1939 Register up and running (Part 3)

[pursebearer]

Well I've tried every method I can think of and can't find my grandparents and I know exactly where they were living.

I've searched:
Using just names  (not a very common one)
Using names of both plus dates of birth
Using surnames and just the borough
Using first names and borough
Using first names and dates of birth
Searching the whole of their road.

I've found it's worth trying date of birth and borough; it will probably be a long list of results but you may well find that by scanning through it, you'll easily spot the names have been mangled during transcription.

[groom]

An update on my last post that pursebearer quoted. After contacting FindMyPast twice, I checked again at the weekend and my grandfather is now there, so they must have added to their records. No idea where my grandmother is though, she should be with him.

[clairec666]

I've found it's worth trying date of birth and borough; it will probably be a long list of results but you may well find that by scanning through it, you'll easily spot the names have been mangled during transcription.

Another tip - try the date of birth without the year, sometimes I've found it to be a year or two out (maybe they forgot which year they were born?) and sometimes it's been wildly wrong, e.g. 1872 mistranscribed as 1892.

[CarolA3]

I've just emailed FindMyPast as follows:

'My father's record is redacted in 1939 but he died on (date) 1989 - details on GRO death index:  (full name, full GRO ref including date of birth).
If that name and d.o.b. match the 1939 entry for (address, TNA ref), will there be any need for a death certificate?'

My point is that his address, marital status, and occupation changed between 1939 and 1989; his name and d.o.b. didn't.  So the GRO index contains as much relevant information as the cert would.

I'll post their response here.

Carol

P.S.  Luckily I'd written down the TNA ref before they removed it

Added:  Standard email arrived within minutes repeating instructions for submitting death cert.  Will now try 'Live Chat'.

'Live Chat' referred this to ?someone else and I had an email on 17 Dec refusing my request and asking for the death cert again

On 23 Dec I got the same email as everyone else - '2.8 million opened records'.  You've guessed it - my father's record is now open as part of FindMyPast's ongoing review - which uses ....(drum roll).... the GRO death index

Carol

[clairec666]

On 23 Dec I got the same email as everyone else - '2.8 million opened records'.  You've guessed it - my father's record is now open as part of FindMyPast's ongoing review - which uses ....(drum roll).... the GRO death index

Hurrah! I'm surprised they've managed to implement this so quickly. I thought we'd have to wait a little longer.

I've now managed to find where my grandmother was evacuated to.

[msr]

Brilliant news Carol and Claire, my father also died in 1989 but was still redacted as of 10 December.

I have mentioned this before although perhaps on another thread: when at a presentation by Myko from FindMyPast I asked why this was so as the magic date of 1991 was mentioned.  He said to keep checking as the updating is a constant process, what is redacted one week could very well be open the next.   He was right, a few days later both my father and uncle were open, born in 1917 and 1920.

It pays to keep revisiting the site.

[clairec666]

I wonder whether only exact matches with the death register will be opened? At least two of my relatives have got a different year of birth in 1939 to the one in the death index, and sometimes middle names haven't been listed in 1939... and of course there are plenty of mistranscribed dates and ages too. It's amazing how many new records have been revealed, but I would imagine there are lots that won't exactly match the death index and will remain closed.

[ScouseBoy]

There is a contradiction and  a discrepancy on what we are being told, I believe.

My mother was born in 1915  and died at age 60.

My father was born in 1916 and died at the end of 1984.
Was the NHS   register kept maintained after 1984?

[carol8353]

Yes it was maintained up to 1991,but the facts would only be amended on the 1939 register if they were told. If someone died in hospital there was less chance that the register would be informed.