DNA Masterclass

[sunflower]

I seem to have mislaid the copies of the DNA Masterclass and would like to read through it again but I don't know which newsletters they appeared in and I cannot find a specific entry to download it.

Can you please tell me where I can find again please as I don't really want to trawl through all the newletters I have saved to file.

It would be good to have a button eithr on the Forum or on the My Ancestors page to access the Masterclass as there must be other that don't know where to find it.

Thank you.

 

[canadianbeth]

It was in the May 17, 2018 newsletter. https://www.lostcousins.com/newsletters2/wedding18.htm#Masterclass

I saved it and printed it.

I know there is more Masterclass information and agree it would be helpful to know where it is.

 

[Helen7]

I know there is more Masterclass information and agree it would be helpful to know where it is.

Assuming you're a Lost Cousins subscriber, go to the 'Subscribers Only' page via the link under My LostCousins on the left hand side of the LC website. This takes you to a page where there is a useful list of quick links to Masterclasses.

 

[canadianbeth]

Thanks. I had not seen that before now. And I see that the DNA one was updated; I knew that but had forgotten just when.

I will be looking at all the others.

 

[peter]

It was in the May 17, 2018 newsletter

The Masterclass has been updated since then - there is a link in the newsletter out today, and there was another in the 21st December newsletter. And remember that there is a Google search at the top of each newsletter wihch searches every issue for the past 11 years.

But as Helen7 says, the Subscribers Only page offers the simplest route.

 

[sunflower]

Thanks everyone for your very prompt replies. I had forgotten about the Subscribers Only section. I will print it agan and keep it safe.

 

[canadianbeth]

The one I have printed is dated July 19, 2019; from the May 17, 2018 newsletter. Do I need to re-print it?

 

[peter]

The one I have printed is dated July 19, 2019; from the May 17, 2018 newsletter. Do I need to re-print it?

It has been revised, but if you can avoid printing it out again it will save you money and be better for the environment.

 

[canadianbeth]

I do a lot of printing on the backs of paper that has already been used, especially when the already-printed side is not important enough to keep. The pages are filed back to back in sheet protectors. Actually, since I did not do that originally, I can use the same pages and print on the other side.

 

[peter]

Better not to print at all - it's going to be out of date sooner than you think. Every time I republish a Masterclass it is updated from the one before, typically with additional insights and tips, or updated links and statistics.

 

[Bob Spiers]

It has been revised, but if you can avoid printing it out again it will save you money and be better for the environment.

Saving paper, though for far different reasons, takes me back to the early 60's and applying for a job after leaving the RAF. It was clerical work in a Timber Importer's office requiring 'good mathematical skills'. I believe I had same so applied and eventually got the job; then I found out about mathematical skills. Timber was imported then (and in part today although now converted into metric equivalents) calculated by the use of such antiquated measurements as the Petrograd Standard, Foot Board Measure, Square Measure, and Cubic Feet. All totally new to me and the point I wish to make it this was long before calculators were invented. Calculations had to be first done on scrap paper using good old mental arithmetic, then checked by someone else, and woe betide if you made a mistake, or more to the point, continued to do so.

The office had 'Dickensian' sloping desks, although as a relative junior I did not qualify to use these, so sat at a table on a bench seat. Every day the senior partner in the firm passed around old envelopes that had been opened out and stapled together. You were required to use pencils and use up all available space per page, before progressing on to another page. Asking for more scrap paper (ie envelopes) was a bit like Oliver Twist asking for more gruel. In total fairness I admit I was helped by one of the 'oldies' sitting at one of the sloping desks, who would pass on some pages if I ran out. The other oldie - a spinster lady - used to check my work, and seemed to take pleasure in pointing out I was out by as little as 0.002 of whatever calculation I was doing.

So to return to my point about paper saving, in those days it was a matter -as they saw it - of thrift, not to save the planet. But the happy ending was I took to the calculations and had pleasure in eventually checking those done by the spinster lady. But tell the kids of today about using scrap paper and pencils to do calculations without the use of a calculator or mobile phone, they wouldn't believe it.

