1939 register

[DianaCanada]

Unredacting entries requires proof of death.
Have you contacted The National Archives or FindMyPast?

Ancestry update their database on an annual basis.
FindMyPast update more frequently (monthly?).

I thought, and as was earlier pointed out, that unredacting would occur after the person would have been 100 years old, automatically.  In my mother’s case, proof of death would have been needed up until her birthdate in 2023, as she died in Canada in the 1990’s.  For her cousin and aunt, both died many years ago, in England.  Why were they not unredacted when the 1939 was released?  In the same household my aunt’s husband and father were unredacted when it was released.

[MollyC]

Did it partly depend upon the deaths being recorded by the NHS while the register was still in use?  Some later deaths may have been missed in the checks made before the release in 2015.

[Nick_Ips]

The process of opening up entries must be very slow as my great aunt is still blacked out and she would be 124 years old now.  She died in 1991.  Her daughter is blacked out and she died about 20 years ago.  My mother lived with them, but she would only be 102 later this year.

My guess would be an error or uncertainty in the birth year - either the source or the transcription.

I've seen a few cases where the redaction line is wobbly enough to see the birth year, which is either blank, indistinct, or amended.

So not knowing the year of birth presumably means the record wouldn't be automatically unredacted until 2039?

I thought, and as was earlier pointed out, that unredacting would occur after the person would have been 100 years old, automatically.  In my mother’s case, proof of death would have been needed up until her birthdate in 2023, as she died in Canada in the 1990’s.  For her cousin and aunt, both died many years ago, in England.  Why were they not unredacted when the 1939 was released?  In the same household my aunt’s husband and father were unredacted when it was released.

I think when they matched death records to redacted 1939 entries it was easier for males because their name at death would more likely be the same as their name in 1939.  Whereas married/widowed/divorced women wouldn't neccessarily have the same name at death as they did in 1939.  In that case an automated process would need to look at marriages as well to work out who the death record belonged to on the 1939 register.

I'd also think that process couldn't be very reliable, and so a significant %age of records of women who had died couldn't be matched to a 1939 entry with enough certainty to justify automatic unredaction.

And to throw a spanner in... both my mum and one of her sisters have been unredacted since the original launch, but both are very much alive and under 100.  Their other sister seems to be a still-redacted entry in the household (also still alive and under 100).  The only difference between them is the redacted sister married twice, whereas mum and the unredacted sister only married once - although that shouldn't be a factor in their redaction/unredaction.

[Andrew Tarr]

My guess would be an error or uncertainty in the birth year - either the source or the transcription.
I've seen a few cases where the redaction line is wobbly enough to see the birth year, which is either blank, indistinct, or amended.

And then there are those who forgot their true birth year.  I have one on the 1939 register born 1 October 1880; actual birth 1 October 1878.  So they should have appeared two years before the 1939 figure indicated. (actually they had died well before)