1939 register - completely wrong?

[Deirdre784]

Apart from the odd date of birth being slightly out, I haven't found any real mistakes and I've been using the 1939 for a few years - since Find My Past first published it. I believe that when it was transcribed it was done in columns, rather than horizontally across the page, so when put back together one or two records are in the wrong place. Are you sure that your grandmother wasn't known under a different name - I always thought my grandmother's name was Gertrude, as that is what everyone called her. It turned out that she was Alice Gertrude.

Same here Groom, a few funny entries put together badly and quite a few dates of birth which don’t tally with their birth registrations (especially among the older people). Often the same quarter - so possibly the right day and month - but a year or two out, which i’ve put down to them not knowing exactly when they were born, rather than errors or any deliberate act. Some atrocious hand-writing didn’t help. 🙄

 It has been an amazing resource, especially for finding people not on our direct lines.

[avm228]

If you are talking about the Smith couple, 1911 index shows them as Joseph and Selena Smith, in Dudley.

If this isn’t the right family, then presumably the answer is that the wrong entry has been found in 1939 and that is the reason why information is not as expected.

[Abbey Sclerder]

Thanks for the information.

My grandparents would have no fear of being seen as aliens during the war. They can trace back to that lovely house of ours in Tudor times .

The name Serina is not one I have ever heard. It certainly has no other connections in the family.  Nor have I heard of Selina but it may be that either of these could have been Nell. Now I have something to go with, I may well be able to find a birth certificate ( never found that) because of the name difference. Ellen was a family name and I guessed at that being hers as that was a name unaccounted for  amongst her siblings. More guess work than fact on that.  Clearly she didn't like the name. She never used it and  no one was ever told  the name in the family, although we all knew Nellie was not her proper name.

I am still looking at house history really though.

[avm228]

Why would you think Selena (or Serina as she is in 1901) is Nell, if they have different names and her birthdate is so far from Nell’s?  Do the children of the couple in 1901/1911 match what you know of Nell’s family?

We could help you much better with more information about Nell’s marriage and offspring (insofar as they are not still living).

[Guy Etchells]

The 1939 Register, as now published, was not a census ie not (just) a snapshot of an instant in time (1939)
It was continually updated, by the NHS.

Correct

If "you" were at an address in 1939 and moved home in, say 1946, you would appear at the address you lived, in 1946.

Sorry no, while change of name occurred until 1991 changes of address were seldom changed and certainly not after 1952 when the National Registration Act was repealed as these were recorded at local level.
My mother for instance is shown living at her 1939 address even though she moved during the war and was divorced and re-married by 1946 (new married name is shown dated about 4 weeks after her 1946 marriage). Her first son’s change of surname does not take place (according to the date & area code given) until 1957 when he moved from our home in Scotland to university in Edinburgh when he signed up with a new doctor (Both him & my mum are shown living at their 1939 English address on the English 1939 National Registration).

"Many" errors were made by not making changes correctly.
Now that more than one copy is published then there is more than one version because people do not communicate any changes/corrections/deletions to all publishers ( FindMyPast/Ancestry ) and those publishers have their own timescales/priorities.

I am not sure what you mean by the first sentence here, if you mean when the “original 1939 Registration was transcribed due to fading & use, yes mistakes were made then as often happens with such transcriptions, but with most errors and alterations on the 1939 the original is still clear beneath the single line score through.

I cannot comment on the modern day corrections as I have no idea what system is in place

Cheers
Guy

[Abbey Sclerder]

Why would you think Selena (or Serina as she is in 1901) is Nell, if they have different names and her birthdate is so far from Nell’s?  Do the children of the couple in 1901/1911 match what you know of Nell’s family?

We could help you much better with more information about Nell’s marriage and offspring (insofar as they are not still living).

I don't necessarily, although I am  happy enough to accept it as a possibility.

The child in the 1901 census is correct. The address is certainly correct for then.  But the date of birth in the 1939 census is completely wrong as far as I am aware.
As I said previously if she was born in 1865 then she surely was old when she had my dad ( 1923).

[avm228]

I agree her mid-1860s birth makes it very unlikely she had a baby in 1923.

Can you tell us what mother’s maiden name was given on the 1923 birth registration?  Don’t tell us your father’s given name(s) if he is still with us (for privacy reasons).

[ALAMO2008]

I too have been bombarded recently by Ancestry's new addition of the 1939 Register only to be mystified by the loads of Errors on Dates of Birth given at the Time which DO NOT match the Birth Certs I already had om actual Birth Certs.
What's that about ?
Couldn't they remember or did they Lie ?

[avm228]

Death: Serina Smith aged 84, Mar qtr 1950 Dudley.