Family
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Newsletter No. 22
- September 2008.
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1. Our
welcome message.
2.
Featured Article –
Finding Missing Relations and Living
Relatives in Britain
by Tony
Fitzgerald, Professional Genealogist
3. Latest
news from
www.Ancestry.co.uk
 Join
or get a free trial here.
4.
Next month’s article.
1.
Hi
all,
A question on many family
historians lips at the moment is:
"Will the1911 Census be released early?"
My understanding about the 1911 UK Census:
You can now obtain 1911 Census information on your ancestors from The
National Archives (TNA) provided you know their address. And, from 2009, a
fully-indexed 1911 Census will be online, three years earlier than family
historians expected.
The catch is that each address search made before the census goes online
in 2009 will cost £45 (with no refunds) while 5% of this census is too
badly water-damaged to be legible, and at least one whole piece number is
said to be missing.
TNA claims that data protection legislation still means that some
'sensitive' personal information in the 1911 census cannot be released
until 3rd January 2012 - this is apparently information on mental and
physical disabilities. So even if the fully-indexed online service goes
ahead in 2009, you would still have to wait until 2012 to find out if your
ancestors were disabled or incapacitated in some way.
So what about the 1921 Census - will this be released early? I'm afraid
NOT! This census is held by the Office for National Statistics. It remains
government policy that the 1921 and subsequent censuses be closed for 100
years. The 1921 Census was conducted under the 1920 Census Act, which is
still in force and contains a statutory prohibition on early disclosure.
More information can be found here:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/1911census/
Thanks to everyone that sent me 'Get Well' wishes. Thankfully I'm now
fully fit. My grand daughter arrived during the last week of August - Mum
& baby are both doing fine (She's very beautiful...Must have plenty of her
grandfathers genes :-)
Catch you next month...enjoy the main article:
2.
Featured Article –
Finding Missing Relations and Living
Relatives in Britain by Tony
Fitzgerald, Professional Genealogist
Nothing can possibly be more exciting or emotionally
charged than finding a close relative through research - the closer it is,
the greater the excitement and emotion.
People who were Adopted or fostered out as children or,
for any one of a number of reasons, became separated from their own
families are foremost amongst those seeking a 'reunion' with family they
may or may not have ever known. In recent times the so-called "War Orphan"
scheme has been in the headlines. This was a scheme whereby
underprivileged children were removed from their family environments
during and after the Second World War and sent to Canada, Australia, New
Zealand and other Countries which were, at the time, British Colonies.
Tales have been related of these young people being told that their
parents had died or been killed when, in fact, this was not the case at
all.
On other occasions, the quest may be for a close relative
with whom contact has been lost many years before - perhaps through
emigration. Or, you may want to find and contact second cousins - that is
grandchildren of your own grandparent's siblings. The emotions are not so
great but just imagine the stories they might well have which will add to
your understanding of those now long-departed family members. Not to
mention finding one of them with a Family Bible.
And beyond that, you can easily 'stumble' over more
distant cousins through Internet contact or by writing to somebody whose
name appears in the Genealogical Research Directory as having an interest
in the same family as yourself. As for second or more distant cousins, no
more need be said than what is contained in this one paragraph although
what follows about closer relations is just as valid in terms of how to go
about the tracing process.
In all these cases, the long-held desire to be reunited
with close family or more distant cousins - or even to be able to make
contact with half brothers and sisters - reaches a climax with a decision
being made to "do something about it". But what? How do you, with so
little if any research experience or knowledge, actually start?
Strangely enough, most people seem to think of the search
for a close relation as being such a huge and forbidding one. Yet, if
approached systematically and with care, results can come in hours. The
methodology following below relates to researching in Britain - whether or
not it can be done with equal ease in other Countries depends entirely on
the information available on Birth, Marriage, Death and Probate indexes
and the accessibility of these. If the information on these is less
detailed than in Britain, the very worst that can happen is that you may
have to buy more certificates. However, the certificates may be far more
meaningful than their British counterparts because of the amount of
additional information they contain.
The secret to researching through the indexes for England
and Wales lies in these simple facts: From 1 July 1911, birth indexes show
the mother's maiden name From 1 January 1912, marriage indexes show the
spouse's surname - because the index reference for the bride and groom are
identical, it only takes a moment to discover the forenames of the spouse
From 1 April 1969, death certificates show date and place of birth and, in
the case of married women, their maiden names.
