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The 1939 Register

I've come across something that I don't yet understand and there may be someone out there who can enlighten me. My mother-in-law's aunt pops up in the 1939 Register as the sole person in her household. Name is correct, d.o.b. looks right. Borough/District is given as Foreign Office Book 1, London, England. Now Teta was born in Prague and her name is Czech (so unusual). In fact she is the only person with that name in the Register. But what does Foreign Office Book 1 mean?
 
sally52 said:
I've come across something that I don't yet understand and there may be someone out there who can enlighten me. My mother-in-law's aunt pops up in the 1939 Register as the sole person in her household. Name is correct, d.o.b. looks right. Borough/District is given as Foreign Office Book 1, London, England. Now Teta was born in Prague and her name is Czech (so unusual). In fact she is the only person with that name in the Register. But what does Foreign Office Book 1 mean?
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I would think (and this is purely speculative) it would concern her UK domicile especially if not as yet of registered British nationality, or perhaps even is she was because of a foreign birth in a time of War . Perhaps therefore her registration 'District' was overridden and that of the Foreign Office (where she appears in Book 1 -perhaps a list of foreign nationals) substituted to accord with policy ruling at that time.

As Peter reminds the Register would be updated for many years to come with personal changes (females married or re-married) but not sure that would cover a change of residence status which might or might not show if credits are used to unlock her household. That's my best shot anyway.
 
sally52 said:
I've come across something that I don't yet understand and there may be someone out there who can enlighten me. My mother-in-law's aunt pops up in the 1939 Register as the sole person in her household. Name is correct, d.o.b. looks right. Borough/District is given as Foreign Office Book 1, London, England. Now Teta was born in Prague and her name is Czech (so unusual). In fact she is the only person with that name in the Register. But what does Foreign Office Book 1 mean?
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I would suspect that if you look up any foreigner in the 1939 Register you'll find that they are cross-referenced to another register - at time of war foreign nationals were of particular interest to the authorities.
 
peter said:
I would suspect that if you look up any foreigner in the 1939 Register you'll find that they are cross-referenced to another register - at time of war foreign nationals were of particular interest to the authorities.
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Thank you, Bob and Peter. I was also thinking along those lines, although I hadn't considered where I might find that "other" register. TNA, I guess. I'll do some digging and let you know when I find out. Teta's sister Emelia, also of Czech birth, was married to an Englishman, so appears in the Register with him.
 
sally52 said:
Thank you, Bob and Peter. I was also thinking along those lines, although I hadn't considered where I might find that "other" register. TNA, I guess. I'll do some digging and let you know when I find out.
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It's certainly worth enquiring of TNA - perhaps you could ask them what other 'special' registers exist (or did exist)?
 
Slightly off Topic, but just received two extracts from the Scottish 1939 register, at £15 each. You get exactly what it says on the tin, extracts. Just a transcript of the person you asked for, Address, Name, DOB, Occupation. No copy of image, no list of other people at same address, but it does come on watermarked archive paper with an embossed stamp for authenticity. There is a plus side in that you do not need to know the persons address, just name & DOB.
 
uncle024 said:
Slightly off Topic, but just received two extracts from the Scottish 1939 register, at £15 each. You get exactly what it says on the tin, extracts. Just a transcript of the person you asked for, Address, Name, DOB, Occupation. No copy of image, no list of other people at same address, but it does come on watermarked archive paper with an embossed stamp for authenticity. There is a plus side in that you do not need to know the persons address, just name & DOB.
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Before the 1939 Register went online TNA were also providing transcripts under the FOI Act - at £42 per household.

(By contrast, when I requested a copy of my record from the NHS Central Register I got a photocopy of the manual entry plus a printout of the computer record.)

They initially said that it would be necessary for applicants to provide evidence of death for each person, but they subsequently used their own records to determine which members of the household were deceased.

Whilst nobody likes pay-per-view, least of all me, the cost of accessing the 1939 Register online doesn't seem quite so bad in the context of the FOI charges!
 
I got two separate half price offers, each for a single family. So I had a go. :D

I was able to find one family that I knew very little about and added some more blood related cousins.

