What is a Lost Cousins fact and where do I record it?

[At home in NZ]

I am reacquainting myself with using FTA to load My Ancestors into LC. In the documentation that is available there is mention of a Lost Cousins fact which is giving me the impression I should be adding something to my tree.
My question is, how, where and when do I do it?

Edit: I have used FTA to load some today and found it has duplicated people which makes me think I need to add this fact.

 

[Tim]

Hi, before the auto upload provided by FTA, you could create a custom fact in your Family History Software, which looks like this :


FTA would then search for these facts against a person and LC census years and if it found a person with an LC census year but no custom LC fact it would then recommend in its table of results how many could be loaded.


However, I believe that with the new auto upload, FTA does a "read" of what is already loaded and is able to calculate that way.

If you were to use FTA now, it would say you had none to load, correct?

We need to understand some more about the duplicates, are you able to show some screenshots? Maybe we can work out why FTA didn't understand why these were the same people.

 

[Bryman]

I am reacquainting myself with using FTA to load My Ancestors into LC. In the documentation that is available there is mention of a Lost Cousins fact which is giving me the impression I should be adding something to my tree.
My question is, how, where and when do I do it?

A Lost Cousins fact is an item within your Family Tree Software (FHS), a bit like Name or Date of Birth. Its purpose is to record whether that individual has been loaded into LC, and if so then for which census year(s) and country. It is not an item which is initially part of any FHS so has to be added by you. What software package are you using?

The steps required will be specific to your software and hopefully there will be a member of this forum who can help you further.

 

[canadianbeth]

I saw a Lost Cousins entry on Ancestry several months ago; I cannot remember now for whom it was, probably a Joyce entry. I did not click on it but did wonder how it got there.

 

[At home in NZ]

We need to understand some more about the duplicates,

I had another look and got that sorted, it was those people I had to change the ref due to being in large institution.

I believe that with the new auto upload, FTA does a "read" of what is already loaded and is able to calculate that way.

From what I've seen, it certainly seems so. And, I'm relieved because it means I don't have to add a new fact to all 887 people I have loaded so far. I only need to add it when I change a ref.

I think you and Bryman have been more than helpful, thanks.

On to the next 'problem'.
It took me many years to find my 3rd great grandfather in the 1841 census. His name is John Giles Lamb, born 1798.
In Ancestry in 1841 he and his family have been transcribed with the last name of Sanita (I have often been unimpressed by their transcription skills!).
The ref 701/8/35/13 and when I click on the arrow FMP brings up a list of people with ??? and only 4 people instead of the 8 that are in Ancestry.
I cannot access the transcript, it's asking me to subscribe.
What do I do about the ??? in My Ancestors. And, what about corrections FMP?

 

[Bryman]

It took me many years to find my 3rd great grandfather in the 1841 census. His name is John Giles Lamb, born 1798.
In Ancestry in 1841 he and his family have been transcribed with the last name of Sanita (I have often been unimpressed by their transcription skills!).
The ref 701/8/35/13 and when I click on the arrow FMP brings up a list of people with ??? and only 4 people instead of the 8 that are in Ancestry.
I cannot access the transcript, it's asking me to subscribe.

Try to be a little more generous towards the census transcribers. This particular form is very faint and I can see how Lamb could be interpreted as Sanita, sort of. Remember that you have a little more information and you are looking for 'Lamb'. The transcriber has no extra clues supplied and limited time to decipher the handwriting.

To see the transcription in the 1841 census at FMP you would need a subscription. Only the 1881 census is free to view. That is why Peter chose it and why there are so many entries in LC.

You do have access to the transcription and original form via Ancestry, as included in your forum post. Looking at the original form, there are 5 family members recorded at the bottom of the left page (701/8/35/13). The remaining 3 members are recorded at the top of the right page (701/8/36/14). FMP does show the final 3 if you edit the reference and surname to La*. It looks as if someone at FMP has tried to reassess what the surname really was.

 

[jorghes]

From my experience of FTA adding duplicates, it adds them for three main reasons: You've "corrected" the year of birth, so they no longer match; your previous entry has a non-correct name/surname etc from transcription (i.e. I left the misspelling of a few names on Lost Cousins and it duplicated the entries when I recently re-synced my entries after my LC facts had been removed from FTM); and there is a difference in the Reference.

 

[At home in NZ]

I am struggling with the whole exercise of adding my ancestors to lost cousins. It is extremely time consuming because there are so many discrepancies.
I know how to correct a person’s details in My Ancestors when I don’t get an exact match in FM.
However, I am finding there is just too much to do because when a ref doesn’t match I often need to go back to my tree to find out why.
I feel as though I’m on a roundabout going from LC to FM, to my tree in Ancestry, back to LC, then FMP and back to LC.

Looking at the Incompatible census refs report in FTA there is an entry for one of the Seager family which has been transcribed as Leager both in Ancestry and in FMP.
What am I supposed to do about that?

 

[jorghes]

I feel as though I’m on a roundabout going from LC to FM, to my tree in Ancestry, back to LC, then FMP and back to LC.

Looking at the Incompatible census refs report in FTA there is an entry for one of the Seager family which has been transcribed as Leager both in Ancestry and in FMP.
What am I supposed to do about that?

I know how you feel - I often add too many entries to Lost Cousins at once and then spend a lot of time going back and forth checking for census entries and LC facts and the like.

I just came across a census entry where "Sawyer" had been transcribed "Lonengen" and "Irving" become "Steven".

 

[At home in NZ]

I know how you feel

Nice to know somebody does, thanks jorghes.
Clang, just realised I need to enter the incorrect name manually and put the right name in the relevant field, good job I haven't got anything much better to do. It's a miserable afternoon (5 pm Easter Monday here) and we're in full lockdown.

 

[Helen7]

I know how you feel - I often add too many entries to Lost Cousins at once and then spend a lot of time going back and forth checking for census entries and LC facts and the like.

Having 'caught up' adding entries to LC using FTA a while back (and taking ages to check all the entries!), I now find it easier to get into the routine of manually adding one household at a time as I find them. I find it pretty quick and less error-prone. I still use FTA to check on tree errors (it's great at finding these) and also as a check on any I have inadvertently omitted to enter into LC (these are usually odd 'by marriage' people before they married into the family, whom I'm not too concerned about anyway).

 

[At home in NZ]

I now find it easier to get into the routine of manually adding one household at a time

I think I'll be doing that from now on because I have spent hours and hours over the last few days getting more and more frustrated.
I should be able to run a report to identify people and I won't have to keep asking forum members for help. Do I hear a collective sigh of relief??