Newsletter – 30th
April 2023
19th Birthday
Issue
Claim your relatives
before someone else does!
Hampshire marriages
1754-1921 now online
MASTERCLASS: Tracking
down pre-1837 baptisms and marriages
Knocking down a ‘brick wall’ using the GRO indexes
Big savings on Who Do You Think You Are? subscriptions EXCLUSIVE OFFER
Findmypast end
partnership with Living DNA
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you buy?
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The LostCousins
newsletter is usually published 2 or 3 times a month. To access the previous issue
(dated 24th April) click here; to find earlier articles use the customised Google search between
this paragraph and the next (it searches ALL of the newsletters since February 2009,
so you don't need to keep copies):
To go to the main
LostCousins website click the logo at the top of this newsletter. If you're not
already a member, do join - it's FREE, and you'll get an email to alert you
whenever there's a new edition of this newsletter available!
I’m
not very good at waiting, especially when I don’t know what’s going on, or how
long I’m going to have to wait. More than half a century ago I walked out of a
theatre because I was tired of Waiting for Godot. Later I found out that
he never does show up, so it was probably a good decision: apparently one literary
critic described the play as “nothing happens – twice”.
50
years on there’s another mystery that may have been puzzling some of you – why is
there a big hole in the main menu at the General Register Office (GRO) website?
No
doubt at some point the GRO are going to make an announcement of great interest
to those of us who have ancestors from England & Wales. But I can’t tell you
what they will be announcing or when it’s going to happen.
Let’s
hope that they don’t make family historians wait too long….
Claim your relatives before someone else
does!
Looking at the LostCousins database statistics I can
see that 91.9% of the people recorded on the 1881 England & Wales census
have yet to be claimed by anyone. For the Scotland 1881 census it’s 96%, and
for the Canada 1881 census it’s an amazing 98.4%!
When
I set up LostCousins 19 years ago I had two primary objectives – one was to connect
family historians researching the same ancestors, so that they could
collaborate. The other, which I call ‘Project 1881’ was to link the people
recorded on the 1881 Census with living relatives, so that all researchers –
including social historians and local historians – could carry out studies that
would otherwise be practically impossible.
As
we all know, tracing back from 2023 to 1881 is fairly easy,
but tracing forwards from 1881 to 2023 can be extremely difficult. Mapping an
entire population over centuries isn’t a new idea: this article
about Iceland will give you some idea of what England, Wales, Scotland, and
Canada might be able to achieve – with your help.
Please
take a moment to identify your relatives on the 1881 censuses, and add them to
your My Ancestors page. If it turns out that another member has already
entered the same relative you can exchange information and collaborate, but if you’re
the first to claim that person you’ll be establishing an important link from
the past to the present.
At
a time when there are so many terrible things going on in the world, let’s show
that we can work together for the common good!
Over
the past 6 months there’s been a lot of discussion in the media about artificial
intelligence, so you might be wondering when we can expect an AI to research
our family history so that we don’t have to do it ourselves.
If
that day ever arrived it would take all the fun out of it, for me at least – I’d
have to find something else that could provide the same challenges and the same
rewards. And, I suspect, the same disappointments and
the same frustrations!
General
purpose AI models are trained by scraping, analysing, and processing publicly-available
data from the Internet – something that is giving rise to concerns about privacy
and plagiarism. But when it comes to family history, my concern would be that online
trees would inevitably be one of the main sources of data, and we all know how
unreliable many of them are!
However,
I do think we will see companies like Ancestry not only upgrading their hint-generation
algorithms, but also providing tools to enable users to carry out checks on their
own trees. Perhaps eventually this will improve the quality of online trees to
such an extent that further automation will be possible?
Hampshire marriages 1754-1921 now online
It
looks as if Ancestry are going full steam ahead with Hampshire parish registers
(see the last issue for a guide to which parishes will and won’t be included).
Marriage registers from 1754, when pre-printed volumes were introduced, to 1921
are now online and indexed – the link below will take you to the search page:
Hampshire,
England, Church of England Marriages and Banns,
1754-1921
In
the next article you’ll find a list of all the parish registers that you’ll
find online at either Ancestry or Findmypast….
