22 April 2007 LostCousins Newsletter
Newsletter - April 2007
CONTENTS
* A grave situation gets worse
* 30-day free trial at Ancestry.co.uk
* Free US & Canada contacts - a LostCousins offer
* 'Refer a Relative' steps up a gear!
To visit the main LostCousins site please go to www.LostCousins.com
Would you like your relatives to become part of the LostCousins community? It's now easier than ever before to invite them to join and at the same time pass on details of the ancestors that you share.
Like most of the enhancements we make, this one was suggested by members. See the articles below for full details of all the recent improvements to your site.
Also in this newsletter: a completely FREE offer for members whose ancestors were recorded on the US 1880 or Canada 1881 censuses - see the article entitled "Free US & Canada contacts".
In our last newsletter we announced the 30-day free trial that we've arranged with Ancestry.co.uk - but didn't make it completely clear that the trial includes not only the Scotland census indexes, but also the full England & Wales censuses from 1841-1901.
Sorry for the confusion! So that nobody loses out we've arranged for the offer period to be extended and there is a new link in the article below.
To log-in at http://www.LostCousins.com you'll need your email address and password. If you can't remember your password click the link below to get an instant email reminder:
http://www.lostcousins.com/pages/login/forgotten.mhtml
In England thousands of old graves are being reused because of a shortage of burial space, according to an investigation by The Times newspaper.
The City of London cemetery is the largest in the country, and there 1000 graves have been 'reclaimed' in the past three years alone. Sometimes old gravestones are recycled, with the new occupant's details inscribed on the reverse.
At least it's not as bad as in Singapore, where - according to a recent article in New Scientist magazine - the deceased rest in peace for only 15 years before being exhumed and either cremated or moved to a smaller plot.
How would you feel if after eventually tracking down the final resting place of one of your ancestors, you discovered that they had been re-interred elsewhere? Or that they were now sharing a grave with someone completely unrelated to them or to you?
You might discover a notice like this one, from the City of London cemetery: "This memorial has been identified for possible reclamation. If you visit this grave please contact the Conservation Team."
We'd all love to think that our ancestors will Rest In Peace for ever - but is that no longer an option? What do YOU think about the situation - and what can we, as genealogists, do about it?
30 DAY FREE TRIAL AT ANCESTRY.CO.UK
To take advantage of the extended 30 day free trial at Ancestry.co.uk click on the link below:
http://www.kqzyfj.com/t3121c-7w36LNTVPTMNLNMQTNQSU
You will need to provide your credit card details: however, so long as you telephone Ancestry to cancel before the end of the trial, your card will not be charged. If you live in the UK even the phone call is free!
During the trial you will have full FREE access to ALL of the Ancestry.co.uk databases including all 7 England & Wales censuses, indexed transcripts of all 7 Scotland censuses, historical telephone directories and much much more!
FREE US & CANADA CONTACTS - A LOSTCOUSINS OFFER
Normally you'd need to be a subscriber to initiate contact with another member who appears in the 'New contacts' section of your My Cousins page (if not, then you have to wait for them to contact you).
But if you find a cousin through the US 1880 or Canada 1881 census before the end of May you'll be able to contact them whether or not you are a subscriber!
This is a great opportunity to find more of your living relatives - your 'lost cousins'. Finding a new cousin could transform your knowledge of your family tree - just imagine how great it will be to compare notes, swap stories, and exchange photographs.
The more relatives you enter the greater the chance of a match - so why not make a start right now?
Go ahead and tell your friends and relatives about this offer - the more people who take part the more matches will be made, and the more 'lost cousins' will be found.
[Little-known fact #1: Did you know that we NEVER ask for credit card details when you participate in offers at the LostCousins site? There really is nothing to lose and everything to gain.]
REFER A RELATIVE STEPS UP A GEAR!
If you have relatives who you are also researching their family history it's a very good idea to tell them about LostCousins, rather than allowing them to discover the site independently. There are two good reasons for this....
