Question about 1939 National Register

[MartynWilson99]

I'm not sure if this is the correct place to post this, but here goes.

In the 1939 National Register, people are listed with their residence, age, occupation and date of birth. Does anyone know how this information was obtained? It seems unlikely that it would be based solely on the answers given to the enumerators, because the information was intended to be used in the event of a subsequent war.

My reason for asking is that my maternal grandparents are listed, along with one of their daughters and a daughter-in-law. As far as I can tell, all of the information given is correct, including dates of birth, but there is no record of my grandmother's birth registration. If she had to give documentary evidence of her date of birth, I assume there must be a record somewhere. Presumably, she must also have had to confirm her forename as well.

Thanks in advance for any help or advice.

 

[p.risboy]

Just an error I would think. There are many in the 1939 register.

Without seeing the original, it's hard to judge.!

 

[emeltee]

I can't find anything which states that birth and marriage certificates had to be produced to validate/confirm the information given to the Enumerators.

Emeltee

 

[MartynWilson99]

Thanks for the replies @p.risboy, I have a PDF of a transcription, which I downloaded from the Find My Past site. Presumably it is possible to see the actual original, as it is with pre-1911 census returns, but I'm now sure how. The problem about my grandmother is that, although I have her marriage and death certificates, her entries on census returns from 1881 and a photograph, I have not been able to track down her birth certificate.

@emeltree: thanks for that. I assume there must be a copy of the enumerators' instructions somewhere!

 

[Ellie7]

The 1939 Register was taken on 29 September 1939. The information was used to produce identity cards and, once rationing was introduced in January 1940, to issue ration books.

As the 1931 census for England and Wales was destroyed by fire during the Second World War and no census was taken in 1941, the Register provides the most complete survey of the population of England and Wales between 1921 and 1951, making it an invaluable resource for family, social and local historians.

 

[emeltee]

https://www.findmypast.co.uk/articl...4_1556215380_359700b4d14635cb846cc8859fb0c122

The above link should take you to a page on findmypast which shows the instructions to the enumerators. Basically the forms were sent out to each household to be filled in by the Head of Household. The Enumerators then collected the forms from each household and checked that they had been filled in correctly. If they were incorrectly filled in the Enumerator amended them with information from the Head of House.

Images of the original Register, not the forms filled in by the householders, can be found on Findmypast for a fee.

Emeltee

 

[MartynWilson99]

@ Ellie7: I agree - the 1939 Register is invaluable, although I've found things that raise more questions than answers about my family.

@emeltee: thanks for that link. I guess I shall have to rejoin FindMyPast. Presumably the original forms, as filled in by householders, are long gone.

 

[Ellie7]

There are people onsite with Findmypast ,we just need details.

 

[DaveHam9]

The Register has helped solve some questions for my tree but also raised some.

I made sure the transcription agreed with the image but I have several individuals in my tree where the date of birth simply can't be right as it does not fit the known birth reg for year and quarter.

Family trees are full of things like that. No birth reg exists for my great grandfather although a baptism record exits in 1854 St Peter Liverpool.

I have one family who for 5 years running put an In Memoriam notice in the newspaper with the wrong date of death for the father. Not just one day out but totally different day and month and year.

Dave

 

[MartynWilson99]

The Register has helped solve some questions for my tree but also raised some.

I made sure the transcription agreed with the image but I have several individuals in my tree where the date of birth simply can't be right as it does not fit the known birth reg for year and quarter.

Family trees are full of things like that. No birth reg exists for my great grandfather although a baptism record exits in 1854 St Peter Liverpool.

I have one family who for 5 years running put an In Memoriam notice in the newspaper with the wrong date of death for the father. Not just one day out but totally different day and month and year.

Dave

I'm glad I'm not the only one, Dave. No birth record exists for my maternal grandmother (although there is a DoB on the Register) and there was definitely something unusual about her parentage. Unfortunately I doubt I will ever find out the truth.

 

[Ellie7]

So Illiget or Adopted perhaps

 

[MartynWilson99]

So Illiget or Adopted perhaps

Thanks for the thoughts, Ellie. Either is possible, of course, but a few years before my grandmother was born, there was an illigitimate child born to her supposed aunt (or maybe even mother??) whose birth was registered as required by law - with no father on the birth certificate.

Adoption is also a possibility, although her nominal grandfather was a farm labourer with several children of his own already so why would he do that? I probably need to spend a few days in the village where she grew up, because there is a church and there might be something in the records there. She would also have been entitled to vote from 1918, so the local electoral register of the time might have a clue.

The sound you can here is me clutching at straws...

 

[emeltee]

Before you make the effort to visit the village, check if the records for the dates you are interested in are actually held at the church and not at the local Records Office. Also, I don't know how old she was in 1918, but the Act passed in that year only gave the vote to women over the age of 30. It wasn't until 10 years later in 1928 that all women over 21 got the vote.

Emeltee

 

[MartynWilson99]

She was definitely over the voting age. Depending on her actual birth year (which varied slightly according to Census returns, Marriage Certificate and the National Register) she was somewhere between 39 and 42 in 1918. But would she have had to prove that she was over 21?

The village where she was born and grew up has a fair number of history resources, but I've not been able to find anything other than a school report from the mid-1880s. Just got to keep going!