Not the latest newsletter , but the 1939 Register Special

[allmat]

There’s a 1939 Register page quoted as a source for the birthdate of an Ernest Cheeseman – see here

I noticed that almost all the entries were closed, and wondered why. Then I noticed that the addresses were not consecutive, nor were the schedule numbers. And Ernest was ‘37/4’ but only the two entries above were closed, rather than three.

Checking the same page on FMP offered me a filmstrip of nine pages – Ernest is on the last one. Scrolling back, his family are on page 3, and Ernest’s perfectly legible entry is crossed through with a note ‘see page 9’. Which begs the obvious question – why?

Page 9 holds just 10 visible lines. The first eight are clearly the final ones in a ‘set’ of 138 schedules. The remaining two are partial elements of schedules 37 and 16.

Ernest is 37/4, and the other one is 16/2 and is annotated at far right ‘see page 1’, where the original entry is not crossed out, but is annotated ‘see page 9’. But in both cases the pairs of entries contain the same data. Why does an entry from page 3 precede one from page 1? And while only two out of place lines are visible, it seems possible (even likely) that a further 30 ‘officially closed’ lines might also relate to earlier schedules.

One of the issues with genealogical research is that while we have access to the actual historical records (or images of them) we lack the context. We do not know in detail what instructions the person writing the record was supposed to follow. Why does this filmstrip contain nine images – what common element makes them a set? (I suspect they’re all the schedules for Registration district and subdistrict ‘10.5’ – but the first line on page 1 is officially closed and the second line is schedule 1/1, so perhaps not).

But why are some of them ‘moved’ to the final page? Is there some data on the right hand page that might explain this? How would we know?

[I posted this in my 'Sandbox' post and as expected did not get a reply - but as it seems OK I'll now post it live. And if it belong in a different subforum please move it.]

 

[webwiz]

Some random observations:
From the entry on p3 I see that Ernest is the youngest member of his family at 18. FMP could not make out the Christian name, but it does look like Ernest, note the E in Emily a few lines above.
The large number of redacted entries on p9 may indicate that 1-6 New Wharf Rd was an orphanage, or possibly a school or some other institution for children. Possibly Ernest was listed twice if for example he was in some kind of halfway house between the two addresses.
The London Canal Museum now occupies a building in the locality, but I am not sure if it is the same one.

 

[Sue_3]

This is explained in the guidance on The National Archives website :

In short, the right hand pages, which were not digitised, were used by the government and, later, the NHS for recording information. If the entry on the right hand side was full then another entry was created elsewhere with the note 'see page ...'.

 

[allmat]

That sort of makes sense - although I've just seen another example where I doubt that's the case. Via Ancestry, Valerie Irene Baker appears on a page where almost all of the entries are redacted. But via FMP the family appear, with Valerie redacted and her mother crossed through with a note 'See page 13'. I wonder if this indicates preparation for evacuation?

 

[peter]

I wonder if this indicates preparation for evacuation?

No - it's a continuation entry.

 

[allmat]

OK, if so then why is her mother crossed through on the original page, and why does the page on which Valerie's details are visible appear to be page 95 rather than 13, and why are almost all of the entries redacted? I doubt there are many pages (apart perhaps from a boarding school or similar) where only 8 out of 44 lines are visible.

 

[peter]

OK, if so then why is her mother crossed through on the original page, and why does the page on which Valerie's details are visible appear to be page 95 rather than 13, and why are almost all of the entries redacted? I doubt there are many pages (apart perhaps from a boarding school or similar) where only 8 out of 44 lines are visible.

The handwritten page numbers do not denote the page within the book - I doubt there were any books with as many as 95 pages, and if you go to the first page in this book (image 2 at Ancestry or image 1 at Findmypast) you'll see that it is numbered 67. Findmypast's numbering matches the page numbers written in red ink, Ancestry's doesn't.

As it happens continuation entries for Valerie Baker and her mother Jessica can both be found on page 13 (numbered 91 at the top) - they're just not next to each other, because their right-hand pages filled up at different times.

 

[allmat]

Thanks - and on a different subject, hope your eye op goes OK