MASTERCLASS: Tracking down pre-1837 baptisms
and marriages
Researching ancestors who lived in England & Wales is usually fairly straightforward until we get back to 1841, the date of
the first census, and 1837, the year that civil registration began. But then it
becomes much tougher, for a number of inter-related
reasons. In this Masterclass I'm going to first talk through the problems,
and then explain how you can overcome them.
Why we need to use different techniques
When we're researching after 1837 we can
refer to the GRO indexes, which (in theory at least) list everyone who was
born, or married, or died in England & Wales. Once we get to 1841 we can also refer to censuses which (again, in theory)
list everyone in the country on a certain night. Best of all, those indexes and
censuses are available online, so anybody anywhere can get access to them.
But before 1837 we don't have either of those available to us -
prior to the introduction of civil registration parish registers are by far the
best sources of early information (and often the only surviving documents that
name our ancestors). Most people were baptised, most of those
who have descendants alive today got married, and the one thing you can be sure
of is that they eventually died, in which case they'll almost certainly have
been buried somewhere.
However, even though the vast majority of
parish registers have survived, at least from the 17th century onwards, they're
scattered across the nation rather than held in a central store. In most cases
the original registers are held by the county record office, which means you
cannot go to any one record office – not even the National Archives – and
expect to find all the baptisms for (say) 1797. Indeed, even if you visit the
repository of the registers you're seeking the chances
are you'll only be able to view them on microfilm – and microfilmed entries can
be hard to decipher.
Many registers have been transcribed, often by volunteers, and in
some cases the transcriptions have been made available online. However you can't just go to one website and search through
every parish register that has ever been transcribed, because some
transcriptions are available at one site, some at another - and even if you
have the time to visit them all, many of the transcriptions are only available
at subscription sites, so you may not be able to access them. Furthermore, some
of the transcriptions are only available on CD ROM or on microfiche - usually
through family history societies - and there still many registers have NEVER
been transcribed.
Faced with such a different situation some faint-hearted researchers
just give up – research pre-1837 is so different that they are scared to even
try. Some try, but fail – either because they don't
fully understand how best to make use of the available resources, or because
they don't realise just how much is available to them. And then there are those
who pick an entry simply because it's the only one they can find – or because
the website they use has 'hinted' that it’s the entry they're looking for.
Tip: in the world of genealogy ‘hints’ are not clues to the
correct answer, simply suggestions for research.
Because of the way that records are scattered across the country,
across the Internet, and across different media, it's tempting to adopt an unfocused
"where shall I try next" approach. Now, I'm not a professional
genealogist, but one thing I do know is that professional genealogists always
search logically and methodically, and above all they record where they
have searched and what they have searched for. In the days
when I was still able to provide one-to-one research help to every member I'd frequently
be told "I've searched everywhere" yet when pressed they couldn't
tell me which parishes they'd searched, which periods the searches covered, or
even - in some cases - precisely what surnames and spellings they looked for.
Start by gathering evidence
First collect all the evidence that indicates - no matter how
obliquely - where and when your ancestor is likely to have been born. Sources
of information will often include early censuses, marriage certificates, and
death certificates – all of which can be helpful, but
can also be misleading.
The fact is, many people didn't know where they were born, so
often the birthplace they gave when the enumerator came round is the place – or
one of the places – where they grew up. Similarly, some people didn't know how
old they were – they might have known when they were born, but
that isn't the question on the census form. It asks for their age, and not
everyone was capable of subtracting one year from another, particularly if the
years were in different centuries.
Remember too, that it was the householder who was responsible for
completing the form (or supplying the information to the enumerator) - the ages
and birthplaces of adopted children, stepchildren, servants and visitors are
particularly likely to be incorrect. Ages can also be ‘massaged’, perhaps to
reduce a large gap in age between husband and wife, or to reduce the age of an
unmarried daughter. And after a certain age people are more likely to add years
to their age, rather than subtract them.
