Big News from Ancestry

It's been difficult to keep this news from Ancestry under my hat for three weeks ... here it is. 

Starting Jan 7th, the 1921 Census of England and Wales will be available on Ancestry, the leader in family history, for all individuals with a World Explorer membership. 

 

The census allows people to dive deeper into the lives of their English and Welsh ancestors - which impacts at least 10.5% of the US population according to the 2020 American Community Survey. The 1930 US Census lists over 850K people with a birthplace in England with over 100K of those likely to be found on the 1921 England and Wales Census - allowing Americans to uncover new information about their grandparents and other ancestors  just before they left for new lives on the other side of the world.  

 

Conducted on June 19th 1921, the census captures a critical moment in history. It offers a look into the lives of roughly 38M individuals, including those who survived the war and the infamous 1919 flu pandemic. The document also provides an invaluable insight into societal shifts that occurred, including: 

• Demographic Shifts: 1.7 million more women than men in England and Wales, largely due to the loss of men during WWI.
• Female Empowerment: The 1920s marked a decade of change for women, with many taking on new roles during WWI and gaining the right to vote in 1918. The census reflects these changes, showing women in various new occupations. Notable figures alive during this time include Virginia Woolf, Agatha Christie and Nancy Astor, among others. 
• Detailed & Handwritten Records: For the first time this census includes additional fields such as marital status 'divorced’ and employment details (i.e. name and address of the employer). People can also see handwriting from the head of the household, providing a personal and emotional connection for those researching their family history.

 

The next England and Wales Census will not be available until 2051 given the records of 1931 were destroyed during the Second World War and no census was taken in 1941 - adding to the significance of this release. 

Dead and Buried ... at last

Thanks to a Findagrave hint from Ancestry I have finally been able to bury Robert's 3 x great grandfather, James Clark/e who had emigrated from Waddesdon to New South Wales in the 1840s. James and his family settled in the Waterloo area in Sydney.

On and off for nearly 40 years I had tried to kill off James and his wife Mary Ann Allen but because of the common nature of their names I probably hadn't tried hard enough. 

The hint offered me this snippet.

1886 'CORONER'S INQUEST.', The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), 4 May, p. 5. , viewed 06 Jan 2025, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13638050

There were enough clues in this article to set me off on a chase. I found a death entry in the NSW Registry's Online Death Index which listed the correct names I had for James parents. I have ordered a copy of this certificate. 

I then decided to look for a James Clarke on the Rookwood site (a popular Sydney Cemetery at that time)  and found his record there with the location of his plot.  This looked promising.

Rookwood Burial Record

What was even better was the information contained in the Other Information Section of the entry.

Other information on Rookwood entry

A quick click on the link to Mary Ann's Rookwood record and then her entry in the NSW Registry's Online Death Index confirmed that James' wife Mary Ann Allen was resting with him at Rookwood. I have also ordered her death record and hope to visit Rookwood shortly to see if there is a headstone in place and intact.  

Further digging in Trove returned more hits that confirmed I had the right James Clark/e. 

1886 'Brevities.', Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931), 1 May, p. 4. , viewed 06 Jan 2025, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article107291056

1886 'THE DAY'S DOINGS.', Globe (Sydney, NSW : 1885 - 1886), 3 May, p. 4. (FIRST EDITION and EVENING), viewed 06 Jan 2025, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article102560570

Perhaps I should spend more time following up those hundreds of  Ancestry hints that are sitting in my account!

A Side by Side View of my DNA

As an only child I don't have any sibling with whom I can compare my DNA....but I am fortunate in having a double first cousin who shares my four grandparents. Our fathers are brothers and our mothers are sisters.

Currently lots of genies are sharing their results from Ancestry's new SideView tool that shows which ethnicities we inherited from which parent. Of course I am joining the party. Below on the left are Jane's results and on the right are mine. Our fathers' ethnicity is on the left of the diagrams and our mothers' on the right.

Jane

Jill

It appears that I have more of our Duncan grandfather's Scottish genes and Jane has more of his aboriginal genes. Jane is more Irish  and English than me and I have missed out on the Basque gene.

No wonder we have so many unique matches in the Ancestry database. 

An early morning zoom with Ancestry

From time to time the bods at Ancestry.com invite groups of genealogists along to online briefing sessions. As someone who doesn't like getting up at dawn I miss most of these events. 

