25 April 2017 LostCousins Newsletter
Newsletter - 25th April 2017
Celebrate our 13th birthday - it will be lucky for some!
Findmypast offering discounts down under ENDS SUNDAY
Was your ancestor in the militia?
Ancestry DNA pass 4 million mark
Last chance for DNA offers END WEDNESDAY/THURSDAY
Would you like a half-price Ancestry subscription?
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Celebrate our 13th birthday - it will be lucky for some!
The LostCousins website opened on 1st May 2004 - when Tony Blair was in Downing Street, George W Bush was in the White House, Donald Trump was a reality TV star, and Jimmy Savile was a much-loved celebrity. How things have changed!
It was a very slow start - although I handed out 800 leaflets to people queuing for the annual Society of Genealogists show there were only 12 users at the end of the first day (and one of them was me). But great oaks from little acorns grow, and with a little help from a new TV programme called Who Do You Think You Are? (which launched in the autumn of 2004) LostCousins has become one of the biggest and best INDEPENDENT genealogy sites.
In some countries 13 is regarded as a lucky number, but in Britain it's often thought to be unlucky. So I decided to celebrate our 13th Birthday with a competition where the lucky winner will get an unlucky prize - a losing lottery ticket. But this isn't any old lottery ticket - this is a 221 year-old lottery ticket, for the English State Lottery of 1796.
This particular ticket would have sold for the princely sum of £1 in 1796 - more than a week's wages for most - even though it represents only a one-sixteenth share of ticket 37,812 (note the use of the lower case 'm' rather than a comma - I suspect that this was intended to reduce the opportunities for forgery). There were just a small number of authorised ticket sellers, and this example is signed by William Nicholson of 16 Cornhill, London - right opposite the Royal Exchange. You can see a list of authorised sellers for the 1799 lottery in this page from the London Gazette - there were very few, most of them in London.
I've had this ticket in my personal collection for nearly a quarter of a century - and as you can see, it is in fabulous condition for its age. Now I'm going to pass it on to the lucky winner of our Birthday Competition. I'm also giving away 12 LostCousins subscriptions for the runners-up, so there are 13 prizes in all - lucky for some!
How to enter the competition
To take part in my competition you need only do what comes naturally - add relatives to your My Ancestors page. Every direct ancestor or blood relative you add between 20th April and midnight (London time) on Wednesday 31st May will count as an entry in the competition, but those from the 1881 Census will count double.
Tip: a 'direct ancestor' is someone from whom you are descended, such as a great-great grandparent - most people just call them ancestors; a 'blood relative' is a cousin, ie someone who shares at least one of your direct ancestors.
Shortly after the competition closes I'll start picking relatives at random from all those entered during the period of the competition, then I'll contact the winner and runners-up by email - so please ensure that I've got your current email address (if not simply log-in and update your My Details page). But it's not just about winning prizes - every time you enter a relative on your My Ancestors page you're increasing your chances of connecting with the other members who are your 'lost cousins'.
Tip: whilst it's natural to start with your direct ancestors and their immediate families, in practice the relatives most likely to connect you to your cousins are the members of your ancestors' extended families - their grown-up brothers & sisters, their nephews & nieces, and their cousins.
When you enter relatives from the 1881 Censuses you're maximising your chances of finding cousins - partly because we started with the 1881 Census in 2004, but also because it's free online (so all your cousins need is a computer with an Internet connection).
Findmypast offering discounts down under ENDS SUNDAY
Until midnight (AEST) on Sunday 30th April you can save 10% on 12 month World subscriptions to Findmypast.com.au when you click this link - you'll get access to all the billions of records in Findmypast's worldwide collections, including the 1939 Register for England & Wales, one of the most exciting and revealing releases of recent years.
Tip: I'm expecting to update this article with Findmypast offers for other sites over the next few days - come back tomorrow and you may get a pleasant surprise!
Was your ancestor in the militia?
The Militia Act of 1757 was passed during Seven Years War, and provided for one or more regiments to be established in each county, raised from volunteers and conscripts who were chosen by ballot. Those whose names came out of the hat in the ballot were expected to serve for 3 years or 5 years, but could find a substitute or pay a fine of £10 (a substantial sum in those days).
Even if your ancestors didn't serve in the militia, it's likely that they were liable to be called up - indeed, according to Tracing Your Army Ancestors, during the Napoleonic Wars all adult men were liable for conscription, though by the middle of the 19th century the militia was entirely composed of volunteers.
Don in Australia inherited this wonderful document from his great-great-great-great grandfather, Joseph Hunt, who was in the Somerset Militia:
As you can see, it's dated 23rd April 1802, which means it is almost exactly 215 years old - and it shows it, although it was restored on Don's behalf by the Queensland State Archives. We're used to seeing documents like this in record offices and archives, but to have something so old in our possession is really special.
Militia lists and musters can be used as a census substitute - in Militia Lists and Musters 1757-1876 Jeremy Gibson and Mervyn Medlycott state that "The militia ballot lists should therefore in theory be complete annual censuses of all men aged 18 to 50, from 1758 to 1762, and aged 18 to 45, from 1762 to 1831" although they give reasons why this might not in practice be the case. The surviving lists are held by local record offices - details of the holdings are given in the Gibson & Medlycott book, but you could also try the online catalogues of the record offices that are relevant to you.
