What! The 1939 Register For Free!

[lydiaann]

nannyjan:  Does this mean that if someone's name DOES appear on the Register, they are dead?

[CarolA3]

Dawn - thanks, that's what I expected but it's always worth checking

Lydiaann - apparently the 1939 is on Ancestry permanently for UK or World subscribers. 

They appear to have done their own transcriptions so some are different from FindMyPast.  I've compared a few and it looks like Ancestry have had to transcribe the images you can see with the redactions in place, whereas FindMyPast were granted access to the unredacted original entries. 

Example - my mother's name was Peggy and that's what the FindMyPast version has.  The following line is redacted, so Ancestry couldn't see the loops under 'ggy' and they've listed her as Leslie.

Carol

Added:  When I say 'with the redactions in place' I mean the redactions that FindMyPast have now, not the ones they had in 2015.  Hope that makes sense

[groom]

nannyjan:  Does this mean that if someone's name DOES appear on the Register, they are dead?

Probably, but there have been quite a few cases of people’s records being opened in error when they are still alive.

[Guy Etchells]

I think today is the last day, yes?  Anyway, why the many, many "This record is officially closed" when I believe there must be family members on the same page.  For instance, I have a relative who is on the 1939 Register, having been born in 1936 and thus only 3 years old, yet her parents - who surely must be there - are missing, possibly under the redacted area...and they are long, long dead (1959 for the dad, and 1977 for the mum).  Strangely, her surname is amended to read her (eventual) married surname.

You seem to be assuming parents will be with children, this was not always the case, the children may have been evacuated or as with my wife’s father living with their nan or other relatives. 1939 was a time when many men had enlisted meaning the father was not at home and if the mother was employed there may not have been anyone to look after the kids.
Other people were afraid of being bombed and sent their children to relatives away from the cities even before the official evacuations took place.

Finally the dataset that Ancestry is using is not as up to date as the Findmypast dataset when it comes to unredacted individuals. I have some records that were unredacted on FindMyPast in 2016 but are redacted on Ancestry and have been told of a record unredacted in 2017 on FindMyPast which is unredacted on Ancestry.
Cheers
Guy

[groom]

 

              Other people were afraid of being bombed and sent their children to relatives away from the cities even before the official evacuations took place.

Official evacuation of children, code named Operation Pied Pipe, began on 1st September 1939, so some children will have been evacuated nearly a month when the register was taken on September 29th.

[Ruskie]

              Other people were afraid of being bombed and sent their children to relatives away from the cities even before the official evacuations took place.

Official evacuation of children, code named Operation Pied Pipe, began on 1st September 1939, so some children will have been evacuated nearly a month when the register was taken on September 29th.

For anyone with school teachers in their family who they are unable to find in the 1939 register, it may be worth looking further afield.

I discovered someone I was researching staying with his widowed mother in Norfolk (I believe his usual residence was in the London area). He was noted as "Evacuated with school children - School Master". Also with them was "Evacuated with school children - School Mistress". 

[macwil]

. . .
For anyone with school teachers in their family who they are unable to find in the 1939 register, it may be worth looking further afield.  . . .

Miners also moved quite some distance. I have two brothers in my tree who 'emigrated' from Wigan, Lancashire I found them in Easington, Co. Durham. They appear to have been there since 1920/21 as one married in Wigan in 1920 and his children were registered in Easington in '21 & '23. One of them was buried ('68) in Hyde, Cheshire and may have been there since '47 as his son is in the same grave and he was killed in a flying accident in 1947.

[clairec666]

They appear to have done their own transcriptions so some are different from FindMyPast.

I've already found several people on Ancestry who I couldn't find on Findmypast, presumably the transcription was incorrect on Findmypast. So even if you don't subscribe to both sites, it's well worth searching on both.

[stonechat]

There are some interesting missing people
My wife’s grandfather is there, where his wife should be, is blanked out. I can’t be sure it is here, she was born in 1880’s but not to be seen.