Don’t be fooled by the evidence
Regard the information you have as ‘hints’ rather than as ‘facts’ –
our ancestors may not have intended to mislead us, but all too frequently the
records they left behind can lead us up a blind alley.
If your ancestor married after 1837 you may have a clue to the
name and occupation of their father – but bear in mind that this can be misleading,
and sometimes it is completely wrong. This is particularly likely if the person
concerned never knew their father – either because he wasn’t married to their mother,
or because he died at an early age.
Something else to watch out for is the possibility that your
ancestor was born before their parents married, as in the case of my
great-great-great-great-great grandmother Elizabeth Wakefield, who was baptised
3 weeks before her parents married, and appears in the register as “Elizabeth
the daughter of Ann Eels a bastard”. Fortunately the
marriage is on the same page of the register so I could hardly miss the baptism,
but if I’d been relying on transcribed records it could have been very different.
Elizabeth was the eldest of 8 children, but there’s another reason
why the baptism of the eldest child can be hard to find. Some women went home
to their own mother to give birth to their first child, and even if that wasn’t
the case, they may have chosen to go back to their home parish and the church
where they married for the baptism.
Look out too for late baptisms – some children were baptised as
teenagers, or even as adults. I’ve come across parents who were baptised on the
same day as their own children!
Find out what's available online
When I began researching my family tree there was very little
information available online – only one England & Wales census and not a
single parish register. Most research had to be carried out at local record
offices, or at the Family Records Centre in London, which opened in 1997 and
closed just over a decade later. (Those who started before I did have memories
of visiting St Catherine's House, Alexandra House, or Somerset House; some
recall making appointments to inspect parish registers when they were still
held at the church.)
These days there is a wealth of records online, including parish
registers from many areas. But whilst most of the registers that are online (and
many that aren't) have been indexed there is no single source you can go to,
and many of the registers and indexed transcriptions are behind paywalls. It's
therefore very tempting to search a handful of sites and ignore the others.
Beginners especially are often tempted to take the first entry that
fits and add it to their tree, even if the name is such a common one that a more
comprehensive search would throw up dozens of alternatives. The most blatant errors
are usually made by those whose knowledge of geography is limited by their inability
to look at a map!
FamilySearch
A good place to start your search is the FamilySearch website – it's
free, but you will need to register. At one time the International Genealogical
Index (IGI) at FamilySearch was the key source for family historians, with more
parish register entries than all other websites added together. However, over
time the IGI gained a poor reputation because of the way that transcribed
entries from registers were interspersed with entries from Bishop's Transcripts,
and – more dangerously – entries submitted by individuals that usually had no
documented source, and in some cases seemed to be no more than conjecture.
When the FamilySearch site was relaunched more than a decade ago
the IGI temporarily disappeared. When it returned it had been completely
transformed – the entries had been split between Community Indexed (those
added as part of an organised transcription project), and Community
Contributed (added by individuals). Subsequently the indexed entries were split
into individual record collections, but you can still search them by following
this link.
If you don't find the entry you're
seeking in the IGI it's usually because the register that contains the entry
hasn't been transcribed and included in the index. Although FamilySearch has at
some point microfilmed most of the surviving parish registers, only about half
have been transcribed and indexed – so half the baptisms and marriages you're
looking for won't be in the database at all. Furthermore, hardly any burials
for England & Wales are included in the IGI.
How can you find out which entries are included?
The simplest way is to refer to Steve Archer's site (which
covers Scotland and Ireland as well as England & Wales). As well as listing
the years of coverage by parish and by event the site also gives the relevant batch
numbers - searching by batch number is not only a great way to limit your
search to a specific parish, it's a great way to overcome transcription errors or
entries that have been recorded incorrectly by the clergyman who conducted the
service (when you omit the person's name you'll get a listing of all the
entries in the batch).
