1939 Register up and running (Part 3)

[ReadyDale]

Yes, that's exactly how the area codes worked, there is a full list of the 3-letter codes on FindMyPast:

http://www.findmypast.co.uk/articles/1939-register-enumeration-districts?_ga=1.71679703.551440129.1437955750

When you unlock a record you see the full reference including the 4-letter enumeration district code (this isn't always in the transcript but you will always see it at the top of the page itself). Identity Cards issued after the 1939 enumeration might have a different letter/number format.

Yes, that page was linked to in the other thread that I posted the link for.
In that thread it was thought that the three letter code formed the 2nd-4th letters of the area codes. I just wanted to correct that for those interested, to say it was actually the 1st-3rd and constituted the first code of a sequence of codes allocated to a borough.
It was from unlocked images that I got the codes I quoted.
Yes, there may be variances how ID cards were numbered later, but what I said seems to hold true for the one I have and the couple of dozen I have looked at on google images!

[andycand]

Anyone born after 2015 we can't see unless their death is proven (ie before 1991 - and not in hospital) or someone has sent a death certificate

  Why does  a death in Hospital make a difference?
[/quote]

Whilst the Register was updated until 1991 it appears that it relied upon being informed of a persons death. Below is a post from a message board that makes interesting reading.

Dear all,
Between 1987 and 1990 I spent a lot of time working with, what was by then
called, the NHS Register.  The discussion about computerising patient
records had begun and I spent some time explaining the need for a unique
identifier and pointing out that the current NHS Numbers would not work. (I
will not give you're the technical details!).

The 1939 Register was used as the basis for the NHS Register.  The records
were kept up to date because they showed which patient was allocated to
which GP.  When a patient died the GP was supposed to return their medical
file and as a consequence would have their capitation fees reduced.  (You
might see a reason there why some of them did not report deaths.) If a
patient died in hospital, or in other circumstances, the GP might not have
known about the death and the patient would remain on their books until
there was some kind of audit (a rare occurrence!).  The level of inflation
in capitation fees was estimated as being between 10% and 30%.  No one would
do anything about it for fear of upsetting the doctors.  (When the NHS
started someone asked how the doctors had been persuaded to join and was
told by the politician in charge "We stopped their mouths with gold!")

Linking death registrations to the register may have been attempted but it
is fraught with problems.  Deaths are often reported by people with little
real knowledge of the deceased.  (My grandfather registered the death of
someone who had taken in grandma when her parents died and reported the age
as 101.  He would have had no idea of her age.  She might have been about
80!)  Doctors and care workers often know only what the person has told them
and exaggerating you age is not uncommon. For married women there will be no
clues to their birth name and lots of people change or misspell their own
names.  You only have to look at the census records to see how mangled a
name can get when the recorder has only heard it and the speaker cannot
read.

My expectations of this new data set were pretty low.  It might help you
find A date of birth but I know all of my direct family ones for this period
from Grandma's Birthday Book.  Bear in mind that this set suffers from the
transcription errors of the original recorders as well as those introduced
by FindMyPast.

I hope this helps.

Andy

[Mean_genie]

Readydale

I had an idea that the link to the area codes table was somewhere in that earlier thread, but I couldn't face the prospect of trawling through 30+ pages to check!

Most numbers consist of the 3-letter area code followed by an enumeration district letter, as you say. The exception is where a card was lost or stolen and a replacement was issued, where the last letter was dropped and Y was added to the start (there were no area codes starting with Y). Quite a neat idea, really. You can usually see the 3-letter area code on the office stamp on the blue cards.

[Ruskie]

The 1939 Register, taken on 29th September 1939, also contains lots of changes, that were added up to 1991. Such as changes in surname.

I love the changeable elements of the 1939 register, it's helped me find out what happened to so many people, e.g. people who married/remarried after 1939. I've tied up so many loose ends re when/where people died. Makes my tree feel so much more complete!

Can someone please tell me where any changes are noted? There are no changes or additions to the record I have purchased. There are no maps, photos, newspapers, or statistics either as promised on the Find My Past 1939 Register "home page". Where can I find all these additional things?

[Guy Etchells]

Can someone please tell me where any changes are noted? There are no changes or additions to the record I have purchased. There are no maps, photos, newspapers, or statistics either as promised on the Find My Past 1939 Register "home page". Where can I find all these additional things?

If you look at the 1939 Register image at http://www.rootschat.com/links/01eoz/ you will see changes of surname both in pencil and in green ink, one of them also has a date (possible date of marriage) related to the change.

The maps, photos, newspapers, or statistics, etc. may be found if you scroll down the preview page below the box which details the household.

Cheers
Guy

[kooky]

Thanks Guy! Useful information, succinctly put.
Kooky

[StevieSteve]

Guy, you seem to have some insight into FindMyPast's thought processes...

Would you know how much they thought they would have to add to a yearly subscription to make it worthwhile for them?

It is an incredibly useful resource but on PAYG, I don't think many are going to go for more than the initial 5, if that.

[Alan b]

As they did when the 1911 census was released they will not move the 1939 Register onto a yearly subscription until they have made as much as they can on people buying these credits after all this will have cost them a fair bit to get this register on the site in the first place so you are looking at around a year away before this happens if not later before this happens.

[carol8353]

They need to recoup a large proportion of the money they've spent to digistise them,and until they do they will not include them in the subscription packages.

Anyone know how long it will be before we hear if our request to un redact the people who we've provided death certs for? They emailed saying 14 days,but as I did all 3 of mine on 2nd November,that date has already passed.