Researching in the 1939 Register of England and Wales

The most recent task I set for myself in researching my own family tree was to look for people in my tree that might have been recorded in the 1939 Register of England and Wales.

You might be asking, just what is this 1939 Register?

From The National Archives research guide they state:

"The 1939 Register provides a snapshot of the civilian population of England and Wales just after the outbreak of the Second World War.

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."

The 1939 Register was taken on September 29, 1939. It is important to note that it only recorded civilians on that date. Anyone in the military were not recorded. It also only covered England and Wales and not the Channel Islands, Isle of Man, Scotland, or Northern Ireland. Additionally, people that are born less than 100 years ago and whose deaths have not been recorded in the register will have the dreaded black line "This record is officially closed."

So where can I find the 1939 Register online?

If you have a subscription to the UK sites of Ancestry or Findmypast or a subscription that has access to the UK records on those sites then you have the records at your finger tips. You might have already been given hints that the records exist for people in your online trees on both of those sites.

So what is great about this registration? Basic details of a person have been recorded such as name, gender, date of birth (not just the year but the full date!), marital status, occupation, and their address. However, it is important to note that it does not state the relationship to the first person recorded for the household. This means that you need to be very careful about your assumptions as to spouses, parents or children.

Sometimes you will come across an entry for a woman where her surname has been crossed out and another name written above:

1939 Register, Durham, England, RG 101, piece 2742E, image 015, line 21, 17 Sunnybrow Avenue, Billingham, Durham, Margaret G Mitchell (Armstrong).

This might be a clue that she married. There might even be what looks to be a date in the first column of the date of the marriage. That is when you what to take pop over to the FreeBMD site to look for a marriage recorded in that quarter or the following quarter.

FreeBMD.org.uk search results for marriage of Margaret Armstrong to a "Mitchell" between Mar 1946 and Mar 1947 quarters

Could Margaret Armstrong's future husband be John Mitchell and were they married on July 29, 1946? In order to confirm this assumption the next step would be to order the marriage registration document from the General Register Office of England and Wales for a cost of £11 and wait a few weeks for it to be delivered via postal mail.

About that black line I mentioned when you find "This record is officially closed." That too can provide you with clues. Could it be that under the black line is a name of a child? Well if you found the record on Ancestry then you might want to check for the same page on Findmypast. I've personally found that Findmypast is more current when it comes for closed records opening up. However, if it is also closed on Findmypast then this is where piecing together several searches can provide you with possible answers.

If you don't already have the maiden surname of the mother then you will need to see if you can identify it via a similar search on FreeBMD that I did for Margaret Armstrong above. After that you can make use of the extra field that was added to the GRO birth index from September 1911 onward, that of the mother's maiden surname.

1939 Register, Glamorganshire, Wales, RG 101, piece 7260E, image 002, line 6, 118 Caerphilly Road, Cardiff, Glamorganshire, Harry Warrener.

For example, here is the household of Harry Warrener (my 1st cousin, twice removed), a master butcher, residing in Cardiff, Wales. Residing in the same residence are:

• Marcia Warrener: most likely his wife since I know he married a Marcia Andrew from other records
• Florence Andrew: quite possibly Marcia's mother
• Anne Warrener: most likely his daughter since I already have her in a baptism document. With her surname crossed out and Hanks written above it would seem that she married a "Hanks".
• Unknown 1
• Unknown 2

The question is, could these two lines that are still sealed be additional children of Harry and Marcia? Or could they be lodgers?

For that we can use any of the sites that have a copy of the GRO birth index. In this case, I'm using FreeBMD. Here is the screen shot of the search I used. I'm not even restricting the location where the birth was registered or the date range.

Screen capture of FreeBMD.org.uk birth search for children of Warrener-Andrew

As you can see only three children were returned from that query.

Screen capture of FreeBMD.org.uk birth search results for the children of Warrener-Andrew

I already know about Anne Warrener but it appears that Harry Warrener and Marcia Andrew might have had two other children. And there are two lines that haven't been revealed in the 1939 Register. Could that be them? The next steps for me, at least, is to create a to do item for both Mary and Harry A. to order their civil birth registrations from the General Register Office of England and Wales. Then I will know if they are the children of Harry and Marcia. Even the fact that the line for Anne is viewable indicates that she has died. Is there a death registration for Anne Hanks available through the GRO that matches what I know about her? I might even explore possible marriages and look for online obituaries or death notices that can shed more light on this family.

As you can see there is quite a bit of information and clues held within the 1939 Register of England and Wales. Not all of it is visible but with a bit of research you can look forward to adding even more people to your family tree.