What should you do if the parish you're interested in is included
in the IGI, but you still can't find the entry you're looking for despite
searching through the relevant batch (in case there has been a major
transcription error)? This suggests that the event didn't take place where you
think it did, or when you think it did – or it didn't take place at all (not
all children were baptised, and not all baptisms were recorded in the register,
especially between 1783-94 when Stamp Duty was charged).
Find out which other parishes are nearby
There are at least two ways to do this. One is to use a 'parish
locator' (such as the free ParLoc program)
to get a list of all the parishes around the town or village where you believe
your ancestor to have been born or married. In the country you might use a 5 mile radius, but in London that could give you a list of
100 or more parishes - so a radius of 1 or 2 miles might be more appropriate.
Tip: the nearest parish church may have been in a different parish
- the size and shape of parishes varies enormously, and some parishes were
split into two (perhaps because two older parishes had been combined).
Another option is to use the maps at FamilySearch -
start with the parish where you had expected to find the baptism or marriage,
then use the Radius Search (found on the Options tab). For example,
when I was looking for the baptism of my great-great-great-great-great grandfather,
who married at Fornham St Martin in Suffolk in 1763 I
got these results:
It was quite sobering to discover that there were 28 parishes
within a 5 mile radius of Fornham
St Martin. I eventually found the baptism I was looking for in a parish that
was 9 miles away – there were 84 other parishes which were closer, a daunting
number if the only resources available were a microfiche reader and a drawerful
of microfiches.
If you haven't been able to find the baptism or marriage you're
looking for in the IGI this strongly suggests that it's recorded in a register
that isn't included in that index, so you should go back to Steve Archer's
invaluable website to find out which parishes aren't included in the IGI for
the relevant period - and they’re the ones that to focus your attention on.
Tip: many FamilySearch records will also be found at Ancestry
and/or Findmypast; similarly Findmypast have provided FamilySearch with indexed
census transcriptions. Being able to search the same records at multiple
websites can be useful, but be careful not to pay for records that you could
get for nothing elsewhere!
Although you can search all of the
transcribed parish register entries with a single search from the FamilySearch
home page, you won't find any records that are only present as unindexed
images. It's therefore essential that you're aware of the unindexed images
at the FamilySearch site that may be of relevance to your research.
To find out which records FamilySearch has for a particular
country, click on the map that you'll find here.
The list of records is divided into two sections, Indexed
Historical Records (which may or many not include images) and Image-Only Historical Records.
A camera icon indicates which of the transcribed record sets have images
associated with them, but this doesn't necessarily mean you'll be able to view
those images, as some are only available within an LDS Family History Centre or
affiliated library (such as the Society of Genealogists Library).
As regular readers of the LostCousins newsletter will know,
sometimes there can be images which are available to all users of the
FamilySearch site, but are hard to find. The best way
to find out what records are available for a particular parish is to carry out
a Catalogue search.
Tip: an often overlooked feature of the new FamilySearch site is
the 'wiki', which provides information about individual parishes, often
including details of online sources of register transcriptions and/or images at
other sites (follow this link to see an example). I find that the
easiest way to find a parish within the wiki is to use a Google search, for
example 'familysearch wiki great barton'.
Another free site with a large collection of transcriptions
is FreeREG – at the time of writing it had over 28 million baptisms, nearly
9 million marriages, and over 20 million burials in its database. However,
they're not evenly spread across the country: some counties are very well
catered for, but others less so – however it's fairly easy
to see what is and isn't there. Other volunteer-led projects include the Online
Parish Clerk sites: they don't exist for every county, but the counties with by
far the best coverage are Cornwall,
with over 4 million parish register entries, and Lancashire with
over 10 million records.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the contents of some
parish registers were published as books, and your best chance of finding them
is through sites such as the Internet Archive, another free site, where a search
for (say) 'Kent parish registers' brings up a long list of registers that have
been printed in book form and digitised for all to see (you might pay to see
some of these records at subscription sites). Another similar site is Google Books.
Inevitably there is a big overlap between the two.
