1939 Register

[toby webb]

I am interested to know how an individual born in say 1940 was allocated a National Identity number. I find that older siblings in the same family had completely different numbers. Is there an index for those born after the Register was compiled on 29 September?

[Andrew Tarr]

I presume there will be an index somewhere, but I have no idea how it might be accessed.  At the start of WW2 every household was coded and each member was given a sequence number within it. I was born a few months earlier and my number was (I don't need to look it up) DVFG 317/3.  The letters represent the area and the 317 the house.  The system was needed for some years after the war ended, and as the images show, it was updated by the NHS for many years.

Most additions to the list will be to an existing family so they get the next available trailing number.  A new household would need a new entry.  I'm not sure what happened when a family moved to a new house or area ?

[Kiltpin]

The first 2 letters refer to the year of birth. They started at ZZ and worked backwards. They will end up with AA. 

The next 6 numbers, in pairs of 2 are a sequential number. They would start the series with 00 00 00 and end with 99 99 99. 

The last letter is either A, B, C. or D. This refers to the day any payment was made, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. They did not pay on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. 

So for all the Zs there would be 999,999 x 26 giving 25,999,974 people! So any late comers (those born overseas and returning to the UK) could easily have been accommodated within the lettering framework. 

Regards 

Chas

[Kiltpin]

Sorry, I have mixed up National Insurance with National Registration. My post was about NI, I have no idea how NR worked. 

Regards 

Chas (should have gone to Specsavers)

[BumbleB]

I still have my National Registration identity card (BA 643477 printed on the reverse - LHXE 173 hand-written inside) - issued on 16 June 1942 in Chester.  There are several changes of address stickers, the last one dated 3 July 1945.

[AllanUK]

I am interested to know how an individual born in say 1940 was allocated a National Identity number. I find that older siblings in the same family had completely different numbers. Is there an index for those born after the Register was compiled on 29 September?

I can only think that when the birth was registered the child was given a National Identity number. This would be held by the registrar of each district and possibly passed over to a national department. Where ever the registers holding the numbers for new borns are, I doubt if they will be accessible.

[toby webb]

Quote [Most additions to the list will be to an existing family so they get the next available trailing number.  A new household would need a new entry.  I'm not sure what happened when a family moved to a new house or area ?]
It didn't work quite that way with my family, Andrew.  I was  WRJX but my brother born in 1944 was WRML. All lived in the same house.
Thanks to you all. No doubt we will get there in the end. T

[Jon_ni]

On the final page of this old article about the 1939 Register:
"There are two supplemental paper registers which are not available to the public. One covers those on duty in the armed forces, for example soldiers at an army barracks. The other covers those born after 29th September 1939 and before the paper register ended in 1951.
https://www.whitehousefhc.org/1939%20REGISTER%20160402.doc

[Mean_genie]

Registrars were issued with a set of unique 4-letter codes, on a regional basis, similar to those used in the 1939 Register. Each birth register book had its own 4-letter code, and when a birth was registered the child's National Identity number would consist of the those 4 letters, followed by the number of their entry in the book. There were different types of number series; for people who registered late (ie after 29 Sep 1939) for any reason; people who arrived from overseas after 29 Sep 1939; replacement numbers issued for lost or stolen cards, and a 'Demob Register' after the end of the 2nd World War. They also became NHS numbers from 1948