Who do you think you are? Live 2010

I'm just recovering from three busy days at the big "Who do you think you are? Live" show at Olympia in London. I belong to an organisation called ISOGG (the International Society of Genetic Genealogy), and for the first time this year we had a stand at WDYTYA. ISOGG is an independent volunteer-run organisation which helps to educate people about the use of genetics as a tool for genealogical research. With the presence of Family Tree DNA and the return of their popular DNA workshop our services were very much in demand.

I've been at WDYTYA for the last three years now but this was I am sure the busiest year ever, and it will be interesting to see the final attendance figures. The advance tickets had already sold out for Saturday and it was so busy that by around mid-day the hall reached capacity, and no one else was allowed in until the crowds had subsided. At this stage there were still hundreds of people queuing round the block. I do hope they all eventually managed to gain entry. The picture below shows the lower hall from the Gallery during one of the quieter moments on Saturday.

Family Tree DNA were very busy throughout the entire three days. They brought with them double the number of kits compared to last year and there were very few left at the end of the show. There was a constant stream of people at the stand queuing up to be swabbed, including two people who will be joining my Devon DNA Project. The DNA talks were all very well received. I particularly enjoyed Dr Michael Hammer's presentation on "The peopling of the world". I was intrigued to see that Professor Bryan Sykes, the owner of Oxford Ancestors and author of The Seven Daughters of Eve, was in the audience for the talks by Dr Michael Hammer and Chris Pomery.

To coincide with WDYTYA Family Tree DNA have announced the pre-launch of their new Family Finder DNA test. Those people who were at the show had the opportunity to learn about the test and buy a kit to participate in the beta testing programme. Traditionally genealogists have used Y-chromosome (Y-DNA) tests to explore the paternal line, which usually coincides with surnames, and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) tests to explore the direct maternal line. The Family Finder test is an autosomal DNA test which can be used to explore all the other lines which are not covered by Y-DNA and mtDNA, and can be used to find matches with close cousins back to around five generations. If you have a match with a cousin you will share a segment of DNA. These matching segments can be seen in this screenshot of the new chromosome browser.

Rather than order a Family Finder test for myself I've ordered tests for my mum and dad as this will take me back one further generation. I shall be fascinated to see the results. Further information on the Family Finder test can be found in a new section on the FTDNA website. Further details can be found in the official FAQs. The official launch will probably be some time in March. The beta testing is rolling out in phases to cope with the anticipated demand.

While working on the ISOGG stand I had the pleasure of being introduced to Princess Maria Sviatopolk-Mirski, who had her mitochondrial DNA tested by Family Tree DNA while visiting the show. I have promised to help Maria understand her results when they come in. Maria descends from an ancient Belarusian dynasty. Her great-grandfather, Prince Nicolai Ivanovitch Sviatopolk-Mirski, was the last owner of Mir Castle near Minsk.

We were so busy on the ISOGG stand that I had very little opportunity to visit all the other stalls. I did however manage to pay a quick visit to the National Probate Service's stand and get a sneak preview of their new website. Contrary to popular rumour Ancestry have not acquired a contract to publish the National Probate Indexes. However the Probate Service are in the process of digitising all the indexes themselves and they expect to launch the new website within the next eight to ten months. The indexes will be searchable free of charge, and it will be possible to download wills online for just £5. I was fascinated to learn that the Probate Service often receive requests for the wills of famous people. They told me that they had already received over 2,000 orders for Princess Diana's will. No doubt they will receive many more such requests when the indexes go online.

Portsea marriages

Before Christmas Guild member Michael Bliss kindly sent me the details of two marriages he found in the Portsea Marriage Challenge. I have put outline details below:

- 1865 St Mary's, Portsea: James Cruse, carpenter, son of Jacob Cruse, gardener, and Harriet Dye, widow, daughter of William Gooch, a gardener. (Cruses of Imber, Wiltshire)

- 1868 St Thomas, Portsmouth: Mary Cruse née Blood, widow, daughter of Thomas Blood, a labourer, and John Waller, Corporal in the 35th Regiment, son of Samuel Waller, a tailor.

The James Cruse who married Harriet Dye in 1865 is the son of Jacob Cruse and Lydia Meaden. Jacob and Thomas are descended from the Cruses of Imber, Wiltshire. I wrote about this line back in September 2008. We have not yet located a descendant from the Imber Cruses to take part in the DNA Project. A sponsored test is available if an appropriate candidate can be found. If you know of anyone do get in touch. It would be interesting to find out if the Imber Cruses are related to the two other Wiltshire lines which have already been tested - the Ogbourne St George line and the Scruses of Orcheston St George, both of whom we now know are not related on the direct male line.

I have no further information at present on Mary Cruse née Blood.

I have been getting somewhat behind with the certificates received from the various Guild Marriage Challenges, and will be posting further details of a number of other marriages in the next week or so. Watch this space!

Crowse of Worcestershire

Guild member Ian Preece has very kindly found two CROWSE marriages for me in his recent Marriage Challenge for the Upton on Severn Registration District. Both marriages took place in Worcestershire. The details are as follows:

- 1846 The Parish Church, Eldersfield: John Crowse, yeoman, son of William Crowse, yeoman, and Elizabeth Shipton, daughter of Thomas Shipton, yeoman

- 1866 The Parish Church, Great Malvern: Fanny Augusta Crowse, daughter of John Crowse, a miller, and Joseph Parry, farmer, son of John Crowse, miller.

CROWSE is a rare variant spelling which I have not yet had a chance to research. There are only a handful of occurrences of the name in the English and Welsh birth, marriage and death indexes, and just a few isolated occurrences of the surname in America and Canada. Worcestershire is some distance from the Cruwys epicentre in North Devon, and it is not yet known if the two surnames are related. I would be very pleased to hear from anyone researching the CROWSE surname.

Social networking

The new February issue of Family History Monthly is now on sale at newsagents in the UK. I have an article in this issue on social networking which focuses in particular on the use of Facebook and Twitter. My own copy of the journal has not yet arrived in the post but I'm hoping that it should be here soon now that the snow is finally starting to melt and the backlog of post can finally be cleared. You can see the full contents on the FHM website here.

I've set up a number of groups on Facebook for the many variants of the surname. You can find links to all these groups on the right. If you haven't already signed up we look forward to welcoming you. Facebook now has over 350 million users. If you are looking for someone you therefore stand a good chance of finding them on Facebook. If they are not on Facebook then their children or other relatives almost certainly will be.

Twitter is more of an acquired taste but if you follow the right people it is a good way of keeping up with all the latest genealogy news. If you are on Twitter and would like to follow me you can find me here.