 

[peter]

Calculators had been invented - but they were mostly mechanical. When I moved to a new workplace in 1976 they had (what appeared to me) an antiquated electronic calculator which probably dated from the early 1960s - it would be worth a fortune now!

But mostly calculations were done using comptometers, which were first produced in 1887. I was continually amazed by the speed at which they were able to perform multiplication and division.

 

[Bob Spiers]

Calculators had been invented - but they were mostly mechanical. When I moved to a new workplace in 1976 they had (what appeared to me) an antiquated electronic calculator which probably dated from the early 1960s - it would be worth a fortune now!

But mostly calculations were done using comptometers, which were first produced in 1887. I was continually amazed by the speed at which they were able to perform multiplication and division.

Yes I wondered if someone would pick me up on the fact that some calculator machines had been invented before the invasion of the hand calculators of the 'Casio' variety, and indeed I had experience of two quite different types back in the 50's.

I first saw hand-cranked mechanical calculating machines in my first office job in Birmingham. As office junior I was not required to use same but marvelled watching senior clerks crank handles (forwards and backwards) at lightening speeds to perform mathematical functions. I even managed to persuade one or two of them to show me how to use the machines during the lunch hour but it was slow going. But I at least got the hang of how they worked..

(I saw a similar machine being demonstrated in a TV programme quite recently, and announced to my wife I used one of those in the 50's, and received the response I suppose you used an Abacus as well.? I said funny you should say that!)

But by far my favourite memory is of Comptometers, and most particularly of the girls who used them. A team of girls (with one senior lady in charge) descended on the office for our bi-annual audits. Watching them at work was simply fascinating, particularly the speed at which they pressed the buttons, yet never taking their eyes of the Ledgers they were checking. Truly remarkable. But the happy memory came because I was elected by the Boss to draw some money from petty cash and escort the girls (not the senior Lady who he took out to lunch) to a nearby coffee bar and buy they coffee. I got to know one or two quite well and even received some coaching on their comptometers on our return... until the senior lady appeared of course. Happy days.

As for Peter's comment on early antiquated electronic calculators, the company I worked for in the 70's had one such bulky machine in the accounts department. When it came time to replace it in the 80's I asked if I could have the old machine, and was told I could. It sat on my home office desk alongside -and tiny in comparison - my Sinclair Spectrum computer until I acquired my own Casio calculator, when it got relegated to the loft. I eventually sold it on eBay and got very little for it. That never worried me at the time, but -echoing Peter's words - perhaps now it might be worth a fortune? C'est la vie.

 

[peter]

(I saw a similar machine being demonstrated in a TV programme quite recently, and announced to my wife I used one of those in the 50's, and received the response I suppose you used an Abacus as well.? I said funny you should say that!)

I don't know anyone who used an abacus, but slide rules were used a lot in scientific circles even after calculators became affordable.

Manufacturers of electronic calculators must have had trouble trying to persuade them to upgrade, because at one point you could buy a slide rule calculator, which was a traditional slide rule on one side, and an electronic calculator on the other. I found one about 20 years ago in a box of books I'd bought at an auction for £2, and it fetched a very good price on eBay, eventually selling to someone in Canada.

 

[Bob Spiers]

... but slide rules were used a lot in scientific circles even after calculators became affordable.

The MD of the Timber Importers I worked for back in the 60's used a basic slide rule to calculate all sort of things when carrying out spot checks on timber import manifests. I would often see him outside in the timber yard with his slide rule and notebook. I learned his calculations were accurate enough to spot flaws before the manifest was properly checked by more conventional (by that I mean basic arithmetical) means...on the back of envelopes of course.

In a later job - but same trade - I was provided with a slide rule for quickly converting metric to imperial, and vice versa. I learned basic slide-rule rudiments but still found it easier to use conversion tables, and in time with experience, could often convert things in my head and both ways. Very useful thing to be able to do when dealing with customers steeped in imperial as most people were (and still are to an extent). It also comes in useful when my wife for instance asks how long is 3 1/2 metres in real money, and ignores me when I ask if she wants it to the nearest inch!

I cannot recall seeing a dual slide rule/ calculator which might have been of interest but I think I would have just opted for a pocket calculator, as I eventually did of course.