It does not require much imagination to see the potential
value of this - you find the marriage and then look for the children of
that marriage where the mother's maiden name corresponds with the marriage
entry. Just as simple as that!
By now, you have probably worked out that if you have
found a birth, the next step is come forward 20-25 years or so to find the
marriage of that child. And so the process continues. It may not even be
necessary to purchase a Certificate if the chain established by working
through the indexes is so overwhelmingly strong (e.g. because of unusual
surnames or forename combinations).
But the research may not necessarily just be by means of
methodically following through marriages and births but searching for a
death certificate in the hope that the informant might be a close relative
or that the deceased person left a Will in which is stated the names and
addresses of family members.
Almost there!
The final requirement is to search the Electoral Rolls and
Telephone Directories to see if you have found your 'missing' person. In
this wonderful age of Electronic media this can be done very rapidly by
running a CD ROM upon which this information is stored. Hopefully, the
list of names will not be too lengthy. If the person is found, it is far
better, if possible, that telephone rather than written contact is made.
These people have not gone into hiding so they cannot be
found; they are not missing people - they are live beings who will be
absolutely thrilled that you care so much about finding them that you went
to all these lengths. If the name does not appear on the CD, there could
be any number of reasons why not - death, emigration, re-marriage or
simply not registered to vote.
If often happens that the person cannot be found for one
of these reasons. But there are just so many ways available to carry out
the research by tracking down family members - either children, siblings,
cousins etc.
It is my strongest recommendation that the actual contact
work is left to those who have the years of experience of conducting the,
often, very tricky and unpredictable discussions that take place. My
London Agent is in this category - she specialises in adoption work - and
has a superb track record in handling these situations.
Above all else, is the need to bear in mind that your
birth parent may have subsequently married after your birth and kept his
or her secret from the new family. The last thing you would want to do is
cause pain to the ones who, in their own ways, are precious to you.
It is for these reasons that any research of this nature
that I carry out is subject to the strict understanding that contact
details will not be given except with the mutual consent of the people
concerned. Yes - it does happen sometimes ... people do refuse consent to
have their contact details passed on. Ours is not to reason why but to
give the utmost respect to the person's desire for privacy.
I can carry out your search for you on a professional and
sensitive basis from even the smallest scrap of information you may have.
Tony Fitzgerald is a professional genealogist based
in New Zealand. If you require assistance, please
contact him by email or
visit his web
page for additional information.
3. Latest
news from
www.Ancestry.co.uk
Join
or get a free trial here.
September Update:
Welcome
UK Record Collections
Royal Irish Constabulary
Demand from our members for Irish records is higher than ever and so this
month the Royal Irish Constabulary enlistment records have been promoted.
The collection contains more than 88,000 records of those enlisted as
police in the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) from 1816 to 1921. Records
include each officer’s name, year and country or county of birth or age
upon enlistment, marital status and further comments such as details of
death and emigration. In addition to Ireland, enlistees came from England,
Scotland, Wales, and even the US and Australia. Famous names such as Sir
Neville FF Chamberlain, credited as the inventor of snooker, and Charles
Brew who founded the British Columbia Police, can be found in the
collection. This collection is available to Premium and Worldwide
Subscription members.
International News
(records available with a worldwide subscription on Ancestry.co.uk)
New South Wales Convict Death Register, Convict Ship Muster Rolls &
Related Records
Continuing to expand the largest online collection of convict records,
Ancestry.com.au has just launched the New South Wales Convict Death
Register, Convict Ship Muster Rolls and Related Records. The Death
Register collection includes records of convict deaths in the colony, and
also of those who died during their passage to Australia, with references
to the cause of death, and in some cases statements justifying the death
penalty. It also contains financial information relating to the deceased
as they often brought money with them to deposit in the Convict Banking
System. The Muster Rolls collection contains ship muster lists of convicts
being transported from England to New South Wales between 1790 and 1849
and is of vital importance to family history researchers wanting to
determine where and when their ancestors came from. They also contain
convicts’ date and place of trial and term of sentence, as well as lists
of convicts to be employed in iron gangs.
