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Census Lookups General Lookups => Census and Resource Discussion => Topic started by: clairec666 on Friday 19 February 16 10:17 GMT (UK)
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Been learning loads from the 1939 register since I've had unlimited access to it, but have found some unexplained things too....
1) How were deaths recorded on the register? Findmypast's FAQs say something about a "D-code" being added to the register when someone died, but I'm yet to find this on any of the images I've looked at.
2) Some people have been crossed through entirely in red ink, presumably at a later date. What does this mean? I've found one of my relatives crossed through, and I can't find her in the death index at all, so I'm wondering if these facts are connected. Perhaps she died abroad?
3) One female relative married in the 1950, but her married name was never recorded on the register. Is it possible her record was never updated? I've gone back and checked my facts, and I'm 100% sure she married.
Any other puzzles you've found, feel free to share them here :)
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1) The "D" codes were on the right hand page not visible to us.
2) The alterations may be in different colours, I have seen surnmaes changed by marriage in blue, light green, or even black, surnames changed otherwise light green. Corrections seem to be in red.
One thing I have noted is the colouring is not consistent throughout the register.
3) Was there any reason for her change of name to be noted. For example did she change doctors?
Many records were simply not updated.
There are also cases where the record has been struck through and a note to go to page x added.
Cheers
Guy
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Surely, the thing is, there was not one register. Each Borough or district would have its own local register. Some offices responsible for the register between 1939 and 1945 would have been very busy and overworked. parts of London and other big cities such as Liverpool
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Thanks Guy, that's really helpful. Re. point 2 - the entire row is crossed through in red ink, no alterations are made to the surname, and I wondered what the significance of this was. I've seen a few others where it says "go to page..." but there wasn't for this lady.
I've found some really useful records so far, found out where several people died who I'd lost track of after 1911. But it's created a few mysteries too.... Found a possible bigamist already today!
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I'm quite baffled by it particularly why certain records are closed and why some are open. I've found some for people who have died open and others who died many years before them still closed. Just don't get what the rule is ???
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I'm quite baffled by it particularly why certain records are closed and why some are open. I've found some for people who have died open and others who died many years before them still closed. Just don't get what the rule is ???
The rule is, if they were born over 100 years ago, or their death has been proved, the record is open. If the details in the 1939 register don't correspond with an entry in the death index, it's possible the record won't have been opened yet.
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Thank you I can understand the 100 years bit but what does it mean by "death has been proved" - they left a will?
I can see the records for my mother and mother in law but not for father in law who died several years before either of them. His name appears in the England and Wales death index.
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Do read the FAQS, all the answers can be found there.
Extract from their FAQS.
We're working on cross referencing our death records with the Register in order to open more records. In addition, we'll be running weekly updates that open the records of everyone who passes the 100 year threshold.
If you buy a household and a person in that household's record opens up after the 100 year limit, you'll be able to see that record at no additional cost.
Proven means a certified copy of the death certificate.
Jebber
Jebber
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Thank you Jebber. Pot luck then really if someone born less than 100 years ago shows up or not.
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I can only assume that the transcription of the records is of very poor standard....
As that is the only reason I can assume lays behind why I can't find most of my relatives ???
I know that they are living in the area at the time, and they also pass the 100 year rule, but do they show up nah they don't not at all...
So it's a case of spending long hours, manually searching the images to locate them, what isn't helpful, is how they sectioned everything up, you can't start at the beginning of a register and work you way through, you have to hit a name, then see where their location is to, and hope that the next name you chose is in a different image file...
Oh well, never mind it will keep me quiet for many many hours lol
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I can only assume that the transcription of the records is of very poor standard....
I thought that at first, but I've seen some awful handwriting on the original images, must have been tricky to transcribe.
A mistranscription might mean that a record isn't matched with the death index, and of course we can't look at the image and make a correction because it's been blacked out!
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Surely, the thing is, there was not one register. Each Borough or district would have its own local register.