I then went for my own family. They weren't there. I tried all sorts of varieties of searches for variations on the surname and and drew a blank. In desperation I searched for just my fathers year of birth plus the surname "c" with variations. After combing through pages of entries I found it - badly miss-spelled. The original was very clear, maybe the transcriber had gone to sleep....
Once I got there the list was very interesting. The whole of the corner of my village was on it - I shall have fun trying to find out what happened to them. I also got the names of the servants, one looks like a relative by marriage - very interesting.;)

Now I'm really looking forward to the time when the prices really come down.
 
patzy said:
I then went for my own family. They weren't there. I tried all sorts of varieties of searches for variations on the surname and and drew a blank. In desperation I searched for just my fathers year of birth plus the surname "c" with variations. After combing through pages of entries I found it - badly miss-spelled. The original was very clear, maybe the transcriber had gone to sleep.....
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I could not find my father, even though he died before 1990, so sent copy of his death certificate and they unlocked it. In his case it may be because his original death entry had wrong year of birth which was then corrected. Transcription was correct so no transcription error. Biggest problem is if you don't know address in 1939 you cannot unlock an entry at FMP or TNA.

Just a tip, if you get a half price offer you will find that you can use it more than once! At least mine worked twice!
 
uncle024 said:
Just a tip, if you get a half price offer you will find that you can use it more than once! At least mine worked twice!
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Thanks for the tip - remember to click the link in my newsletter (or this one here) so that LostCousins can benefit.
 
patzy said:
Once I got there the list was very interesting. The whole of the corner of my village was on it - I shall have fun trying to find out what happened to them. I also got the names of the servants, one looks like a relative by marriage - very interesting
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I found it particularly interesting looking at the streets where I grew up - there were several names I recognised, some of which I had forgotten.
 
The 1939 register is very interesting . Can anyone explain some of the notes in green pen. There is a date with some letters . It is not the marrige date .
 
Willibrod said:
The 1939 register is very interesting . Can anyone explain some of the notes in green pen. There is a date with some letters . It is not the marrige date .
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Anything written in a different colour pen is a later update (green and red are the most popular colours). The dates shown are always after the event that triggered the update, usually a marriage or divorce - my guess is that they're either the date of the form on which the change was notified, the date on which it was copied into the register, or the date on which a new ID card or NHS card was issued (the last two might well be the same).

I'd be interested to know the most recent update that anyone has found - I don't think I've seen anything more recent than the 1970s.
 
I have come across RNP with a date on several occasions each relating to a marriage or correction of the data (normally DoB) - I wonder what it is an abbreviation of.
 
I have supplied death certificates on a few occasions and had the entry opened up with no problem but when trying to do the same for my Mother the first address I supplied (the one she was at earlier in 1939) it was declined as not at that address. I supplied a second request using the address she was at in 1940 to get the same response. In desperation I tried again using her fathers address as there were a couple of blacked out entries there but this time asking (in the comments) that if this address was again incorrect that a quick search could be made as I knew for definite that she was in this area at the time. The positive response came back stating that she was at the address supplied on the first request - I am glad that FMP provide this service at no cost to the enquirer.
 
Bryman said:
A very wise choice. Much better than selecting something like Major (Major Major Major), as in Catch 22. I thought that very funny when reading the book but now find several of my ancestors on my mother's side also had such a name (singular, not 4 times).
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Bryman, I too have a number of Majors in my family tree, mostly with the surname Duckworth. I was delighted to find in the army records that at least one of them made it to sergeant - yes Sergeant Major Duckworth!
 
Just received an email from FMP. I'm glad I stuck it out and resisted the temptation to buy credits. :cool:

We're pleased to let you know that as a valued member of Findmypast from the 16th February 2016, we're giving you unlimited access to our premium record set, the 1939 Register. This is only available at Findmypast, so you'll soon be able to discover names, addresses and occupations of your family in England and Wales on the eve of the Second World War.
 
Tim said:
Just received an email from FMP. I'm glad I stuck it out and resisted the temptation to buy credits. :cool:

We're pleased to let you know that as a valued member of Findmypast from the 16th February 2016, we're giving you unlimited access to our premium record set, the 1939 Register. This is only available at Findmypast, so you'll soon be able to discover names, addresses and occupations of your family in England and Wales on the eve of the Second World War.
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This only applies to 12 month subscribers and is accompanied by a 20% increase in the price of subscriptions (although existing subscribers will have their next renewal frozen at the current price less their 10% loyalty discount).
 
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