A straightforward Google search is always worth trying, as quite a
few individuals have transcribed parish registers and posted the results on
their own websites. Some record offices have information that you can search
free online: for example Hertfordshire has a range of records
including a marriage index, whilst Medway Archives have posted registers for
their part of Kent online (not transcribed, but at least they are at your fingertips
– and free).
Subscription and pay-per-view sites
An increasing number of parish registers and/or register entries have
become available online at Ancestry and/or Findmypast, with further counties
due to come online in 2024.
When I first wrote on this topic in February 2010 there were NO
register images available at either site, but now you can search Bexley,
Birmingham, Bristol,
Derbyshire,
Devon, Dorset,
Gloucestershire,
Hampshire,
Lancashire,
Liverpool,
London,
Manchester,
Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire,
Oxfordshire,
Somerset,
Surrey,
Sutton,
East
Sussex, West
Sussex, Warwickshire,
Westminster,
Wigan, Wiltshire,
Worcestershire,
York,
North Yorkshire,
West
Yorkshire, and most of Wales
at Ancestry, and Cheshire,
Devon, Hertfordshire,
most of East Kent,
Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Plymouth
& West Devon, Portsmouth,
Rutland, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Surrey,
Warwickshire, much of Yorkshire,
and most of Wales
at Findmypast. Ancestry also have parish registers for Jersey,
and a selection from Cornwall,
whilst Findmypast who used to have Westminster
register images, still have a complete transcription of the registers.
Ancestry also have indexed transcriptions of Essex
registers, with links to the register pages at the Essex Archive Online site (see
below – this requires a separate subscription). Ancestry are
also in the process of digitizing Suffolk registers, and have finished
scanning Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire registers – they should
be online during 2024.
Note that there is relatively little duplication – archives
generally license their records on an exclusive basis, at least for the first 5
or 10 years, which is why most serious researchers end up subscribing to both of the two big sites (though not necessarily at the
same time). Many public libraries, especially in England, have a subscription
to Ancestry or Findmypast, sometimes both - so it's worth checking what's
available in your area.
Tip: many cities and metropolitan boroughs have a record office
which holds the registers for their area, so that, for example, the Lancashire
collection at Ancestry doesn't include records for every town that was
originally part of the county. However Findmypast's
Cheshire collection does include Stockport, and also Warrington - which is now
in Cheshire, but was previously part of Lancashire.
Although there are no images, the National
Burial Index at Findmypast has over 16 million entries from England &
Wales, and most of the entries are pre-1837. Findmypast also has an extensive
range of transcribed parish records thanks to their relationships with the
Society of Genealogists and the Federation of Family History Societies.
Durham Records Online has over 4 million
transcribed records from County Durham and Northumberland. The Joiner
Marriage Index has over 3 million marriage records from more
than 5000 parishes in 39 counties.
Essex
Record Office offer online access to most of their parish
register collection through Essex Ancestors - and whilst the subscription is
quite steep at £95 a year (the cheapest subscription is £20 for one day), the
quality of the images is excellent; many Essex wills are also included. Essex
Ancestors do not provide an index to their register entries, but Ancestry have indexed
the Essex registers (and link to the images on a pay-per-view basis). If you
have an Essex Ancestors subscription this article
explains how to use it alongside the Ancestry transcription – the tips will
save you lot of time.
Society of Genealogists library
Many of the largest collections of transcribed records held by the
Society of Genealogists are available online to members: these include Boyd's
Marriage Index, which has particularly good coverage in some of the counties (eg Suffolk and Essex) that
are least well represented in the IGI; for a list of all
the online collections click here.
Many of the records, including Boyd's Marriage Index are also available
through Findmypast.
The Society of Genealogists has many more records in its library,
including an amazing collection of records on CD ROMs and microfiche collected
by family history societies and other organisations. In August 2017 an enormous
collection of microfilms which were previously held by the LDS London Family
History Centre was added. Non-members can use the SoG
library on payment of a fee of £10 for half day or £20 for a full day - more
details are available here.
Family history societies
Many family history societies have transcribed parish registers
and headstone inscriptions, and often these are made available as CD ROMs or
digital downloads; some have online indexes (usually only available to members),
others offer a lookup service (chargeable).
