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  5. It's easier than ever before to check your entries from the 1881 Census - more details here

How You can Help Yourself to Taste Success!

Discussion in 'How to decide who to enter' started by Red Dragon, May 10, 2013.

  1. Red Dragon

    Red Dragon LostCousins Megastar

    Hi Everyone!

    Here's a weekly update on how well people have been doing over at LostCousins.
    • 68 new members joined the LostCousins site
    • 18,528 new entries have been added and
    • 1,935 relatives have been matched.
    All numbers up this week, talk about topsy turvy! A great set of numbers and look at all those relatives matched! The automated load from FTAnalyzer is making great progress, ironing out the few remaining small issues.

    New Members mean New Entries, and New Entries mean New Matches. Everyone wins.

    Good Luck Everyone!

    Here's a graph showing the activity over at the Lost Cousins site
    upload_2019-2-15_10-15-12.png
     
    • Thanks! Thanks! x 1
  2. peter

    peter Administrator Staff Member

    Well done, everyone!

    Just a reminder that whilst FTA does a very good job of uploading entries to your My Ancestors page, what it won't do (yet) is research the branches of your trees and identify the cousins who don't appear on your tree.

    The Stars, Superstars, and Megastars of this forum have gone to great lengths to research their branches. Now's the time for the Members of the forum to follow their example.

    The strategy I generally recommend is to find as many relatives as possible on the 1841 Census (or earlier if possible), then trace each branch forwards to 1881. Even allowing for emigration you should find 3 times as many relatives on the 1881 Census as in 1841, and you might find 4 times as many.

    But perhaps you've come up with a strategy which worked even better for you? If so please share it - it's what this area of the forum is for!
     
  3. AdrienneQ

    AdrienneQ Moderator Staff Member

    Peter when starting a new area of the tree (such as when one of my Nieces marries) I ask the new husband if he has information about one of his ancestors who would have been on either the 1901 or nowadays 1911 census or the 1939 register, I then work both forward and backwards. I then do as you do and work forward from 1841 for the extended family.
    I have for a branch of my family created a spreadsheet for all the Marriages and then the Births and Deaths from a single Parish register and added the individuals and family groups to my tree I have not made all the family connections yet but it has given me lots of clues.
     
    • Good tip Good tip x 1
  4. peter

    peter Administrator Staff Member

    Adrienne, what you're doing is great - I only wish I had the time to do the same for my extended family (right now I don't even have the time to research my wife's tree properly).

    But one proviso.... If you're researching someone else's tree - which is effectively what you're describing in the example about your niece's husband - it's best to open a separate account for that person. Not only will it mean that matches found with cousins will actually show up as being with cousins, it also makes it easier to pass on the account and the connections to the other person or their family when the time comes.

    Of course, you may already be doing this, but given the purpose of this area of the forum I felt it was worth making it absolutely clear to others what works best.
     
    • Agree Agree x 1
  5. Alexander Bisset

    Alexander Bisset Administrator Staff Member

    What members can do though is use the research suggestions feature of FTAnalyzer to see who they have missed off a census then click on the research suggestion to auto search for that person on that census. As you say this often finds other family members that can be brought forward to 1881.
     
    • Good tip Good tip x 1
  6. peter

    peter Administrator Staff Member

    Everyone will have seen an increase in the Match Potential today - mine went up from 10.0978 to 10.4567

    Well done, everyone!
     
  7. Helen7

    Helen7 LostCousins Superstar

    Yes, and mine has gone up to 11.517. As a result of the new entries I've added in the last couple of months, I have matches with 7 new people, but none have yet replied to my invitation, which is disappointing.
     
  8. peter

    peter Administrator Staff Member

    I don't think you've asked me to chase them up, have you? I normally suggest getting in touch if someone doesn't respond within 14 days, which allows for all but the longest of holidays and hospital stays.
     
  9. Helen7

    Helen7 LostCousins Superstar

    I did for the first few, but I'll send you another email about all of them.
     
  10. Red Dragon

    Red Dragon LostCousins Megastar

    Hi Everyone!

    These results are for 2 weeks.

    Here's a weekly update on how well people have been doing over at LostCousins.
    • 97 new members joined the LostCousins site
    • 10,068 new entries have been added and
    • 444 relatives have been matched.
    This is for 2 weeks.

