1939 - what have you found?

[StevieSteve]

... that the 15th most common occupation in my database is "REDACTED"

[andrewalston]

The books indexed as being in BLACKBURN despite saying BLACKPOOL in capital letters on every sheet are now findable in the right part of Lancashire.

The map they show is still wrong though.

Where there other parts of the UK similarly affected?

[LizzieW]

I don't know if this just happened in Lancashire, but several of the entries that I have looked at have entries on the extreme right hand side - the facing page - which seem to indicate war work - ARP Warden, Auxiliary Fire Service, WVS, etc.

No, not just Lancashire, I found my g.uncle in Hull and he is an ARP Warden.  I knew my gran (g.uncle's sister) in Manchester was an ARP Warden and I've a photo of her in her uniform.  She use to tell a funny story of how she went out on duty one night, leaving her dinner in the oven.  When she got home many hours later, her cooker and the dinner with it had been blown out of her kitchen window by a nearby bomb.  I don't suppose she thought it very funny at the time, but a few years later when she use to tell her grandchildren the story, she did,

[andrewalston]

It's not just over on the right hand page where the wartime occupations are seen.

In the streets around where my dad was brought up, there are loads of people with occupations most people would not think of doing in peacetime.

"Full time ARP Warden" - seen any recently?
"Face mask cutter Rubber Works" - obviously making gasmasks, and working at the same place was a 20-year old woman described as "Ins. Gas Masks Rubber Works"
"Cordite worker" - ROF Chorley was in operation until recent times, having been built in 1936. "Munitions worker" seems to be common.

Britain was already at WAR.

[Guy Etchells]

The books indexed as being in BLACKBURN despite saying BLACKPOOL in capital letters on every sheet are now findable in the right part of Lancashire.

The map they show is still wrong though.

Where there other parts of the UK similarly affected?

When you think how the 1939 National Registration was transcribed this is not surprising.
Due to the current paranoia about privacy FindMyPast were forced to have the register transcribed in columns.
This means that things that seem to be obvious when one looks at the full page were hidden from the transcribers view.

Such errors are being cleared up now that it has been released.

Cheers
Guy

[ScouseBoy]

The books indexed as being in BLACKBURN despite saying BLACKPOOL in capital letters on every sheet are now findable in the right part of Lancashire.

The map they show is still wrong though.

Where there other parts of the UK similarly affected?

      Other places, such as Newcastle, Newport for which there are more than one place with similar names, can one be  sure there are not other similar simple mistakes?

Was any of the work contracted out to unsuitable contractors, one wonders?

[andrewalston]

I've just found my first Land Girl.

She's at the Institute of Agriculture at Hutton near Preston, and she is living in what is "normally men's hostel".

Most of the trainees are in their 20s and early 30s, all being volunteers at that point.

About a quarter of them are from "countryside" occupations.

However, there's a hairdresser who has just had her 46th birthday, and a woman who says she normally works in dairy farming and was born in 1891. She has then had her date of birth adjusted to 1885!

I knew that there were a good few women who jumped at the chance to get out into the countryside, but I didn't know the full range of ages and backgrounds they had.

[jbml]

I've FINALLY found 9 members of the extended family living at the house my great grandfather bought in 1937.

This took some hunting down, I can tell you, because:-

(1) My great grandfather took his wife and 6 youngest children to live in Ireland for the duration as soon as war broke out, so they were not shown as living there on 29 September 1939

(2) I knew my grandparents had lived there during the war, but I did not know whether they had been living there in September 1939, or whether they were still living in the flat on the Lea Bridge Road. Either way, I was unable to find either of them in the Register ... so perhaps to begin with they went to Ireland as well?

(3) I did not know which if any of my great uncles were living there. Vince, Stan and Ron all MIGHT have been ... but Ron was born in 1918 and so will be redacted wherever he may be.

(4) The transcriber has mistranscribed the name of the house AND the street name.

(5) The transcriber has got the FIRST of the nine people living there absolutely correct ... but has mistranscribed ALL of the others by giving them the date of birth and occupation of the NEXT PERSON DOWN. (Men doing Unpaid Domestic Duties? My grandfather an oxyacetelyne welder born in 1889? I don't think so!!!  )

Fortunately ... the first of the nine people was my great uncle stan ... so when I searched his name with the correct date of birth (which, fortunately, I have now, having just invested in his birth certificate using a generous contribution to the cost of my research recently made by my father) ... BINGO! Up he popped, with all the others there as well 

[Guy Etchells]

If you do not know where someone was evacuated to on the 1939 try putting Evacuant or Evacuee in the occupation box and nothing else.

You can then cut down the number of returns by inserting other details if required.

This can help if the name has been mistranscribed

Cheers
Guy