Tip: although some family history societies have made records
available through Findmypast, their own record collection is likely to be more
extensive and more detailed.
Record offices and archives
When you're within striking distance of the relevant record office
there's no substitute for visiting in person - but check first what's available
online so that you don't waste your time there looking up records you could
just as easily (or perhaps, more easily) have searched from the comfort of your
own home. When I was beginning my research I wasted a
lot of time searching parish registers that had already been indexed for the
IGI - I should, of course, have focused on the unindexed parishes.
Many record offices and archives will do research on a paid basis
- charges range from £30-60 per hour, which sounds a lot but in my experience
is usually money well spent. However independent researchers may charge less, and
some record offices will provide a list (especially if they don't offer a research
service themselves). Please bear in mind that the
inclusion of a researcher on the list is not necessarily an endorsement of that
researcher, but local knowledge can be invaluable.
The importance of the Register of Banns
One of the key reasons we search for the marriages of our
ancestors is to find out the maiden names of our female ancestors (of course,
if they gave birth after 1837 you'll usually find this
information on the birth certificate). If the couple lived in different
parishes, which was not unusual, they had to decide which one to marry in – and
typically it would be the bride's parish that was chosen. This creates a slight
problem, because unless she survived until the 1851 Census we won't know where
she was born (and even then, it wouldn't necessarily be the parish where she
was living at the time of her marriage).
Fortunately the
banns register often comes to our rescue. Most people married by banns, rather
than by licence, and if the couple lived in different parishes the banns would
necessarily be read out in both, and so would be recorded in the Banns register
for both parishes. However, there are not nearly as many banns
registers available online as marriage registers – you're more likely to have
to have to pay a visit to the record office.
Marriage licences, bonds, and allegations
There is an excellent guide in the FamilySearch wiki – you’ll find
it here.
Don’t assume that just because your ancestors were poor they married by banns:
for example, if they came from parishes that were a long way apart it could
have been expensive to arrange for banns to be read in both parishes.
Non-Conformists, Catholics, and Quakers
Between 1754 and June 1837 Non-Conformists and Catholics couldn't
legally marry in their own churches, so discovering that your ancestors married
in their local parish church doesn’t mean that they belonged to the Church of
England. Nor does finding out that your ancestors were buried in the parish
churchyard – not all chapels and meeting houses had their own burial ground.
The religious census of 1851 found that as many people attended Catholic or
Non-Conformist churches as attended the Church of England, although attendance and
allegiance are not the same thing.
By far the best source of Catholic registers is Findmypast – you can
see what they have to offer here.
Many Non-Conformist registers were sent to the General Register Office in the
19th century and ended up in the National Archives – key sources include Ancestry,
The Genealogist,
and Findmypast.
Using the
GRO's new online birth indexes
In November 2016 the General Register Office made available online
indexes of births and deaths which include additional information. In particular,
the mother's maiden name is now shown in respect of births from 1837 onwards,
which not only makes it easier to locate the right birth entries, it might
enable you to knock down a 'brick wall' without purchasing the relevant
certificate(s), or finding the marriage. Also consider that whilst your
ancestor might have been born before 1837, she might have a younger sibling who
was born afterwards.
And finally…..
Remember that people didn’t stop baptising their children when
civil registration commenced in July 1837, and most married in church even after
they had the option of marrying in a register office.
Note: although this Masterclass relates to records from England
& Wales, many of the techniques described can also be applied to research
in Scotland, Ireland, and some other countries.
Knocking down a ‘brick wall’ using the GRO indexes
Earlier
this month I published an updated version of the Masterclass Finding birth
certificates. Reading it reminded Jane that at Findmypast it’s possible to
search by maiden name, even for births before 1911 (when the maiden name was
first added to the quarterly indexes).
More
importantly, it’s possible to search by the mother’s maiden name without specifying
the father’s surname – something that the search at the GRO site doesn’t allow –
and this is how Jane managed to make a breakthrough:
I have been a subscriber for some years and
have always read your newsletters with great interest. Many times
I have been helped by your tips, but never more so than after reading your March
29th newsletter!