    Always good to see New Members joining. Lots of new entries so good work by the members. I can't tell whether these are new members or existing members, or whether these are manual entries or made via FTAnalyzer. Maybe Peter can tell us how successful the trial for the autoload has been going?

    New Members mean New Entries, and New Entries mean New Matches. Everyone wins.

    Good Luck Everyone!

    Here's a graph showing the activity over at the Lost Cousins site
    upload_2019-3-1_10-5-48.png
     
    • Thanks! Thanks! x 1
  11. peter

    peter Administrator Staff Member

    Over the past two weeks half of the ancestors added have been uploaded using FTA (by 24 members), and the other half have been input manually (by 285 members).

    Half of the FTA entries (ie a quarter of the total) were uploaded by members who have joined since the beginning of 2019. Fewer than 10% of the manually input entries were added by members who have joined since the beginning of the year.

    However, in aggregate FTA users only uploaded half as many relatives from 1881, which is the census that produces the most matches. This is not surprising - many FTA users will have input their 1881 entries manually prior to the introduction of automatic uploads.
     
    • Thanks! Thanks! x 2
  12. Red Dragon

    Red Dragon LostCousins Megastar

    Hi Everyone!

    Here's a weekly update on how well people have been doing over at LostCousins.
    • 68 new members joined the LostCousins site
    • 2,985 new entries have been added and
    • 200 relatives have been matched.

    Always good to see New Members joining. Lots of new entries so good work by the members.

    New Members mean New Entries, and New Entries mean New Matches. Everyone wins.

    Good Luck Everyone!

    Here's a graph showing the activity over at the Lost Cousins site
    upload_2019-3-8_11-29-40.png
     
    • Thanks! Thanks! x 1
  13. Red Dragon

    Red Dragon LostCousins Megastar

    Hi Everyone!

    Apologies for this weeks posting being late.

    Here's a weekly update on how well people have been doing over at LostCousins.
    • 55 new members joined the LostCousins site
    • 4,521 new entries have been added and
    • 373 relatives have been matched.
    Always good to see New Members joining. All numbers up this week except new members, which is still pretty impressive at 55. Ratio of new entries to matches is still good at 12.12, so roughly on average every 12th person added made a new match.

    New Members mean New Entries, and New Entries mean New Matches. Everyone wins.

    Good Luck Everyone!

    Here's a graph showing the activity over at the Lost Cousins site
    upload_2019-3-19_16-10-14.png
     
    • Thanks! Thanks! x 1
  14. Margery

    Margery LostCousins Member

    I'm always interested to hear of the new members and new entries. Perhaps one day someone will match with me:)!
     
  15. Bryman

    Bryman LostCousins Megastar

    I am always happy to match with you, and anyone else that has been waiting for a long time. Just enter the census details of one of my ancestors! ;)

    If you would rather that I enter details of one of your ancestors then I may need a few hints first. I keep trying (very) but it is a bit hit and miss so far.
     
  16. Britjan

    Britjan LostCousins Star

    My very last community at Lives of the First World War was called ( somewhat cheekily) "Last Minute Laycocks" . I chose a number of men from the Canadian records who came from the same part of the U.K. as my Laycock ancestors, with the faint hope that I'll get a response once the site goes live again. Many distant Laycock relatives got sent to Canada in a poor law clear out and appear to have moved down to the United States in one generation. I've never had a match to any of the quite healthy number of Laycocks (and Lacocks) I have entered at Lost Cousins.
     
  17. Margery

    Margery LostCousins Member

    Well I did have a match with a cousin who wasn't "lost". Another was so distant that we really didn't have anything to share. Disappointing, but I live in hope:D.
     
    • Agree Agree x 1
  18. Margery

    Margery LostCousins Member

    Bryman, do you have anyone from Dennington or Parham in Suffolk?
     
  19. peter

    peter Administrator Staff Member

    Red Dragon, please note that this week I closed the test account that Alexander set up at the end of January - this will affect the figures.
     
    • Thanks! Thanks! x 1
  20. Bryman

    Bryman LostCousins Megastar

    I don't know about Dennington but I do have ancestors from Parham and around that locality. Unfortunately that is Parham in Sussex rather than Suffolk. Sorry, I initially misread you question. The closest that I could get to the Suffolk location would be Iken where my brother once worked on a farm but I think you would be looking for some time further back than that. Perhaps another member may have connections in that area.
     

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