Ages on the 1939 census

[Jill Eaton]

Apologies if this has been asked before but I've got an ancestor (at least I HOPE he's my ancestor)
on the 1939 census:
John James Harrington:
West Ham
schedule No. 80
sub schedule 1
Enumeration district CBJR
Reg district 188-2

His date of birth on the register is 25th August 1889 is in pen

There is then a pencil alteration over the top which reads 31st August 1889.

Who would have made the alteration and why?

If the pencilled-in date is the correct date then this is almost certainly my great-uncle.

[Jill Eaton]

The transcription is weird too. I'm absolutely certain he wasn't a:

"Detective & Sorter Metal Sortts Heavy Worker" and I think his wife is called "Annie" not Dennie

[LizzieL]

The '39 register was later used by NHS. Maybe he later had to supply his birth cert to NHS for some reason and the alteration / correction was made at that point. My grandmother had different dob by a couple of days on '39 reg to that on her birth cert.

[LizzieL]

The transcription is weird too. I'm absolutely certain he wasn't a:

"Detective & Sorter Metal Sortts Heavy Worker" and I think his wife is called "Annie" not Dennie

Are you looking at Ancestry or FindMyPast? I read a different word for "detective" and one much more likely to fit with a metal sorter

[Jill Eaton]

The transcription is weird too. I'm absolutely certain he wasn't a:

"Detective & Sorter Metal Sortts Heavy Worker" and I think his wife is called "Annie" not Dennie

Are you looking at Ancestry or FindMyPast? I read a different word for "detective" and one much more likely to fit with a metal sorter

Ancestry. I've notified them that there appears to be transcription errors

[KGarrad]

Please also remember that the 1939 National Register isn't a census!

It was continually updated, as the NHS Central Register in to 1980s or 1990s.

[Jill Eaton]

So the pencilled-in amendment should be the correct DOB then? This is excellent news 
I wonder why the original was incorrect?

[juliebeg]

Ive just found a relative on the 1939 Reg on Ancestry transcribed as a Metal Detective ? On further investigation I found, sadly, it should read Mental Defective

[Johnf04]

One of my great aunts has a married name added, then crossed out and her maiden name reentered, then that crossed out when she married. She had been confused with someone of the same name.