The 1939 Register

I've noticed that although they may appear in no particular order on the preview page, their individual numbers e.g. /010/33 are in numerical order from head of household. How they appear on the schedule I have yet to view, not having unlocked any households yet.

 

Years ago as a lad when interested in magic, I recall reading of a party trick I could perform where there were more than 15 persons present. Apparently if you have more than 15 persons present there will be a very strong chance that two share the same birthday (not the year -just the birthday). I tried it over and over as a party trick asking them to write their birthday on a piece of paper. If less than 15 persons, I simply asked them to write their own birthday and that of someone they knew who was not present. In all the time I tried this I can only recall one failure.

I came across similar statistical information quite recently. This time it guarantees a matching birthday if more than 22 persons are present. I have no idea why the number has grown, but from past experience am reasonably certain it would be successful.

I am not sure of the mathematics to relate from a party trick to comparing with many hundreds of matches tied to an exact year but I would have through there was statistical correlation somewhere.

For what it's worth my own one off experience of searching just on a birthday - exact year range - produced a handful of matches (sorry did not notice exactly how many) and I scrolled down and found him in 9th place.

 

I meant to say page or whatever

 

Yesterday I used my Findmypast discount code to access the 1939 register (25% off the price for 5 households), and this morning they offered me a second 25% discount because I'd already used the first one - very tempting! The households I looked at threw up a couple of surprises. My great-uncle and his wife appeared twice at different addresses in Brighton and Hove. I picked one to unlock and when I looked at the image discovered that there was a red line through both names and a cross-reference to a different volume of the register. Hmm. The second mystery concerns the address where my parents-in-law were living. My husband was born in this house and remembers it as being modest in size, but according to the register there were 3 families living in it - 8 people in all. The names of the supposed additional occupants meant nothing to him so they were not friends of his parents who happened to be staying. The solution may lie in the house numbering - this house is the last in a sequence, then there's a gap, so perhaps the enumerator failed to note the numbers.

 

I used my remaining credits to look at the second entry for my great-uncle and his wife, and am none the wiser. They are still at the same address, although the other entries on the page all have different addresses in Hove, and there are a lot of closed records - including several between my gt-uncle's and his wife's. Obviously some sort of updating has been carried out, but it's not clear what.

As for my parents-in-law's household - it consists of 8 people so you are right, Peter, and extra families will have come to stay.

 

Give a dog a bad name and hang it!

At the moment I cannot download any records as my Swiss Credit Card Company has declined payment. I can solve this easily, but its reluctance has given me time to think.

I tried to find my aunt and was successful in that I found her in a household, the name of which was unknown to me. I had already assessed that my grandfather's residence at the time of his death was the same of that of his eldest daughter. The household which appeared in the 1939 Registration was one that was unknown to me. I spent several hours researching this family and although successful, could not see the connection.

I made a blank search, just using the piece and item number and found her sister living at the same address. I still do not know who the "Head" of the household is, but I have found my aunts and the residence where my grandfather was living before he was hospitalised.

 

As it is my father's birthday today I thought I would have another go at finding him. Success! Also very interesting, a part of his life I had forgotten. His present to me perhaps?

 

Seems to be the lowest 'item' number from my searches i.e. the owner or rent payer, where the male woud be named ahead of in the case of a couple.

 

I've tried that too, Marguerite, and confirmed a number of hunches that way.

 

Good point. My great-uncle's occupation (which I hadn't known) is given as 'Independent Hotel Proprietor', so that might well explain it.

 

I have found a lot of interesting information and highlighted some mistakes from my own research e.g. a wrong marriage pairing. So far I have not purchased any credits.

Search tip: When I find a household member,often the 'head',I note the reference number. I then start a new search and enter just the numbers on the form then scroll through the list looking for numbers, e.g. I may have /16 for the head of the household so going off the number of members stated as being in that household I can identify the others, especially when they are previously unknown names.

 

Not seen any comments from forum members regarding the 'added extras' yet ?