February 2013 - House it going?

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mardler
Site Admin
Posts: 306
Joined: October 4th, 2009, 6:28 pm

February 2013 - House it going?

Post by mardler »

Greetings from Boston, Massachusetts, fellow seekers after the truth. I'm here for an open day for the New England Historic Genealogical Society and Ancestry.com this weekend. Looking forward to it.

Justin Howse, R.I.P.
Thanks to the many contributors who share information regarding their relatives with us. For the "above and beyond the call" award this month it was not difficult to select the correspondent on vacation in Barbados who sent us an obituary he had spotted in the online version of the UK Daily Telegraph. Thank you.

Justin Howse was a fascinating man who fully deserves a place in our Notable People section and I will organize that in the next few days. His grandfather, Sir Harry Greenway Howse, already appears there. Meanwhile, you can read Justin's obituary here:
http://howesfamilies.com/getperson.php? ... ee=Onename

Now I check my files, I realize that this must have been the Justin Howse who registered on our site just three weeks before his death. Very sad.

FamilyHistoryDaily.com
As foreshadowed last month I've just started a series of blogs at the above website. They will talk about this study, the Guild of One-Name Studies and more. I've been surprised at the response: 60 "likes" is kind of OK, but what really got my attention is the almost 250 "shares" on Facebook and other sites. If you were one of them, thank you. You can read them (and perhaps share them with your friends!) at:
http://familyhistorydaily.com/author/paul-d-howes/

I also recommend another article with a terrific story line here:
http://familyhistorydaily.com/family-hi ... ry-winner/

Twice married, a second couple
I've mentioned before a couple who married twice. This month we uncovered another example: Charles Samuel Howes, who married twice in 1914. You can see his record here:
http://howesfamilies.com/getperson.php? ... ee=Onename. If you have an Ancestry.com subscription you can see both marriage certificates online.
In those days, soldiers needed the permission of superior officers to marry and have their wife in married quarters and I suspect this is why the second marriage occurred, but it's still a mystery to me why the bride's father was a witness only at the second marriage. If you have any thoughts on the matter, do get in touch.

Calculating year of birth
From time to time, people ask why the year of birth shown in our files is not equal to year of census minus age, but instead one year less. The simple answer is that our way is a better estimate, for all US and UK censuses, and any other event in the first half of a year.

An example: in the 1891 census held on April 5, William is age 51. We show his year of birth as 1839.
- Had the census been held on Dec 31 1891, we can be 100% sure that he was born in 1840.
- But, if the census had been held on Jan 1 1891, we can be certain that he was born in 1839.
- So, because the census was held about a quarter of the way through 1891, there is a 25% chance he was born in 1840 but 75% that he was born in 1839. So we use the latter.

All censuses that we have used to date are in the first half of the year. So for them and any other event in the first 6 months of a year we subtract the extra year to estimate the year of birth from the age. Hope that clears it up.

Gravestonephotos.com
This site appears to have gained a lot of information over the past few months. Is there anyone who might be willing to go through it and tell us of any additional information that we can add to our files? Same goes for any other site that might have interest for you. We do have 2 volunteers going through the Commonwealth War Graves website for us, linking the individuals to families already in our files. Practically every week they send me a note with a few more individuals they've been able to link up. If you like solving puzzles, this can be a very rewarding exercise. You can work at your own pace, of course.

Numbers corner
Pleased to say that we now have 705 people registered on our site, and over 530,000 facts for over 72,700 individuals. Thanks to everyone who contributes
phowes7@yahoo.com
Posts: 12
Joined: December 16th, 2009, 11:37 pm

Re: February 2013 - House it going?

Post by phowes7@yahoo.com »

Paul,

Welcome to Boston! Sorry I can't make it to the event but if there is anything I can do contact me at 617-569-3652. Will be happy to show you around.

Paul Howes
phowes7@yahoo.com
lovej
Posts: 1
Joined: March 2nd, 2013, 8:52 am

Re: February 2013 - House it going?

Post by lovej »

Reading the sad news of Justin Howse death brings memories of when I worked with the greatly respected orthopaedic Consultant at the Central Middlesex Hospital between 1979 and 1986. I became a sister in the Accident and Emergency and orthopaedic department and had the privilege, on occasions, of being scrub nurse beside Mr Howse in the theatre. I recall our surnames were often intermixed and I was often called Howse instead of House. A theatre list could record a Howse hip implant, surgeon Mr J Howse, Scrub Nurse Miss J House – a great team.
Julia Love (nee House)
mardler
Site Admin
Posts: 306
Joined: October 4th, 2009, 6:28 pm

Re: February 2013 - House it going?

Post by mardler »

Thank you for sharing that, Julia.
Paul
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