1939 Register up and running

[smudwhisk]

I have a UK subscription and have had a few emails - some not read- from FindMyPast re the register.
Today's offered me 25% discount and I just checked last Thursday's does too. It expires at the end of the month. Not sure when my subscription expires though.

Where does the email say the discount code expires at the end of the month please?  Mine from Thursday doesn't say anything about an expiry date as far as I can see.

[Aulus]

Has anyone started a petition to the government yet to have the names of redacted people made available, even if their other details remain redacted? 

I had no idea this register was still being maintained and updated to 1991: anyone know of any articles etc about how and why this was done? Were civil servants employed to scan GRO indexes and look for possible marriages & deaths, or did they get copies from the GRO, to cross reference?

Good points.  How and why update a register from 1939?  All the way up to 1991.

Big brother?   

Ha!  I'm more inclined to think that the job(s) had been created to make use of the register with regard to the creation of the NHS, and the role just carried on until somebody in 1991 asked "why are we paying those people in the cellar who keep putting in requisitions for green pencils?" 

[Leeeeeese]

The published expiry period for credits is 90 days. When I purchased mine a little while ago, I was advised that they would expire end of March 2016 - which is when my annual subscription expires.
Perhaps if you don't have an annual subscription, they expire in 90 days; and if you have an annual subscription they expire when your subscription [annual] expires...

[ec]

According to the FindMyPast site
O – Officer
V – Visitor
S – Servant
P – Patient
I – Inmate

ec

[susieroe]

I’m having mixed results with this.

Like others, I am disappointed that more information is not available.

I am looking for my father (b1917, d1993).  I now understand that, because he died after 1991, his record will be closed.

However, he does not come up in the name search and, as I have no idea at all where he was living or who with, I am afraid that I will not be able to find him.

Am I right in assuming this, or is there another way?

My Dad is shown on the preview, he died in 2004. But he was born in 1909, over 100 years ago, so could that be the reason as yours was not born until 1917?

Anyway, I'm not investing as I've found 3 errors already, in the space of half an hour. But having fun bringing up the roads, and being reminded of neighbours I knew then!

[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 the method for this, 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.

 BugBear

[heywood]

Where does the email say the discount code expires at the end of the month please?  Mine from Thursday doesn't say anything about an expiry date as far as I can see.

On today's email it has this, with a code:

Discount code cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer. Code expires: 23:59 30/11/15. T&Cs apply

Last Thursday's just has a link to 'Get your code' (or similar) and I don't want to click on that in case it interferes with today's message.

[Mean_genie]

Aulus

You are correct in saying that the register was being updated manually until 1991 by the National Health Service. There was a 4-year overlap between the start of the NHS in 1948 and the end of National Registration in 1952 when it was used for both purposes. National Registration Identity Card numbers became NHS numbers, and the books were used until the NHS Register was computerised and they were no longer needed. Up till then they were updated to reflect changes of name, deaths, and other coded health information which we don't get to see. Changes of address have never been recorded in the central register. Under National Registration current address details were recorded locally, and the central office was only informed of the fact that a person had moved from one district to another.         

[smudwhisk]

Where does the email say the discount code expires at the end of the month please?  Mine from Thursday doesn't say anything about an expiry date as far as I can see.

On today's email it has this, with a code:

Discount code cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer. Code expires: 23:59 30/11/15. T&Cs apply

Last Thursday's just has a link to 'Get your code' (or similar) and I don't want to click on that in case it interferes with today's message.

Thanks Heywood.  Just checked today's email and its the same code as Thursday.   So it looks they've amended the codes to include an expiry date.