Using the information about mothers’ maiden
names being given in the GRO indexes I had another go at finding the birth of
my great grandfather John James Radcliffe around 1858/9 - it had eluded me for
20 years! The first mention I hasd been able to find of
him was as John Ratcliffe in the 1861 census, living in Boundary Street,
Liverpool with his grandparents and possible mother Anne.
© The National Archives – All Rights
Reserved. Used by kind permission of Findmypast
When I searched the birth indexes at
Findmypast without a surname, but using Radcliffe as his mother’s maiden name I
found this entry:
The PDF copy of the birth register entry
showed that he was born in Boundary Street, Liverpool to Anne Ashton formerly
Radcliffe and John Mc Donald Ashton, a soldier:
This fitted perfectly, because when John
James married in 1885 he said that his father was a soldier:
In addition my
cousins and I have Scottish ancestry in our DNA and we guess it may come from
John McDonald Ashton – so all of this seems to fit. I subsequently found his baptism
in March 1859 at St Peter’s church where all the Radcliffes
had been baptised, but once again his surname was shown as Ashton.
Well
done, Jane – it just goes to show that the best way to knock a longstanding ‘brick
wall’ is to do something you haven’t tried before!
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To
take advantage of any of these deals (and to support LostCousins) please follow
this link.
Findmypast end partnership with Living DNA
Since
2018 Findmypast have been selling tests on behalf of Living DNA, a British
company – but it was announced this week that the arrangement has come to an
end. If you want you
can still buy a test direct from Living DNA, but there are better options for family
historians – see the next article.
Which DNA test should you buy?
There
are lots of companies offering autosomal DNA tests, some of them well-known
names in the world of genealogy, and some you’ve probably never heard of
before.
DNA
expert Debbie Kennett recently reviewed the most popular tests for Who Do
You Think You Are? magazine, and only one of them got a 5* rating – the
Ancestry DNA test, which is also the only autosomal DNA test that I’ve recommended
in recent years.
Ancestry
has by far the biggest database of DNA results, which not only means that you’ll
make more matches that can help you knock down your ‘brick walls’, it also
enables Ancestry to do things that most other providers can’t.
For
example, SideView enables Ancestry to predict – with a
high degree of accuracy – which of your matches are on your maternal side, and
which on your paternal side. This might seem like a small thing, but it means
you’ll be less likely to waste time looking for connections that don’t exist. For
example, if a genetic cousins has one of your ancestral surnames in their tree you
might assume that this where the connection will be found – but if the SideView prediction is that you’re connected on the opposite
side of your tree, youll probably want to think
again.
However
the two best things about testing with Ancestry is that you don’t need to know
anything about the technical side of DNA are:
- You don’t need to know anything
about the technical side of DNA
- ThruLinesTM and Common
Ancestors make use of Ancestry’s enormous collection of family trees
to make sense of the connections between you and your genetic cousins
To
knock down longstanding ‘brick walls’ usually requires you to utilise conventional
records-based research as well as clues from DNA, so the way that Ancestry
integrates family trees with DNA is a big plus point for users like you and me.
In
her 5* review Debbie highlights just two things that you might consider a
disadvantage: one is that you cannot transfer DNA results from other test providers
– though actually that’s a good reason for choosing Ancestry, especially since
you can transfer your Ancestry results to other sites to find more DNA matches
(if the 10,000 plus you get at Ancestry aren’t enough!).
The
other thing to consider is that without an Ancestry subscription you can only
see four generations of your matches’ ancestors – unless they invite you to view
their tree (which they probably will if you ask, especially if it is a public tree).
On the other hand, many serious family historians already subscribe to Ancestry
– and only one person in the extended family needs to subscribe, because a
single Ancestry user can manage any number of DNA tests.
For
more about the Ancestry DNA test see my DNA
Masterclass – it’s an essential guide whether you are considering testing
or have already done so.