Today's event was repeated - one session was at 2am my time and the other 7:30am. I signed up for the 7:30am session in case I was conscious by then. Fortunately I was awake before 7am so I grabbed my laptop and earbuds from my study and crawled back under the covers.

Rearranged genealogy apps and widget

On logging in I saw several familiar faces from Australia, New Zealand and the US. The session was hosted by Crista Cowan accompanied by a team of Ancestry tech guys. I was pleased that I attended because the session focused on the Ancestry mobile apps which I had installed as soon as they were released.

Pre-Covid I often used the Ancestry App and the AncestryDNA app on my Android phone but, while
homebound over the past 18 months, I have only used the desktop application to communicate, collaborate and research with Ancestry. I was impressed by the demos of all the new features in these apps. The functionality has improved heaps and many new features have been added, these apps now appear have most of the features of the desktop product. The tech guys online took note of the user comments in the chat and will consider points raised for further development.

I must have been sleeping under a rock because I was unaware of the Ancestry widgets (one available in Australia, one to come). I thought I'd log into my apps and follow along and install the widget while watching the presentation but I had been logged out of the apps and couldn't remember my password. 

My first job after the session ended was to grab my phone, locate my password and log in to my apps. As I wanted to install the Ancestry widget I had to move all the icons around on the screen that has my genealogy apps. With a two-three hour car ride ahead of me tomorrow I have another option to keep me amused.

Ancestry has recognised that many of us live on our mobile devices and has created a fabulous mobile option that will give us access to all our Ancestry data when we are on the move. I'm so pleased I joined in to learn about it this morning. 

298 Pages

Each year I pay my Ancestry subscription so that I have the resources available at my fingertips whenever I have a question to answer.

I have been researching my tree for 30 years now and some of my research is very old and needs to be revisited. Whenever I see the shaky green leaves on Ancestry I tend to ignore them.  I have finally decided that I need to check out the hints that Ancestry keeps sending me - there are 298 pages of them!

298 Pages

I have decided to concentrate on the 228 pages containing 4546 Record Hints in the set because many of the hints from Member Trees are riddled with errors and may mislead me. If I ever manage to get through this lot I will take a look at the Member Trees. The Record Hints should be more reliable!

Only 228 Pages of Record Hints

One of the reasons for this new found zeal is that I want to identify my many DNA matches and  having details of  BDMs for collateral relatives will help in this regard. Previously I have concentrated on my direct line.

So what is my process?  I am a bit hit and miss in the way I access the hints but have decided that I will use the Sort by Last Name, I realise that I may never get to the end of the alphabet!

I have a copy of my tree on my Family Historian database open as I look at the hints. I look at each hint and find the individual in Family Historian, I will add the fact and source there if it is a new one to me plus download any related image to the individual in question's folder on my hard drive. I then add the source to my Private Tree on Ancestry. If I already have the source on Family Historian I omit that step and just add it to the Private Ancestry tree. My Ancestry tree may not exactly mirror my Family Historian tree but I can live with that. My Family Historian tree is my Master Tree.  I am selecting Ignore for those records that are obviously incorrect but am finding that sometimes Ancestry doesn't take any notice of my Ignores and subsequently reoffers the incorrect records, Grrr.

This is slow going but already in two evenings I have found several Baptism records that give me dates of birth for various ancestors, I have found a death for Mr GeniAus' Great-Grandmother (need to order certificate to make sure it is right), buried a few folk and have married off several distant cousins. These last ones are useful for my DNA matching.

It will be a long haul but at least I have started the journey and am getting more value from my Ancestry sub.

Just one small green leaf

Yesterday I wrote that I was having some "me research time" and looking at those little green leaves on Ancestry that I have been ignoring.

Well I didn't get past the first hint that was offered. For years I have wondered what happened to Ellen D'arcy, sister of my 2xGreat-Grandmother Elizabeth D'arcy. I knew that she married a Henry Holmes but that was all. My first green leaf directed me to a death notice for Helen Holmes (had I ever thought to search for a Helen?) which looked promising. I looked at the NSW BDM Indexes and found that the father mentioned in the index was named as Michael not John as expected but the deceased's age was close to the mark. I kept digging and found the marriage entry for Helen D'arcy and Henry Holmes. The time and location were right so I continued exploring in Ancestry, on Trove , Familysearch and the NSW BDM indexes. Yes, that little newspaper clipping was for my Ellen.