ONE: when you use your My Referrals page to 'refer a relative' they'll appear on your My Cousins page as soon as they join - and because you already know each other their name and email address will be shown from the beginning.
Your name and email address will also appear on their My Cousins page - so it will be really easy for the two of you to keep in touch. And if one of you changes your email address it will be automatically updated when the My Details page is altered.
TWO: you can save them having to re-type the information for the relatives that you share. When you make the referral you can indicate which of the relatives on your My Ancestors page you'd like to be passed on.
BUT NOW IT'S EVEN EASIER - because rather than selecting the relatives one by one every time you can use a previous referral as a template. For members who have entered hundreds of relatives it represents an enormous time-saving!
You'll notice that your My Referrals page looks a little different - there are up to three icons against each entry. Click the envelope to send a reminder to someone who hasn't joined yet, or click the cross to delete the entry from the page.
And when you click the family tree icon it starts a new referral using the earlier referral as a template. You can then make any necessary additions or deletions before sending it to your lucky relative.
[Little-known fact #2: did you know that you can make a referral through your My Referrals page without telling us the other person's email address?]
Although FamilySearch and Ancestry both give the National Archives film number and the page number for each household in the census, they use a different format. For example, a page number shown at FamilySearch as 285C is recorded as 285.3000 at Ancestry.
Previously, if you took your information from Ancestry, you had to convert your entries to the FamilySearch format when entering them on your My Ancestors page. From now on you can use either format - we'll automatically convert your entries as necessary.
* We've added a feature to the My Cousins page that allows you to check whether pop-ups are enabled on your computer. This is important because sending messages to cousins and new contacts requires the use of pop-up windows.
To enable pop-ups usually requires a change in your browser settings. If you use Internet Explorer you'll find the setting under Tools-Internet Options-Privacy. If you use the increasingly popular Firefox browser it's under Tools-Options-Content.
* We've also changed the order in which individuals are displayed within a household on the My Ancestors page. Previously they were sorted by age, with the oldest first. Now they are displayed in the order you enter them - giving you more control.
[Little-known fact #3: Did you know that the 'Household sort' actually sorts using the census references, so that two families on the same page could be merged together? This new change will stop them being intermingled.]
SEARCHING THE CENSUS - HINTS & TIPS
Have you ever looked someone up in the census only to discover that you can't find them? Even when you have a photocopy of the actual census page?
Errors in transcriptions are common, but not all errors are the fault of the transcribers - enumerators make mistakes too, especially with unfamiliar surnames. Fortunately there are techniques that will allow you to surmount most of these difficulties.
The more information you have about your relatives the easier it should be to find them on the census, right? Well yes, but only if you use the information wisely. Sometimes less really is more!
The more that you specify when you search, the less matches there will be - which is great when you're searching for a John Smith. But usually the number of results you'll get isn't prohibitively high, even if you just type in the name.
On the other hand, the more boxes you complete on the search form, the greater the chance that an error by the enumerator or transcriber will prevent you finding the record you're seeking.
Often when we're trying to find an elusive ancestor for a member we'll leave out the surname altogether - that way no matter how badly transcribed the surname was, we'll still find the record.
We'll use other fields such as name of spouse or year of birth to keep the numbers down to manageable proportions. The search options depend on which website you're using and which census it is - in difficult cases it's worth trying a different website.
There's an article with hints and tips on our website that will give you some other ideas. Though it refers specifically to the England & Wales censuses most of the tips also apply to censuses for other countries:
http://www.lostcousins.com/searching_the_census.htm
[This article appeared in our last newsletter but is repeated by popular demand!]
AND FINALLY....
Remember that your chances of finding 'lost cousins' are directly related to the number of relatives that you enter on the My Ancestors page. Twice as many relatives means, on average, twice as many cousins.
If we can double our membership then that also DOUBLES YOUR CHANCES - so wouldn't it be great if every existing member could encourage just one new member to join?
The LostCousins Team
http://www.LostCousins.com
info@LostCousins.com
© Copyright 2007 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?