1939 Register up and running

[Rena]

Well I give up with my paternal grandparents, a fairly unusual name but I can't find them. The two addresses I have for them don't show anything, Ive searched the whole road. I've even put in searches just using their first names and dates of birth and leaving places blank, nothing! I've found one of their married sons and a married daughter, but the other 3 sons would be with them and would be redacted as they were born after 1915.

Would the fact that my grandfather's parents were German have anything to do with it?

I've found my German great grandfather born 1854 and his family who lived with him (and incidentally lived in a "restricted" area near a seaport). I do know that some German cousins of his family were classed as "Aliens" and were sent to the Isle of Wight.

However, I can't find one of his granddaughters (who was one of my mother's sisters) or her husband and I too searched using their address plus all manner of wild cards and blanks. It's not a common surname and from recognisable given names (at Xmas party gatherings) I've found some of their relatives but my direct kin are missing.

I've also found all the men in my family except for my mother's bachelor brother who must have been one of the first to be sent abroad.

[Lola5]

Some Germans living in Uk were interned during the war. Try putting in one of the daughter's/ sons' names instead.

I am having difficulty with it too. I have found my father. It gives   one other person(probably my mother) and 7 others are locked. So even if I pay  the 60 credits needed I will still only get my parents and the address(which is on my birth cert) so not worth it. The other seven people, closed, on it are all deceased but to correct this and allow a change to be made one has to give proof- presumably  attach scanned death certs . I have three death certs but no scanner. The other deaths I have been informed of( if they are all who I think they are.)
.So I think it's a daft way of going about things. One should be able to just give the gRO details of the deaths and leave it for them to check.
So all in all I'm very disappointed with it but glad others have had more success.

[KGarrad]

I do know that some German cousins of his family were classed as "Aliens" and were sent to the Isle of Wight.

Reckon you mean Isle of Man?
That's where internment camps were located!

[groom]

Some Germans living in UK were interned during the war. Try putting in one of the daughter's/ sons' names instead.

I know he wasn't interned as I have photos of him as an ARP warden. Unfortunately my father and his two brothers were born after 1915 and the two siblings who were married I've found living elsewhere. It is so frustrating as I know the address where they must have been in Croydon by then, as I have letter's written to them from my uncle in 1941. I have also searched East Ham as well. as that is where they were before, just in case they moved after the start of the war.

[Beeonthebay]

I have found my grandmothers name along with 1 person able to be shown and 1 other redacted in the indexes.  I have also found somebody else with the exact same name and year of birth as my grandmother on their own.  Common name both living in the same big city.

I haven't bought any credits yet but how would you know which was the right ancestor without unlocking them both?

[davidft]

Using the TNA reference to Search

I don't have any credits but have managed to find out who was living with my great-grandparents

Do the search for the person you do know and make a note of the reference

eg RG101/0950E/009/*

you don't need the last digits represent by the *

then if you do a blank search (no names or places) just using the reference, you ignore the RG101, the piece number (in my eg) 0950E and the item number 009

If I do this search I get a long list of people but the family I want will have sequential numbers. You have to do a free preview of all the names but you can work out who is living with whom. Just hover over the free preview button and the full reference should be displayed at the bottom left of the screen.

The lady that was living with my great-grandparents was listed after them.

Thanks for this method. I tried this and at first it did not work. The number I tried putting in was 27561, Arggg so for anyone who doesn't pick it up the fifth digit of the piece reference is alphabetical so I should have been entereing 2756I rather than 27561 and then it does work.

[davidft]

I have found my grandmothers name along with 1 person able to be shown and 1 other redacted in the indexes.  I have also found somebody else with the exact same name and year of birth as my grandmother on their own.  Common name both living in the same big city.

I haven't bought any credits yet but how would you know which was the right ancestor without unlocking them both?

If you know your grandmother's birthday eg 1 May 1898 you could enter that in the search details and if its recorded it should pick her up

[Lola5]

There were other Internment camps. One was a hotel in Brighton so I heard. Also people went abroad, some to Belgium. This happened in ww1 One of my relatives was married to a German woman so they spent the war in Belgium.
It may have been the same in ww2. People went to canada and USA to keep their families safe.
Other German families in Britain may have taken refuge with relaives so that may be why they are not where we expect to find then in1939.

[bugbear]

Just hover over the free preview button and the full reference should be displayed at the bottom left of the screen.
 

Well, pedantically, the URL-the-button-leads-to is displayed in the status bar of at least one current browser.

But since the status bar is bottom left, and the full reference is part of the URL, it comes out to what you said - but might be different, depending on browser.

In particular, it's very different to the data you get in Anc*stry when you hover over a search result, where Ance*stry have gone to quite a lot of programming effort to give a useful "taster" of the data.

(oh, and thanks for the search method!)

 BugBear