Preview search tips for the 1939 Register before you buy

[dawnsh]

I have been asked to start a new topic as my original post is now lost in the middle of a very long topic

Using the TNA reference to Search

I don't have any credits but have managed to find out who was living with my great-grandparents

Do the search for the person you do know and make a note of the reference

eg RG101/0950E/009/*

you don't need the last digits represent by the *

then if you do a blank search (no names or places) just using the reference, you ignore the RG101, the piece number (in my eg) 0950E and the item number 009

If I do this search I get a long list of people but the family I want will have sequential numbers. You have to do a free preview of all the names but you can work out who is living with whom. Just hover over the free preview button and the full reference should be displayed at the bottom left of the screen in the URL the button leads to.

(this is all dependent on the type of device you are using and the platform, I'm using a tower and windows 7, tablets and androids may display differently)

The lady that was living with my great-grandparents was listed after them.


and this from davidft

I tried this and at first it did not work. The number I tried putting in was 27561, Arggg so for anyone who doesn't pick it up the fifth digit of the piece reference is alphabetical so I should have been entereing 2756I rather than 27561 and then it does work.

[BumbleB]

Brilliant tip, AND I've put it to some good use 

[nanny jan]

Very useful tip, thanks and I've been putting it to good use. 

[bugbear]

You can fiddle with the results by searching for a DOB previously unknown, due to not yet getting the cert. My 2xgreat uncle's birth was registered in the Sep quarter of 1877 so I searched surname then month of birth and borough, then found it was May, and then searched from the end of May backwards and he was born 30th May 1877.

Just to expand on "fiddle with the results", it exploits the fact that exact searches on FindMyPast give no results for a "miss".

So - having searched for a someone (e.g. Nigel Bloggs in Sunderland), and got a unique hit, you can add a likely birth year. You are then likely to get no results (a miss). This means your guess of birth year was wrong. Try different birth years, until your hit comes back.

Leave the birth year filled in, and repeat the process for the month (MM)

Finally, leave the month filled in, and repeat the process for DD, and you have an accurate-to-the-day DOB, or at least as far as the person filling in the form believed.

 BugBear

[LizzieL]

Finding an address

copied over from
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=734302.new;topicseen#new

Use the person search to find the person of interest and narrow down to one hit using the other fields. Then I put *road, *street, *lane, *avenue etc to narrow down the list of streets in the particular borough.
Then I opened a second browser window with address search. Once I had a hit on whether it was *street,*road etc. I tried to narrow down first part starting with vowels e.g *a*street, *e*street etc.

Each time I got a hit, I would mirror it on address search and narrow down my potential street list. Then try the first letter e.g A*e*street, B*e*street. The mirror list of streets will tell you if some letters aren't worth trying. Although it sounds a long process, I have found two addresses so far quite quickly. Once I'm at street level, I used Dawn's tip to match up the reference number by hovering mouse over preview button and then I get house number.

(Laptop running Windows 10)

[Alan b]

I have been asked to start a new topic as my original post is now lost in the middle of a very long topic

Using the TNA reference to Search

I don't have any credits but have managed to find out who was living with my great-grandparents

Do the search for the person you do know and make a note of the reference

eg RG101/0950E/009/*

you don't need the last digits represent by the *

then if you do a blank search (no names or places) just using the reference, you ignore the RG101, the piece number (in my eg) 0950E and the item number 009

If I do this search I get a long list of people but the family I want will have sequential numbers. You have to do a free preview of all the names but you can work out who is living with whom. Just hover over the free preview button and the full reference should be displayed at the bottom left of the screen in the URL the button leads to.

(this is all dependent on the type of device you are using and the platform, I'm using a tower and windows 7, tablets and androids may display differently)

The lady that was living with my great-grandparents was listed after them.


and this from davidft

I tried this and at first it did not work. The number I tried putting in was 27561, Arggg so for anyone who doesn't pick it up the fifth digit of the piece reference is alphabetical so I should have been entereing 2756I rather than 27561 and then it does work.

As well as this when you have loaded one up, to find another person in the same household just change the web address in your browser's bar, so if the address was www.123/345/56/67 change the 67 to 66 or 68.

[Deirdre784]

Not sure if this will be useful to others but I couldn't find my husband's paternal grandmother or her father (her mother had already died). She was Ceinwen Williams, born 1921, died 1952, so she should have been included. Her dad was William Williams , born around 1886 (the 1911 census and both his marriage certificates). Had tried searching for William, 1886 +/- 2 years but there were too many.

Then did a search on all with surname Leigh in Pontypridd and up popped Beinwen Leigh (Williams), and several others who'd married into the family. Opened up Beinwen's (it does look like a funny C) and the next record was for William, born 1889. Not yet tried to find his actual birth record - and it may be wrong anyway - but this was my best success yesterday. Hope this helps.

Useful topic given the popularity of the register and the difficulties and disappointments so far encountered. 

[dawnsh]

Although this isn't a search tip, others may find it useful.

I have just found this out.

If you don't know the address of a redacted person you can't find because they are not where you thought they would be, the information is closed, and without knowing the address they were at when the register was taken, FindMyPast & TNA wouldn't be able to open the record even on production of a death cert.

[kooky]

This is a very helpful thread! I do have a sub and have used my 5 so this will be useful for further investigations
However I will have to print it all because my non tech mind can't remember all the hints and how to do it!
Kooky