Fish in a British Pond

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Recently, I've been doing some work in Lost Cousins, a site and idea that is unique. I get their newsletter and prompted by the "Free on Easter" section, started buffing up my listed relatives.

 It is unusual in that it promises 100% accurate automatic matching between researchers who share the same ancestors - and it does without anyone else seeing your data! - https://www.lostcousins.com/pages/info/how_to.mhtml

 It is free to create a profile, and if you have ancestry in England, Scotland, Wales, Canada, Australia, Ireland or New Zealand this site can help you strike gold (cousins). As the home page explains,
 ... the best people to help you knock down your 'brick walls' are your cousins - indeed, one of your cousins may already have solved the problem that you're finding so challenging. The more relatives from the census you can enter on your My Ancestors page, the more cousins you'll find.

How to find more lost cousins

In the past research has tended to focus on just a few family lines - but at LostCousins you can search for cousins from all of your lines simultaneously.
If you have British ancestry enter ALL of the relatives you can find in 1881 before turning your attention to other censuses - more members have entered data from 1881 than from all the other censuses combined, so you're much more likely to connect with your cousins through this census. Similarly, use the US 1880 census rather than the 1940 census if your ancestors arrived before 1880.

Do the work to note siblings and other relatives

Remember that your cousins are descended from your collateral lines - that's what makes them cousins - so the key relatives to enter are the members of your direct ancestors' extended families.
And finally.... encourage other researchers to join, whether they're friends, relatives, or people you've met online - the more members there are the more matches there will be! When you invite cousins use your My Referrals page so that you're linked with them from the moment they join.
If you want to get started, click my link.

 One task that will help you begin and stay organized is to view your tree in pedigree view, and begin listing "ahnentafel" numbers. This isn't necessary, but it helped me keep track.

 This sounds complicated, but really it is simple: you are number 1, your father 2 (2 x 1), your mother 3 (2 x 1, +1), father's father 4 (2 x 2), father's mother 5, mother's father 6, mother's mother 7. In the pedigree view you can just count it up and write it on a piece of paper or text file. I just numbered from 1 to 61, but you fill in a chart as well. This site asks you to enter ancestors in the 1880/1881 census first, and not all your ancestors were alive and enumerated then, which can be a bit difficult to keep track of. LostCousin have a chart all ready to print and fill as well. If you know the ahnen number, you can list it rather than just direct ancestor.
Ahnentafel

 If you have ancestors in these census records: England & Wales 1841, 1881, 1911; Scotland 1881, Ireland 1911, Canada 1881, Newfoundland 1921, and United States 1880 and 1940 then this site is for you. For me it misses my Swedes, but they aren't the target of this site anyway. 

 Here is what an input screen looks like. This is a third cousin three times removed as he appeared in the 1880 US Census with his family.
Top of the Add an Ancestor input screen

 Not as complicated as it looks, because each census page only has to be entered once. Site stresses to list people as they appear on the page; scroll to the bottom of the input screen to fix spellings, add correct birth or baptism dates, even notes. Site explains why here: https://www.lostcousins.com/pages/info/census_search.mhtml

Most of us have found most of our ancestors and their relatives in these census records. Here is one more useful place to post this information. One of my genealogy goals is to create "cousin bait" everywhere. This is one site well worth your time, and the newsletter is always interesting too. I hope to see you there.
Valorie Cowan Zimmerman

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