1903 'Family Notices', The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), 26 October, p. 6. , viewed 24 Feb 2018, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article14575312

My explorations on Ancestry took me to a Holmes tree that, although it had a mistakes, listed a number of descendants for one line of Ellen and Henry's children, these clues were of great assistance. I have since spent a few hours adding descendants to Ellen's tree using the online resources at my disposal. As Irish Catholics they were prolific breeders so I have quote a task ahead of me.

I am thrilled to have located this line as, I know having a few more cousin surnames in my tree will help me solve some more of my DNA matches.

Call me a cynic but I think that was a "first time lucky" hint. I wonder what else Ancestry has in store for me!

A Visit from Ancestry

At the last meeting of the Lake Macquarie Family History Group the guest speaker was Jason Reeve , Ancestry's man in Australia.

Jason kindly posed for me

Jason, a passionate genie, chose to focus on the Ancestry DNA product in his talk to the members. Jason was a lively and personable presenter. I was impressed by his knowledge of the product and his honest answers to questions posed by the audience. It was also pleasing that Jason didn't try to do a hard sell on his product.

As I was impressed by Jason's presentation I will be inviting Jason along to talk to the members of another FHG with which I am involved. I look forward to hearing him speak again.

Thwarted by a Dodgy Connection

Update: (Thanks to my genimate Shelley from TwigsofYore)
Why I am able to access these extra search functions is because I have the AncestryDNA Helper extension installed on my Chrome Browser. I didn't realise that this was giving me the extra search functions - Worth having.

--------------------------
Yesterday in response to a question put to me in a Facebook Group I decided to provide a response by video.

The Question

Firstly I spent an hour or so trying to get my Logitech webcam to work to no avail so I had to resort to the webcam on my laptop that provides a mediocre image. As my webcam is 5 years old I hopped online, read a slew of reviews and purchased a new model. I was wanting to broadcast screenshots so I wasn't so worried about my blurry image that appeared at either end of the broadcast.

I got set up made a first attempt at recording my response. On replaying this effort I discovered that the images of my screensharing were not displaying. The ADSL connection at our new home is dodgy. I moved my gear into the living room to be closer to the modem in case that helped. Attempt two wasn't any better.

I then went back into my geneacave and tried again. This effort was slightly better but there were still patches of the video where I am prattling on unsupported by my screenshared images. I think anyone who watches this video right through should be able to grasp what I am on about. I mulled over whether I should delete this recording or make it public. I opted for making it public in the hope that it may be of use to someone even though it is mediocre.

View it here:

Trove Tuesday - Ancestry

For today's post I did a simple search "trace ancestry"and was rewarded with the following post that was published in several Australian newspapers in 1911. I chose this one to share because it was the clearest image of those I viewed.

Although written over 100 years ago much of  the content in this article rings true today.

1911 'HOW TO TRACE YOUR ANCESTRY.', Border Watch (Mount Gambier, SA : 1861 - 1954), 7 October, p. 5. , viewed 29 Nov 2016, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article77477729

Poor cousins downunder

Having read what my genimates from across the seas have to say about Ancestry's We're  Related App I thought I'd  join the fun, download it and play.

I was thwarted  -  the app is not available for download  in Australia.

National Family History Month Winnner

I was a winner in National Family History Month. Thanks to Ancestry.com and the NFHM Coordinator, Shauna Hicks for organising such a comprehensive list of prizes.

Copy at your Peril

It happens.....

Last night I was going over some old research and realised that something just didn't gel, so I did a bit of Troveing and looking at new resources online including a very well-sourced tree on Ancestry (there are some).

When I had done this part of an in-law's tree more than ten years ago I was too hasty and I made a big BooBoo in attaching children to a wrong set of parents.

Being a caring, sharing sort of person I uploaded my data to a private Ancestry tree and, when I created it, my family website. So this misinformation has been out in geneaspace for over ten years.

I am wondering if anyone has visited my site, looked at the assertions I make there and copied them willy-nilly without checking on their validity?

This is a WARNING - If you are going to use the data from my site please double-check to make sure that I was on the right track when I published. I have been known to meander more than once.

BTW I have removed the offending tree from Ancestry and uploaded a more accurate one, I have also reloaded a fresh Gedcom to my family site.

I wonder if those who have blindly copied my errors will do the same?

