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Ancestry has access to 1939 Register
- Thread starter jorghes
- Start date
Mike
Member
Is this a photo of people working on the 1939 Register?
Follow this link to Ancestry search Historical Photographs and Prints
Then enter 17 Apr 1940 for the Publication Info date, click "Exact" then "Search" and "View Record" Then click "View" on the photo (probably a simpler way to refer to it) You will need an Ancestry account.
Follow this link to Ancestry search Historical Photographs and Prints
Then enter 17 Apr 1940 for the Publication Info date, click "Exact" then "Search" and "View Record" Then click "View" on the photo (probably a simpler way to refer to it) You will need an Ancestry account.
Indeed it is - the GRO is based at Smedley Hydro, a former hotel.
For those who don't have an Ancestry subscription you can also find a similar photo here. The caption for both reads:
"A famous hotel, 'somewhere in the North of England' has been taken over by the Government, and is now the Office of the Central National Registration. Here the names and addresses of every person in the country are kept in the register, and the girls are busy at work noting changes of residence, the men that have registered for military service, and those who, being of the required age, have not for some reason or other registered for military service. Photo shows- In the ballroom. Girls at work on the National Register. The names and addresses of every person in the country is kept in the register, and girls are continually at work noting changes of addresses etc. in the books."
For those who don't have an Ancestry subscription you can also find a similar photo here. The caption for both reads:
"A famous hotel, 'somewhere in the North of England' has been taken over by the Government, and is now the Office of the Central National Registration. Here the names and addresses of every person in the country are kept in the register, and the girls are busy at work noting changes of residence, the men that have registered for military service, and those who, being of the required age, have not for some reason or other registered for military service. Photo shows- In the ballroom. Girls at work on the National Register. The names and addresses of every person in the country is kept in the register, and girls are continually at work noting changes of addresses etc. in the books."
Free Access does not seem to be working.
It's working fine for me now - but Ancestry didn't give a start time, so maybe it wasn't live until noon.
GillW
LostCousins Member
It was working fine on Friday evening but now it makes me sign in and then says I have no trees!
I will have to upload my Gedcom files from pre-Friday and then go through all hints again - reminder to self - save Gedcom files at end of EVERY session, not just at end of free period.
I will have to upload my Gedcom files from pre-Friday and then go through all hints again - reminder to self - save Gedcom files at end of EVERY session, not just at end of free period.
I would suggest trying a different browser.
You are saving the records to your own computer, aren't you? Otherwise you won't have access to them after midnight, GEDCOM or no GEDCOM.
canadianbeth
LostCousins Star
I just found an ancestor in the 1939 Register, by clicking on a leaf in my FTM program. But, I am wondering why there would be a "this record is officially closed" between what appears to be my 1st great aunt and her husband, assuming they are the correct people because I did not have her married name.
Her maiden name was Joyce, and there are three entries below hers, all named Joyce, one is probably her mother, given the date of birth of 1863 and another a brother; not sure about the third.
Is the Register listed by address? What are the odds that the mother and at least two adult children would be living together so many years later? And while I have leaf hints for the mother and brother, none list the Register, just the married sister.
Her maiden name was Joyce, and there are three entries below hers, all named Joyce, one is probably her mother, given the date of birth of 1863 and another a brother; not sure about the third.
Is the Register listed by address? What are the odds that the mother and at least two adult children would be living together so many years later? And while I have leaf hints for the mother and brother, none list the Register, just the married sister.
jorghes
LostCousins Superstar
You can search the 1939 Register by address on Find My Past; Ancestry's records and dependent on FMP. Those who are blanked out are supposed to be those born less than 100 years ago who are still alive, or at least were still alive in about 1991 (I think that date is incorrect) when they stopped updating the Register. (That doesn't always work, my grandmother was born over 100 years ago, but died in Australia in the 1960s, and while you can search for her, her Register entry is blanked out - rather than that of her sister, who was born less than 100 years ago, but has also died.)
There's nothing to say a widowed mother shouldn't have been living with an adult child - my great-grandmother is on the 1939 Register living with her eldest daughter, spinster, and a grandchild (niece of the eldest daughter), next door to her youngest son and his wife.
The chances that people weren't where you would expect them to be on Registration Day are high - there was a war on!
canadianbeth
LostCousins Star
So it is most likely that the person blacked out was a son or daughter of my aunt and her husband, who could possibly still be living.
I presume that the plan for the Register was conceived long before the actual date; it was just unfortunate that it coincided with the onset of war.
I presume that the plan for the Register was conceived long before the actual date; it was just unfortunate that it coincided with the onset of war.
jorghes
LostCousins Superstar
That is the presumption, yes.
You could search for a likely person in the Births index on Ancestry - luckily they don't have the same 100 year limit Australia's does- by simply searching by surname (click Exact) and then adding the mother's maiden name (also click exact). Occasionally it gives you a definitive list, but sometimes there is a longer list to which you can apply a bit of common sense and logic to deciding which names would be the most likely.
Susan
LostCousins Member
From what I understand, the government had started preparations for the 1941 census (which was never actually taken because of the war) so they used these when it became obvious that there was about to be a war as it was necessary to issue identity cards.
In 1948 the the 1939 register was used as the database for the NHS and was manually updated until 1991. People born less than 100 years ago who died before 1991 would have this fact noted in the database so those records are open. Similarly, women who married after the register was compiled had their new surnames added to the register.
Since the register was first issued on Find My Past, the company has managed to match some entries in the 1939 register with entries in the death index after 1991, and those record have now been opened - my father is one of these, he died in 1998.
But anyone born less than 100 years ago who cannot be proved to have died is still redacted.
In 1948 the the 1939 register was used as the database for the NHS and was manually updated until 1991. People born less than 100 years ago who died before 1991 would have this fact noted in the database so those records are open. Similarly, women who married after the register was compiled had their new surnames added to the register.
Since the register was first issued on Find My Past, the company has managed to match some entries in the 1939 register with entries in the death index after 1991, and those record have now been opened - my father is one of these, he died in 1998.
But anyone born less than 100 years ago who cannot be proved to have died is still redacted.
I don't believe it was used from 1948, although I may have written that it was. I subsequently read that it was only repurposed after identity cards were abolished.
Although the handwritten registers were used in some parts of the country until 1991 computerisation in other areas started about a decade earlier. I don't think I've ever seen an entry after 1988.
malvolio63
New Member
Does anyone have a means of decoding the registration district and sub district codes that appear at the top right of most pages on the 1939 register? The 1921 and 1931 census reports available at histpop.org.uk are of some use but many counties reorganised their districts in the 1930s and the numbers appear to have changed in many cases.