• Only registered members can see all the forums - if you've received an invitation to join (it'll be on your My Summary page) please register NOW!

  • If you're looking for the LostCousins site please click the logo in the top left corner - these forums are for existing LostCousins members only.
  • This is the LostCousins Forum. If you were looking for the LostCousins website simply click the logo at the top left.
  • It's easier than ever before to check your entries from the 1881 Census - more details here

The 1939 Register

AdrienneQ

AdrienneQ

Moderator
Staff member
Just got the following about the pricing of the 1939 Register records on Find My Past

Pricing

Records will be available to purchase for £6.95 per household or £24.95 for our 5 household bundle (£4.99 per household).

As a valued subscriber, we will be sending an exclusive code to you soon which will entitle you to 25% off our 5 household bundle.
 
and...
on Monday 2nd November 2015, the 1939 Register will be made available online for the very first time, only on Findmypast.

US pricing:

Records will be available to purchase for $10.95 per household or $37.95 for our 5 household bundle ($7.59 per household).
 
To me this by household charge is one big con. After all the hype I find it very disappointing.
It looks like a typical Nat Archives money grab.:eek:
I just cannot afford to 'buy' information at this rate. FMP offered me just 10% discount and I've been a member for many years.

Why isn't there a subscription rate? This worked well with the 1911 Census.
Maybe if we all blacklisted the register the prices may come down.....:mad:
 
FMP 1939 records. From looking around Facebook and other sites I think there are many that are disappointed with the charges some that will not renew their subscriptions. I will just wait a while at some point the charge will end I hope. Shame after all the hype.
 
The reaction from volunteers working on the Lives of the First World War project echoes the opinions here. Some of them have remembered 5000 stories and were hoping to solve some mysteries through the 1939 registers. One at least is talking seriously about a trip to the National Archives where they can be accessed for free.
 
patzy said:
Why isn't there a subscription rate? This worked well with the 1911 Census.
Click to expand...
PaulB said:
Shame after all the hype.
Click to expand...
How refreshing to find others voicing my own concerns. I felt the same when first trying to access Scotland People, and again Roots Ireland (or an offshoot) who all began the same way (and perhaps still do as I have not been back to check). FMP's attempts to coin in after what we all acknowledge as gallant attempts to scan the Registers and produce viable transcriptions is understandable, but as very often the case with 'exclusivity' they attempt to make hay whilst the sun shines. They should remember a thing is only worth what people will pay!

Patzy is right to ask why they didn't just add a small premium to the subscription (or a separate one pro tem) and retain pay to view for those who do not have one (but at much lower prices see later). If my memory serves they tried pay-to view- when they were first to add the 1911 Census only to convert to subscription when Ancestry came in later with 1911 as part of their subscription.

My first thought when I saw their proposed 1939 Register costs (even with a discount sweetener) was HOW MUCH? I would perhaps agree to pay £6.95 for 5 households and might even consider (say) an additional £5 for every 5 households thereafter. For a single household I might allow my arm to be twisted to pay £2.50 But £24.95 (approx £18.70 if eligible for discount) for 5 households and £6.95 for a single household is taking the proverbial!:mad:. I shall not be searching the Register until such time as it is part of the subscription or a separate subscription levy. Meanwhile I will see what others think in the Forum and elsewhere.
 
Last edited:
A free search and view the transcription then maybe 3.95 to download the original page is what I was expecting. This would be inline with some other sites e.g. burial records. One thing for sure, the site will not suffer from excessive traffic come 2nd November.
 
emjay said:
A free search and view the transcription then maybe 3.95 to download the original page is what I was expecting. This would be inline with some other sites e.g. burial records. One thing for sure, the site will not suffer from excessive traffic come 2nd November.
Click to expand...
Yes that is certainly more in tune with my own thoughts. It is such a shame that the FMP hawks won the day when it came to setting a cost as I am sure there would have been others trying to pitch costs to meet the pockets of those in the real world. FMP would have been better setting their sights on Amazon's modus operandi, than Apple's. The 1939 Register is good, but not THAT good.
 
