1939 Register up and running

[Cell]

Well I've playing about with it all morning ( when I should have been doing some work  ) using the tip that Dawnsh posted with the RG numbers to see who else is in the households ,found everyone ( except hubby's paternal grandparents ,still hidng - but he may be off in the army, and I know his grandmother and children were evacuated to another county,but don't know what date and he served in the army). Found one of  my G grandmother's , that I wasn't sure she was still alive , but she was, living by herself, so at least I've narrowed down when she may have died now for her death cert which I've never been able to find

I really can't ever see me ever purchasing the records even if they came down to just a pound each, as all my ones I know where, who and what etc . I also know who the people are in the closed records as well. There is no point in me purchasing the records
.
It would be interesting to know out of the millions(?) of people that are searching what percentage of these people will buy (or bought)the records and what percentage of people are gleaning enough info from the free search and won't be buying them (like myself). I bet the latter would be by far the huge majority.
 If it was part of the normal sub fair enough, but there is no way on earth that I'm going to buy any of the records as it's a total waste( for my situation)

Kind Regards

[Guy Etchells]

.... means she was born after 1915 -- and so should be redacted (ie a closed record) unless they are sure she died before 1991

Yeah, I then worked that out .... and thought "Well, what a lot of hoo-hah about nothing".... so tantalisingly useful .... and so appallingly poor

While I'm sure it'll have some occasional use, it's not exactly the record set I thought we were being promised, the big fanfare..... it's quite a disappointment.

Right now it'd be handy to have a big red button on my tree software that enabled me to type in a year and have it highlight everybody that was alive on that date..... I guess I'll have to trawl through it manually.

Well if you can do so much better why haven't you?
It is easy to sit in your armchair and criticise others but far more difficult to go out and do the work.

You assume that FindMyPast have made errors because you cannot see certain people on the index but you have not looked at one scan of the records they have to work with.
Do you know they have made a mistake?
Do you know the enumerator did not make a mistake in transcription?

At least FindMyPast have made the effort and produced a useful online resource something that would never have got off the ground if had been left to the likes of you.

If you want to help fellow genealogist be part of the solution not part of the problem.
Open a few records send scans of death certificates of people you know are dead (you do have death certificates don't you) and help instead of moaning.

Cheers
Guy

[Guy Etchells]

The £25 charge is the charge payable to the National Archives to do a search. This would only be incurred if you wanted a redacted record opened and did not have a subscription with FindMyPast. If you have a subscription (and have unlocked the record concerned), FindMyPast provide the service free

This was my experience as well.  See #33 above, page 4, although I didn't know it was connected to the fact that I don't have an active subscription.  Ding! ding! ding!  It seems outrageous considering they can do it for free for some and charge others so much.  They charge enough for the records themselves.

If by they you mean FindMyPast then they are not charging you the National Archives are levying the charge complain to them.
Better still make a Freedom of Information request to the National Archives they are holding a copy of the records and have to release the information if the person is deceased.
They may claim they don't have to as the record is available elsewhere but that is wrong if the person is redacted even after they are deceased.
If the subject is deceased they have a legal duty to disclose the information to you.

Cheers
Guy

[loo]

Thanks for the advice, Guy.
Applying to UK under Freedom of Info is well beyond my abilities to carry out at this time for personal reasons, but others may be able to pursue this route.  I wouldn't know where to begin, and, well, as I said, I'm quite limited right now.

I don't think any complaint from me would have the slightest effect, especially as a non-Brit.     

It is certainly confusing if it's TNA that levies the 25pound charge but findmypast who can waive it.

[Samantha]

It seems somewhat cheeky for there to be a charge to view a household and a charge to get a redacted record unredacted for the household (in some cases this is multiple people who are now dead) when by going through this whole process we are actually doing a large component of the work for the provider who will continue to earn money of every view of the household by others who would be more inclined to pay to view when there are more members visible (or unredacted).

[loo]

It seems somewhat cheeky for there to be a charge to view a household and a charge to get a redacted record unredacted for the household (in some cases this is multiple people who are now dead) when by going through this whole process we are actually doing a large component of the work for the provider who will continue to earn money of every view of the household by others who would be more inclined to pay to view when there are more members visible (or unredacted).

Agreed.  It's comparable to ancestry, which has some of the most regrettable transcriptions, which WE correct. I am grateful for corrections submitted by others but wish we weren't obliged to support ancestry.

[LizzieL]

...we are actually doing a large component of the work for the provider who will continue to earn money of every view of the household by others who would be more inclined to pay to view when there are more members visible (or unredacted).

How many "others" are likely to view an individual household? If I sent my mother's death certificate to FindMyPast (to which I have an annual subscription) It shouldn't cost me anything. I already have several copies of her death certificate because I registered her death and assisted my brother (her executor) sorting out probate etc. But getting her record unredacted would only benefit me. I can't see anyone else being at all interested in this household, so FindMyPast would not gain additional revenue from my actions. 

[StevieSteve]

It would probably have been quicker to scan the cert and email it than write out that post

[bugbear]

...we are actually doing a large component of the work for the provider who will continue to earn money of every view of the household by others who would be more inclined to pay to view when there are more members visible (or unredacted).

How many "others" are likely to view an individual household? If I sent my mother's death certificate to FindMyPast (to which I have an annual subscription) It shouldn't cost me anything. I already have several copies of her death certificate because I registered her death and assisted my brother (her executor) sorting out probate etc. But getting her record unredacted would only benefit me. I can't see anyone else being at all interested in this household, so FindMyPast would not gain additional revenue from my actions.

Agreed - it's surely a common experience that as you go back in time you're more and more likely to find that a fellow genealogist has been before you.

This is because ancestors further back have a larger pool of descendants from whom genealogists can emerge.

By the time you're at 1939 the pool of descendants is much smaller.

 bugBear