Spring has sprung at Ancestry

For eight weeks my private tree on Ancestry.co.uk has been leafless. I had lamented on this state of affairs quite a while ago. I guess that the tree has realised that it is now spring in Austrlia because when I logged in today I discovered that my tree has sprouted a whole lot of new leaves.

I wonder what I will find!

Not a Green Leaf in Sight

Just a few weeks ago I wrote about all the shaky green leaf hints that I had for my Ancestry private tree. Once I cleared these hints I deleted that tree that was waaaaay out of date and uploaded a new one.

Now I have a leafless tree. Every few days I go into Ancestry in case there is a little green leaf waving at me but in the three weeks since I planted that new tree on Ancestry it has remained leafless. It is spring down here in Australia and all the deciduous trees are sprouting new growth. I hope my Ancestry tree follows suit.

Why isn't my Ancestry tree leafy like the trees in my garden?

Ancestry Antics

Since I bloggred on Wednesday about decrapifying the hints on my Ancestry Private tree I have managaed to  prune down 45 pages of hints to just two.

In a reply to a comment on a post somewhere I said that I only had a pruned down tree on Ancestry and that was enough for me but a girl can change her mind - can't she? Having checked out those (mostly irrelevant) hints I took the easy way out, deleted my tree and replaced it with a newer bigger model. It took less than 3 minutes to accomplish this.

I guess Ancestry will serve out all those bad hints again but there will be some gems amongst the dross and I have a whole lot more "Cousin Bait" out there.

OMG - the new tree has only been uploaded for about ten minutes and there are 112 hints (different from the old ones). Here we go again!!

112 new hints

Green Leaves

Decrapifying is my present household activity. I am trying to clean up and clear out some of the stuff we have accululated in over 40 years of marriage so that, in the not too distant future, we can relocate to a more modest residence.

Of course I can't do this all the time so I am doing some decrapifying in my genealogy space. I have been a member of Ancestry since the olden days and I can't remember when they introduced those shaky green leaves but I know that I have never taken any notice of them. So my first decrapyfying geneatask has been to get rid of those leaves - an interesting exercise.

The leaves seem to multiply overnight so that I am making very slow progress.
 So many of the hints are for events that are already in my Ancestry private tree (a pruned down version of http://www.geniaus.net). Dera Ancestry, I'd rather have fewer hints that lead me to new information.

 I can't understand why Ancestry throws up hints from foreign countries for people who were totally BMDed in Australia or England.

 Over the years I have generously shared gedcom files with other people. I get all excited when a green leaf leads me to an ancestor on a shared tree and then get annoyed (with myself for  prior sharing) when I find my info posted on someone's public tree. I keep my info up to date and correct my errors when I find them - these people don't!

 I was pleased when one genie I contacted after being directed to her tree removed the misinformation there but she told me she had copied it from another tree........Deep breath.

  In spite of my frustrations I have found some good leads to check out. Probably 1/25 of the leaves bear fruit for me. So I will attack my next 35 pages of hints tonight.  I wonder how many I'll have in the morning.

Happy to renew my sub to Ancestry

I have been trying to locate some descendants of my dad's Aunty Polly for over 25 years but have failed dismally.

I have found various references to members of the family on The Ryerson Index, in Cemetery indexes and via Trove. I have quite a few photos of Polly's two children in my Dad's and Uncle's photo albums which I have wanted to share with their families.

You can guess what's coming. Earlier in the week I logged on to Ancestry and, as one does from time to time, did a new search for Polly's married name, McDonnell, to see if there was anything new around. I found a reference to Polly in a private tree. I quickly sent off a message to the tree owner.

B I N G O  Last night I got a response from the owner of the tree, Polly's grandson, with the news that his father, my Dad's first cousin, is alive and well in Queensland and interested in family history and stories. My new found second cousin sent me some info, I sent him some, he sent more, I am getting some more together to send him today. The great information exchange is on.

Sometimes (ok often) I grumble about the annual fees I have been paying to Ancestry for ten years but today I am so happy that I have unfettered access to their offerings without which I would never have found this lost branch of the family.

Rootsweb TV - Australian Interview

Thank you Dick Eastman for highlighting this video which is an interview with Brad Argent from http://ancestry.com.au.

I have had a subscription with http://ancestry.co.uk for a number of years and am interested in comparing the resources available in these products and seeing what is available in the Australian edition.