Thanks to Marjorie Gavin for forwarding an email about this.
I hadn't heard of LostCousins before, which is odd in a way, as I'm in touch with very few of my cousins, so there are a lot of lost cousins out there.
The concept of the site is that you enter details of any ancestors and their siblings on the website, and if any two or more people enter the same person, they can be connected, and you'll find lost cousins. It covers only these censuses: England & Wales 1841, US 1880, Canada 1881, England & Wales 1881, Scotland 1881, England & Wales 1911, Ireland 1911, but they warn that their greatest coverage is of people in the 1881 census. They've chosen these censuses on the basis that most of them are available for free on the FamilySearch site, or can be accessed free at subscription sites.
Apparently the automated matching process is virtually 100% accurate, you won't waste your time corresponding with people who turn out not to be related - nor will you run the risk of allowing someone who is unrelated to have access to your family tree. What makes all this possible is that every LostCousins member is taking information from the same online censuses.
The accuracy of the matching process depends on the unique information about the census that you need to add for each person, the piece, book, folio, page
numbers from censuses in England & Wales; the volume (or registration number), enumeration district, page for Scottish censuses.
But there's the disadvantage, at least for me. I've found my ancestors and siblings on the censuses, taken a print of the info, but not all the information needed by LostCousins. For example, although I know that Robert Munro was in Belton Rd, Whitchurch on the 1901 census, it never occurred to me that it would be useful to write down the reference numbers; and it would be a pain to go through it all again. The second problem is that they want you to take the references from online censuses, whereas I researched my info from microfilms. Additionally, my ancestral families left Ireland before 1911, or arrived in the USA and Canada after 1900.
LostCousins is a great idea, however, I think that they haven't made it as user-friendly and usable as possible.
In their shoes, I'd have offered less accuracy without the census reference information, and/or after entry of a person's name, offered a list of census entries to select, and I've made these suggestions to them.
Perhaps you're think I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, or perhaps you think it would be worth searching the online censuses to get the required info.
If you do, or you have any other comments, please let me know by clicking the 'comments' link below.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
How the Reivers Came Ti Ride Yince Mair
The title means How the Reivers Came To Ride Once More.
Talk - Local Families of Ancient Origin by Gregory Lauder-Frost, FSA (Scot)
This is the first talk on the Society's syllabus of talks held in 2010/2011, and will be held at Foulden Village Hall, Foulden, Berwickshire, TD15 1UH, Scotland on Sunday, 26 September 2010.
When the Foulden Mordington and Lamberton Community Council were granted Arms by Scotland's Lord Lyon, three of the quarters contained armorial bearings representing those families with the most ancient connexions with those parishes: Ramsay, Lauder, and Renton, and who had the longest periods of unbroken tenure. Gregory will look at this history as well as touching upon other longstanding families such as the Arnot, Wilkie, and Jeffrey families.
Doors open at 2pm. Talk starts at 2.30pm.
We warmly invite you to attend the talk whether you are a member or not. There is no admission charge.
We'll have a range of family history publications available to buy.
Light refreshments available after the talk.
If you have a problem with your family history, please discuss it (no charge) with one of our volunteers.
Book a seat.
When the Foulden Mordington and Lamberton Community Council were granted Arms by Scotland's Lord Lyon, three of the quarters contained armorial bearings representing those families with the most ancient connexions with those parishes: Ramsay, Lauder, and Renton, and who had the longest periods of unbroken tenure. Gregory will look at this history as well as touching upon other longstanding families such as the Arnot, Wilkie, and Jeffrey families.
Doors open at 2pm. Talk starts at 2.30pm.
We warmly invite you to attend the talk whether you are a member or not. There is no admission charge.
We'll have a range of family history publications available to buy.
Light refreshments available after the talk.
If you have a problem with your family history, please discuss it (no charge) with one of our volunteers.
Book a seat.
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