The cost of 60 credits compares with 40 credits when the 1911 Census was released, so it is more expensive, but not by that much (since in 2009 there were no discounts for existing subscribers). Even when the 1911 Census became available as a subscription it cost £59.99 a year, or £39.99 for 6 months.

Also, whereas we got just one household from the 1911 Census, we'll get an entire page from the 1939 Register (or two pages if the household we searched for is split), so if there were relatives living next door (or we're just nosey about the neighbours) we'll get rather better value for money.

As with the 1911 Census, this initial release will attract people who aren't family historians - and hopefully some of them will take up our hobby as a result of what they find. I don't suppose many experienced family researchers will pay to look at more than 5 or 10 households from their tree at this stage - although we can't assume that it will follow the same price trajectory as the 1911 Census (it will depend how long the records are exclusive to Findmypast).

Annoying though it may be that the launch price is higher than most people expected, it should mean that - as in 2009 - Findmypast will recover most of their investment from casual searchers, rather than from us. Which, taking a longer-term view, can only be a good thing!
 
Just received this

From Monday 2nd November, it will be free to search the register and to preview the transcript that includes the person’s name, year of birth, town and county of residence. In addition, you’ll be able to see how many other people lived in the house at the time and how many of them are closed due to being younger than 100 years old and still alive.

This will help you to confirm if you’ve found the right person and then you can choose to unlock the record. Unlocking will give you all of the additional information such as address, dates of birth, occupations and marital statuses of everyone that lived there, plus the original record image, maps, newspapers and exclusive photos of the time.
 
It's worth reminding everyone that it's always free to search at Findmypast, and that you can often glean useful information with a free search. It's particularly handy for GRO index searches up to 1915, because Ancestry and FreeBMD use substantially the same indexes for this period.
 
I'll wait and see how it is before I criticize, but nevertheless I have the feeling I've lost a £ and found a penny.

The pricing, after a slight deduction, will be the same for subscribers and non-subscribers. I have a monthly world subscription so I may let a few months slide......
 
emjay said:
A free search and view the transcription then maybe 3.95 to download the original page is what I was expecting.
Click to expand...
Your wish has been granted! When you buy 900 credits the cost comes down to £3.66 per household.

However many credits you decide to buy, and whether or not you're using a discount coupon, please use the links in my Special Edition newsletter, OUT NOW!!!!
 
It's live and working at 1am. Just tried a few free searches. Found my grandmother.
Too late to test it properly
 
Check out the link in the newsletter which will take you to my page of tips, which I've been updating since 5am.
 
Just done some quick searches as I am going out soon.
I found my parents but not my husband's parents.
It looks like you cannot search on a closed person, just realised that will be why I cannot find my husbands parents.
They died after the register was transcribed, so they will be closed records.
Will come back to it later, but I have had no problems searching or with access to the website.
K
 
peter said:
Check out the link in the newsletter which will take you to my page of tips, which I've been updating since 5am.
Click to expand...
love the URL! ... in which you say
Only Findmypast subscribers with Britain or World subscriptions are able to open up records (even though those subscriptions don't give you access to the 1939 Register)
Click to expand...
Wow, I suspect that's going to catch out a few hopefuls :eek:
 
I have downloaded 10 images so far, but web site is now getting busy and downloads are corrupt. I really like the Advance search, you can search by just DOB and you get ALL the people in the country with that DOB.
My mothers surname was transcribed incorrectly. I already had paid £42 to get a copy of her entry a year ago so was able to find her by other unrelated names at that house.

My father died before 1991 but does not appear so have emailed FMP with copy of his cert to try to get him unlocked. I have no idea were he lived in 1939. May have to dig through his diary's to get some clues.

What surprised me is you get all the neighbours, which is certainly a bonus.
An conundrum is how to record the address in 1939 in my Family tree software, I have decided to call it the 1939 Census!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top