The 1939 Register

Thank you for some possible ways forward. Having paid HSCIC £42 in 2014 to obtain my mothers record without an address it would appear that the new service via TNA is a backward step albeit cheaper.

 

I note a useful identifier is female family members listed (as expected) with their 1939 surname and their later married surname in brackets (NHS edited I presume)

So far I have searched via the free method and frankly pleased that I have not paid out for a load of credits when there are so many closed entries in my family households. It would cost me a small (no...large!) fortune to provide evidence of death. However I will purchase some credits before the end of November when the offers expire, as obviously there will be some households of immense interest to me.

 

Yes perhaps I should but with only a distant recall of your articles I had it firmly in my mind that it remained a working document throughout the war and - as I dimly recalled you mentioning about it forming the basis for the newly formed NHS - likely extending through 1948 and a little beyond. That is why I found the record of the 1974 marriage a mystery. Even now you remind the Register remained as a 'working document' into the 1990's before being digitised, I still find the fact quite remarkable. However for the record it is now firmly entrenched in my memory and believe me that is quite something. My wife often remarks she has to tell me a thousand times before something sinks in so what chance do I have recalling your Newsletters?

 

Was the register compiled like a census with the house occupants actually present on that day/night or as record of who usually lived there but might be elsewhere at the time, so that you might expect to see a complete household together?
My mother is recorded as a married woman at the address I expected but with no sign of my father. His record is not closed, there is just nothing there for him. He was not in the services and I have tried a variety of name/age/sex/occupation variations with no success.

 

Have you tried to find him just by giving his excact birth / bapstism details, without name??

 

I have, Marguerite, and there are over 1,800 of them. As I understand it the register was used amongst other things for the issue of identity cards and ration books (which he had) so as they were a "household", married since 1934 I guess what I am puzzling over is 1) why don't they appear together and 2) why is Dad not registered at all - as it seems at the moment. I will keep looking, of course, but the costs are prohibitive for random or even informed guesses within other households.

 

I flagged it as an error, as it is to me, and I wanted to see if it was written in the register as such, since I know my grandparents didn't marry until the 1940s, but equally I knew that my grandmother had only been married once. It is probably not an error per-se, as when the document was edited it was done with the best of intentions - but I find it strange that my grandmother was given a surname that was never hers, but perhaps that is vaguely understandable since she and my grandfather emigrated before 1950 and they may not have known that when using this register in later years.

It is a pretty terrible set of censor lines - you can even read my grandmother's occupation where the line slides down, although she is still incorrectly "censored" and the line over her name instead covers the occupation of her younger sister. I'll have to contact them about my great-aunt's entry being open and getting them to instead shift the line to "open" my grandmother's entry.

I just think it's a shame I don't have many people to search - one entire side of my family was living in Australia and of those who are left, most of them in my direct line had died by this time and a lot of the extensions had emigrated to North America... I found both my maternal grandparents (see above) then had a bit of fun finding the one set of great-great grandparents still alive (and have been blessed to find my great-great grandmother's birthdate, which means I can stop punting on options at attempting to find her birth extract and narrow the search down to a specific quarter) and then searched for each of their children to see where they were. I'll now have to start looking at the options for finding information in the Scottish version - as that's where the small number of my paternal side still in the UK in 1939 were.

Just on a note of interest - there seems to be no real rhyme or reason to how members of the households were listed on the register - when I opened up my great-great grandparents image, I found that their daughter was living in the same house with her husband and children - the parents were listed first, then the husband, then two "closed" spaces for their two children (both now deceased) and then my g-g-aunt. It surprised me that the children were listed between their parents instead of after!

 

I found my Mother who at 101 died only a couple of weeks ago, (should her record have been open?) but her maiden surname has not been later updated.

On the plus side, I have Google Earthed the address and from the street view, have been able to identify a photo I have of a hitherto unknown house.

Also, I love the term 'Unpaid Domestic Duties'.

 

My married great-great aunt as mentioned above was listed under her married name with no mention of her maiden name (even though she was living in the same house as her parents). I think that you'll find that those who married after 1939 had their married surnames added, but if they married before 1939 the name would have just been listed as their married name and their maiden name would not have needed to be added unless they remarried later.

I also love the term "unpaid domestic duties" and I would love to know what they listed small children's occupations as.

 

Peter I only have a copy of your Newsletter of 31st October and I have no email record of 15 October, I would like to read the Audrey Collins Blog, can you provide a link please, thanks.

 

You might be surprised. I'm also having difficulty tracking down a relative, and an exact search for his birthdate (29 March 1907) brings up 2,224 results.