the option to switch between actual numbers and relative densities - this is crucial because of the wide variation in the size and population of counties.
For example, whilst there were 6 times as many people with the surname Bagley living in London as in the little county of Rutland, as a percentage of the population the surname was 30 times more common in Rutland!
The coloured maps the program produces can be printed or pasted into other documents. Archer Software ships worldwide - full ordering details are on the website at:
http://www.archersoftware.co.uk
LOSTCOUSINS MEMBER SPOTS FATHER IN 1944 NEWSREEL!
After reading our October article about the newsreels available free at the Pathe News site, Liz emailed us from Australia with a wonderful story.
In January 1944 her mother went to the cinema. The newsreel that was showing, entitled "Snow in Italy", displayed British soldiers helping to clear snow drifts around the country - and in one scene there was a clear shot of Liz's father!
The cinema manager kindly agreed to re-run the film for a private viewing, and gave Liz's mother a single frame from the film, which she had printed. Liz, who was just 3 years old at the time, would keep a framed copy under her pillow at night.
It was to be more than 60 years before Liz was finally able to see the film from which that frame had been cut, and understandably the first time she did see it, she was in tears (though she still recognised her Dad immediately).
Have you discovered a friend or relative in the Pathe News archive? We'd love to hear YOUR story! In case you missed our October newsletter, here's a reminder of the website address:
When you're looking for a living relative in the UK whose name you know, a great way to find them is to look them up in the Electoral Roll.
However, until recently you would have had to take out a subscription or buy large numbers of units - even if you wanted to carry out just one search.
Now it's much better, because Find My Past offers the chance to search the UK Electoral Roll for just 10 units, and you can buy as few as 50 units, costing just 5 pounds:
http://www.findmypast.com/media/news/livingrelatives.jsp
The important thing is that units you buy can be used for any other searches at the Find My Past site, including censuses, BMD indexes, and ships' passenger lists - it's a much better system.
(By the way, in case you're wondering who Find My Past are, it's the new name for 1837online, the first site to offer online access to the complete England & Wales BMD indexes).
There's good news for members who, like billionaire Donald Trump, have Scottish ancestry.
Ancestry.co.uk has added indexes to the Scotland 1851 and 1861 Censuses. As with 1841 there are no images of the original census pages (presumably for copyright reasons) - but if you're already an Ancestry subscriber it's a handy addition.
All of the Scotland censuses from 1841-1901, together with images, are available at the pay-per-view Scotlandspeople site:
http://www.Scotlandspeople.gov.uk
ARE LOCAL DIALECTS DISAPPEARING?
Understanding how our ancestors spoke is for many of us a key part of our heritage - but unfortunately local dialects seem to be disappearing in many parts of Britain.
In Norfolk 10 schools are taking part in the 'Lost In Translation' project, to raise awareness and understanding of the Norfolk dialect. It's one of many projects supported by the Local Heritage Initiative:
http://www.lhi.org.uk/index.html
650 extracts from the recordings in the Survey of English Dialects can be heard free at the British Library site:
http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/collections/dialects/
Knowing how your ancestors spoke can often be the key to understanding how surnames were incorrectly written in the days when most of the population were illiterate.
AND FINALLY.....
Remember that to maximise your chances of finding 'lost cousins' the information you enter on your My Ancestors page needs to come from the transcript of the 1881 Census, not from the handwritten census pages.
You can get free access to indexed transcripts of the 1881 Census of England & Wales and the 1881 Census of Canada at the free FamilySearch site.
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?