There was one register. That's why it was called the National Register.
The part that's been released covers England and Wales. There are other parts for Scotland and Northern Ireland but they haven't been released.
Carol
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The thing that we call the 1939 Register was created by the enumeration in September 1939. A new set of books was then created for anyone born in England and Wales, or arriving from elsewhere, or being demobbed from the armed forces after that date. Collectively, all these books were called the Central Register, in use up to 1991 when the NHS computerised its records.
ScouseBoy is right to say that there were many registers. Each Local National Registration Office kept a register for its own area, in the form of a card index. Updates were made to both the local registers and the Central Register, but they were not identical; for example, changes of address were only recorded in the local registers, but markers relating to people who had failed to attend when called up for military service were only noted in the Central Register. That's a somewhat over-simplified version, but you get the drift!
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Each Local National Registration Office kept a register for its own area, in the form of a card index. Updates were made to both the local registers and the Central Register, but they were not identical; for example, changes of address were only recorded in the local registers, but markers relating to people who had failed to attend when called up for military service were only noted in the Central Register. That's a somewhat over-simplified version, but you get the drift!
Thank you Mean_genie, that's interesting. I remember using a local card index as part of another national set of records during my (mercifully brief) civil service career.
For our purposes though, I believe the only available record is the Central Register for England and Wales.
Carol
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Surely, the thing is, there was not one register. Each Borough or district would have its own local register.
There was one register. That's why it was called the National Register.
The part that's been released covers England and Wales. There are other parts for Scotland and Northern Ireland but they haven't been released.
Carol
You have got to imagine how things were operated and managed 76 years ago. There were no computers. Were there even photo copying machines?
Admittedly for a big Government operation they could have bought in the best state of the art equipment then available. If punch cards were available from IBM; NCR; Kalamazoo or another manufacturer, then punch cards was a possible method of sorting and filing information.
Different sub sets of the Register would be needed to be held locally, I am sure.
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I can only suggest that you read what Mean_genie posted.
Carol
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From FindMyPast
The process of bringing the Register online for the first time has been the work of hundreds of people. The Register itself consists of 7,000 volumes which contain over 1,200,000 pages listing the names, addresses, marital statuses, occupations and more of over 41,000,000 people. If you were to stack the books on top of each other, the resultant pile would be over twice the height of St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Jebber
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Considering the technology available at the time (ie no computers) the machinery for keeping the local and central registers up to date was remarkably efficient. Lessons had been learned from the things that worked and didn't work when National Registration was first attempted in 1915. They didn't use punch cards, but they were nothing new - they had been used for the tabulation of the 1911 census.
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Another question: How do I get rid of the Green Card that keeps popping up? I assume switching off my own pop-ups would be a start but is there a way within the website to do it?
Just having fun trying to connect twiglets of families. :)
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Thank you Jebber. Pot luck then really if someone born less than 100 years ago shows up or not.
To a certain extent yes.
However, the 1939 register was updated by NHS staff until 1991. If a person died their doctor was supposed to notify the NHS who would make a note on the register. Due to the way doctors were paid by the numbers of patients they had some did not notify the deaths.
Other notifications fell through the system between the local offices and the central register.
Cheers
Guy
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I've found loads of people under 100 from my family.... though most of them appeared after Findmypast started matching records with the death index.
Fortunately I've found the people I'm most interested in. Some remain elusive though.
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I'm a bit late to the party - but I'm just getting into this register and found a particular address with just dotted lines against it. I can't believe a property in central London would be empty - what would be a possible reason for these being empty (at least three properties in the one street) - Daphne Street, Wandsworth.
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Yes, I can see the "dotted lines" but they are generally for only one household within the property - i.e. 19a whilst 19 is occupied - and the initial survey was a snapshot of 29 September 1939.
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Each household has it's own front door though. They are maisonettes. Do you think no-one was at home?
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Possible, but more probable that they were unoccupied on that particular day.