Ancestry DNA pass 4 million mark
Ancestry now have more than 4 million people in their autosomal DNA database, more than all the other companies added together - and at the current rate they could reach 6 or even 7 million by the end of the year. This is great news for family historians, though as with any boom in family history it's partially fuelled by newcomers - so you could find yourself matched with a DNA cousin who knows little or nothing about their family tree (contrast that with the cousins you'll find at LostCousins, where almost everyone has years of experience, decades in many cases).
Indeed, I myself have been matched with a DNA cousin who knows little or nothing about his family tree - but it’s not all bad news, because he's an expert in genetics!
Last chance for DNA offers END WEDNESDAY/THURSDAY
I've just ordered Ancestry DNA tests for myself and my wife - by ordering multiple tests at the same time I'm saving on shipping (which in the UK is £20 for the first test, but only £10 for subsequent tests). Although my brother has already tested with Ancestry and we obviously share the same genealogical cousins, we only share half our DNA, so we have different DNA cousins.
Here are the details of the offers that are currently running, all of which end on Wednesday (at midday in the case of Living DNA), or Thursday.
LIVING DNA
There are substantial discounts until
midday on Wednesday 26th April; please use the link for the area where you live:
USA Canada UK Europe Australia
Best for: people with British,
or mostly British, ancestry who have already tested elsewhere but are looking
for a more refined analysis of their origins
ANCESTRY DNA
You can save 20% or more on the usual
price (excluding shipping); and please bear in mind that you can often save
shipping when you order more than one kit at the same time. Please use the link
for the area where you live, and make sure you order before 26th April when the
offers end:
Best for: people who want to
find living cousins in order to break down 'brick walls', and who don't want to
get involved in the details of DNA
FAMILY TREE DNA
FTDNA are
slashing $20 off the price of Family Finder, bringing it down to just $59 (plus
shipping), and there are also reductions on most of their Y-DNA and mtDNA tests. The offer ends at 11.59pm
(Central Time) on 27th April - please click this link so
that you can support LostCousins.
Best for: those who want to
get involved in the 'nitty gritty' of DNA, using the Chromosome Browser to look
at shared segments across multiple cousins; the only major company offering
tests worldwide at the same price
Tip: you can test with Ancestry and transfer your results to Family Tree DNA - but you can't go the other way.
Would you like a half-price Ancestry subscription?
It sounds unbelievable, doesn't it - yet that's what came up on my screen when I ordered my DNA tests earlier today. I couldn't take advantage of the offer because it doesn't apply to existing subscribers, nor can I guarantee that it's going to appear when you order a DNA test from Ancestry - but wouldn't it be wonderful if it did? In effect you'd be getting a DNA test for little or nothing - less than nothing, if the larger saving on a World subscription is taken into account.
So if you're considering buying a DNA test and considering buying an Ancestry subscription, why not buy the DNA test first - and see whether you too are offered a discount?
Software MacKiev are still not completely happy with the tree-syncing, but they've decided that it is sufficiently robust to expand the trial to include 25,000 ordinary users who have ordered FTM 2017. If you placed a pre-order you may have received an email from them - I certainly have, although I won't be taking part (as I don't actually use FTM).
You'll find all the latest information here.
LostCousins member Lynn sent me this death certificate for one of her husband's relatives - note particularly the cause of death, "Shot, justifiable homicide":
It transpires that he was involved in the Battle of Bossenden Wood, an uprising led by one John Tom, who used the alias Sir William Percy Honeywood Courtenay. Having murdered a parish constable sent to arrest him he led his followers in a battle with a detachment of soldiers, leading to another 11 deaths, including that of the unfortunate George Griggs.
All this took place not far from where my Kentish ancestors lived, but thankfully none of them seem to have been involved. You can read more about the battle here, and also on Wikipedia.
Which? magazine has just published its latest annual review of mobile phone networks, and once again GiffGaff has come top - not that I'd think of switching if they didn't, because there are so many advantages (such as free calls between GiffGaff users). If you use this link you can order a free SIM and get a £5 credit when you top-up for the first time.
I can't remember whether it was Which? that tipped me off about the dispute resolution scheme operated by The Retail Ombudsman, but they certainly came up trumps - this month my wife and I eventually received compensation for the 7 hour delay we suffered when flying Ryanair in May 2011. We had been fobbed off numerous times by Ryanair, but going through the intermediary worked wonders - and they didn't charge us a penny! One thing to watch out for - an email from them went into my spam folder and stayed there, because it came from a name I didn't recognise and was simply headed with the claim number. This caused a three month hiatus before I realised what had happened - so if you go down the same route keep an eye on your spam folder!
This is where any last minute updates and corrections will be highlighted - if you think you've spotted an error (sadly I'm not infallible), reload the newsletter (press Ctrl-F5) then check here before writing to me, in case someone else has beaten you to it......
Finally, I'd just to thank everyone who has supported LostCousins over the past 13 years - I really do hope you'll all celebrate our birthday by finding some new cousins!
Peter Calver
Founder, LostCousins
© Copyright 2017 Peter Calver
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