Save on Ancestry DNA US ONLY
Sunday
14th May is Mother’s Day in the US, which provides Ancestry with an
excuse to offer discount DNA tests.
Of
course, you don’t need to be a mother – or even female – to take an autosomal
DNA test, and when you order DNA tests from Ancestry you don’t have to decide
in advance who is going to be testing. I always aim to have a spare kit on hand
so that if the opportunity arises I can send it out to
my cousin immediately.
Ancestry.com
(US only) – save up to 30% on Ancestry DNA ENDS 14TH MAY
I’m
not currently aware of discount offers in other territories but please use the
links below rather than any that you might find in earlier newsletters, as those
older links may not work at all.
Ancestry.co.uk
(UK & Ireland) – Ancestry DNA
Ancestry.com.au
(Australia & New Zealand) – Ancestry DNA
Ancestry.ca
(Canada) – Ancestry DNA
The right Bearpark?
Earlier
in this newsletter we were discussing the GRO birth indexes – and whenever I come
across a name that intrigues me I can’t resist search
the birth indexes to see how rare it is.
For
example, I came across the forename ‘Bearpark’ in the
census, and assumed it must be a mistranscription by
the enumerator; however there are two examples in the
birth indexes:
There are even
more births where ‘Bearpark’ was a middle name, so I
realised that it must have originated as a surname. It’s one of the rarer
surnames I’ve encountered, but not nearly as rare as ‘Other’.
Disappointingly
I couldn’t find anyone whose initials were A.N. (ie A.N. Other). But I did find this birth:
She
might perhaps have been known as A. Anne Other, which sounds a bit like A. N.
Other.
Returning
to Bearpark, I searched the death indexes, and was
surprised to discover that although Bearpark Hird and Bearpark Rowlandson were
born 70 years apart, they both died in the same year, and in the same registration
district!
Even
though they were clearly related (the birth index shows that the maiden name of
the mother of Bearpark Rowlandson was Hird), it’s still a remarkable coincidence, albeit a sad
one.
I
thought you might be amused to see these search results from the Tesco
groceries app
. We hear so much
about the wonders of artificial intelligence these days that it’s sobering to
see how unintelligent computers can be when they really try!
Those
packs of cooking bacon frequently feature in my grocery basket – even though
the price has gone up from 55p to 90p over the past couple of years it’s still the
cheapest meat I can buy. I know that processed meats are thought to be unhealthy,
but bacon is so tasty that a small amount goes a long way.
Incidentally,
the carbon pawprint of pork is about a quarter of that for beef according to
this chart
on the Energy Saving Trust website. I discovered years ago that casseroles work
just as well when pork is substituted for beef, since the meat takes up the
flavour of the sauce. And it’s certainly a lot cheaper!
Staying
with Tesco, I’ve just noticed that they have slashed the price of Pimms from £22 for a litre bottle to just £10 for Clubcard holders (which is
£5 less than I paid less than a week ago, and £6.50 less than the price of the
smaller 70cl bottle!). This discount supposedly lasts until 8th May,
but I doubt that stocks will last that long, particularly now the sun has come
out, so it could be worth making a special trip to your local supermarket.
Finally,
another example of artificial (un)intelligence, this time from Amazon:
My
order was for a pair of wire-cutters – we’re putting up wire fencing to protect
the plants in our garden from rabbits – so some of the suggestions make sense,
but how on earth did they come up with the items on the right? Do they somehow
know about the rabbits, and are hinting that we should get a dog?
This is where any major updates and corrections will be
highlighted - if you think you've spotted an error first reload the newsletter
(press Ctrl-F5) then
check again before writing to me, in case someone else has beaten you to
it......
I’ll be back soon, but in the meantime please remember that from
Monday 1st May until Tuesday 9th May we’ll be celebrating
the 19th Birthday of LostCousins and the Coronation of King Charles
III with TOTALLY FREE access to LostCousins – it’s a great chance to find the
cousins you’ve never heard of, but who share your interest in genealogy.
Peter Calver
Founder, LostCousins
© Copyright 2023 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?
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