Other News
Ancestry launches Chinese family history website – www.jiapu.cn
For many in China, which is home to one fifth of the world’s population
and is also its biggest internet market, jiapu.cn will provide their first
opportunity to access jiapu (family histories) online. They have been made
available through an exclusive long-term partnership with the Shanghai
Library, which holds the largest collection of Chinese family history
records in the world. Jiapu.cn has been developed exclusively in the local
language to allow users to search records and build family trees in
Chinese, and is fully supported by a Beijing-based team. When complete,
the collection will include 36 million pages and more than 181 million
names contained in 181,600 volumes covering 22,700 Chinese family
histories. The family history of the famous Chinese thinker and social
philosopher Confucius is one the 1,450 family histories now online - 270
surnames were made available at launch. Confucius came from the Kong clan,
for which records exist of members dating back to the 6th Century BC. The
most recent printed jiapu featuring in this collection is from 1949 and
the earliest from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644); most were printed in the
late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China Period (18th to 19th
Centuries). Jiapu.cn’s collection includes most of the top modern-day 200
Chinese surnames.
New Director of International Content Partnerships
We are thrilled to announce the appointment of Dan Jones as Ancestry’s
Director of International Content Partnerships. Dan will leave his role as
the Head of Business Development with The National Archives to take up
this position in early October. Drawing on his in-depth knowledge of the
UK historical records market to expand the UK’s largest online family
history collection and utilising his international expertise, Dan will
support Ancestry’s work with archives, libraries and societies around the
world to digitise and preserve their historical records.www.Ancestry.co.uk
Join
or get a free trial here.
Ancestral Tourism
Ancestry.co.uk in partnership with VisitBritain last year carried out
research which indicated that around 120,000 Brits intended to take an
‘ancestral vacation’ over the summer, thus illustrating a booming new
trend. To revisit the research and further promote interest in ancestral
tourism, Ancestry.co.uk this month worked with BBC Sheffield, arranging
for an Ancestry.co.uk member and his son to journey to their ancestral
homeland, the Isle of Bute in Scotland, to bring their research to life in
front of the cameras. The feature was shown on BBC2 on Look North with a
follow up piece the next day on BBC Radio Sheffield, during which the
member told the fascinating story of his family history research and how
it led to retracing his ancestors’ steps to the Isle of Bute.
Who Do You Think You Are?
The popular series is back with a vast range of celebrities, researching
their family past. This Wednesday continues with investigating the
ancestors of Esther Rantzen.
The announced line-up is as follows:
Esther Rantzen (3 September 2008)
David Suchet (10 September 2008)
Ainsley Harriott (17 September 2008)
Jodie Kidd (24 September 2008)
Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen (1 October 2008)
Info'
The Tudor King of England - Henry VIII, who reigned between 1509 and
1547 had 6 wives. The common way of remembering their survival status is:
Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived.
Catherine of Aragon - divorced 1533
Anne Boleyn - beheaded 1536
Jane Seymour - died 1537
Anne of Cleves - divorced 1540
Catherine Howard - beheaded 1542
Catherine Parr - survived
Quotable Stats:
• 800 million names
• Free access to the entire Births, Deaths and Marriages Index for
England, Scotland and Wales, 1837 - 2004, 280 million names
• The complete collection of SEVEN currently available censuses for
England, Scotland and Wales, 1841 – 1901, 195 million names
• London collection of the British phone books, 1880-1984, 280 million
names
• U.S. passenger lists from 1820 - 1960, which contain the names of more
than 10 million English, Scottish, Irish and Welsh passengers who
emigrated during this period
• 2.5 million names from The British Army World War One Service and
Pension Records, 1914-1920 (when complete)
• Ancestry.co.uk records originate from across the UK, the earliest dated
from 1386
Regards,
Andrew Burch
Online Marketing Manager
www.Ancestry.co.uk
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or get a free trial here.
4.
Next month’s article.
Distasteful Family Members In Our Family Tree
By: Charity Hope
Excellent and very sensitive article - Don't miss it
That’s all for this month folks…I hope you enjoyed this months newsletter.
And in case you forgot earlier - Please sign the
Guestbook.
See you next month.
Jim. Editor
PS.
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interested in family history, with our compliments.
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Jim Ackroyd. Address: 12 Avondale Road. Doncaster. UK. DN2 6DE
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P.S. I hope you are not
offended by the advertisements on this site. I get a small commission from
some of them which helps towards the cost of my hosting and domain fees.
Sometimes I make a little extra. In fact I've worked out that if the
'little extra' grows at around the same rate, I should be able to retire
when I'm 129 years old :-) See you next month
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