LostCousins Expands to the U.S.

The following announcement was written by the LostCousins web site operators:

LostCousins - a new approach to US genealogy

Who better to help you research your family tree than someone who shares the same ancestors?

The LostCousins website has a unique system that identifies living relatives who share the same ancestors automatically, confidentially, and with close to 100% accuracy.

Recognising that everyone has their own approach to research, and that the very flexibility of the GEDCOM format means that no two files are alike, LostCousins spotted the potential of census data as a way of simply and accurately linking together people who share the same ancestors.

And to ensure that as many people as possible have access to the census data, LostCousins focuses on censuses that are available at the free FamilySearch website.

It's a very simple system - but one that's amazingly powerful. LostCousins members enter brief details for their relatives taken from the census transcripts, then click the Search button. Matches with other members who share the same ancestors are identified within seconds, and - because the data is saved - to search again at any point in the future requires little more than a click of the Search button!

Although LostCousins is new to the US, the system is tried and tested - thousands of researchers with British ancestry have found living relatives through the site since it first opened. The accuracy has been amazing - only a handful of incorrect matches have been reported.

LostCousins was founded in 2004 by Peter Calver, a British researcher who has visited the US more than 40 times over the past quarter of a century. He stills runs the site, and is really excited about this latest expansion: "This is the moment I've been waiting for! With the addition of the US we now cover most of the English-speaking world - it's an amazing opportunity for our members to discover living relatives without having to work through hundreds of false leads".

Using data from just one census is like taking a snapshot of a family tree. And because everyone takes the snapshot at the same time - 1880 in the case of the US census, or 1881 for Britain and Canada - the sophisticated software behind the LostCousins site can quickly identify people who share the same ancestors, even if those ancestors died long before 1880.

Registration and basic membership of LostCousins are completely free. However there are advantages to becoming a paying subscriber, and to celebrate the addition of the US census members who enter the code 1776 when registering will receive a free upgrade to subscriber status that lasts until April 30, 2007.

The LostCousins website can be found at: http://www.LostCousins.com

Comments

[soccermom]

I really, really like this service because it is matching legitimate data instead of garbage. Anyone who matches is probably a REAL match. It's easy to enter the information from the census. I printed out my ahnentafel chart and I'm surprised at how many people in my database are in the 1880 census. Entering the census data reminds me to save to my shoebox at ancestry.com (instead of repeatedly looking up the same census and forgetting to save it for easy reference.)

I just started today and I figure it will take me a whole day to get all the information into LostCousins.

I hope lots of people will take the time to do this. It's a "quality" idea!

Will let you know if I find matches.

[Dennis]

I'm not happy that this company has decided to SPAM volunteers of online organizations, and is using your review to give itself credibility in that SPAM email...

[Dick Eastman]

---> and is using your review to give itself credibility in that SPAM email...

Can you forward a copy of that spam mail to me? I'd like to see it.

Thanks.

- Dick Eastman