THE 1939 REGISTER

As the last national census had been held in 1931, there was little accurate data on which to base vital planning decisions. The National Register acted as a partial instant census but it only related to the civilian population; it was not really a true census or a full population count as other censuses were. 

The 1939 Register went on to play a vital role when the National Health Service was established in 1948 and it remained “active” for some years after the war ended..

Two days after war had been declared, the National Registration Act came into force and the 29th of September was designated  National Registration Day.  On that date, householders were required to record details on the registration forms. On the following Sunday and Monday the 65,000 enumerators visited every householder, checked the form and issued a completed identity card for each of the residents. All cards issued at this time were a brown/buff colour. The Act, which was not repealed until 21 February 1952, required every civilian adult or child who was not serving in the armed forces, to register. Although some people may have evaded registration, it was considered to be complete.

Each registered person was then issued with an identity card. Every man, woman and child had to carry an identity (ID) card at all times and regulations stated that they must be produced on demand or presented to a police station within forty-eight hours. The cards would include the following information:

name

sex

age

occupation, profession, trade or employment. (Occupations were recorded in great detail so that the Government would be able to identify trades and skills that would be useful in the war effort.)

address

marital status

membership of Naval, Military or Air Force Reserves or Auxiliary Forces or of Civil Defence Services or Reserves and ARPs

Most people are recorded as a member of a household. Some people are recorded as a member of an institution. In this case, they are classified with one of five letters:

• O - officer
• V - visitor
• S - servant
• P - patient
• I -  inmate
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Details of an individual’s birthplace were not required which prevented the persecution of minorities should an enemy invasion occur.

Food and clothing ration books were issued later using the information contained in the register.

The forms collected from each house were transcribed into registers with one line per individual with entries for each household kept together. They are, therefore, not dissimilar to census enumeration books. From a family historian's perspective, they are not the original document and may well contain some errors but it is the only record we have of the time.

The final register consisted of 7,000 volumes, each holding details of about 2,000 residences. In all 1.2 million pages record details of around 41 million individuals. Registration continued well beyond the end of the war. Individuals were still required to register and to carry identity cards up to 1952.

The 1939 registers achieved a much more permanent status in 1948 when they were used as the basis for registration of the population into the newly-established National Health Service. An individual’s registration number became their NHS number. The registers were updated manually until 1991 when a computerised system was then put in place.

The 1939 Register was continually updated while National Registration was in force as it was a legal requirement to notify the authorities of any change of name or address. After the NHS was established, the Register was still updated until 1991. Changes of name for any reason were recorded. The majority of these name changes appear in the indexes so you can search for a person using either their name in 1939 or any subsequent name.

The register included only the civilian population of England and Wales. It does not include people in the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man. Both Scotland and Northern Ireland had their own systems. No records exist for: British Army barracks, Royal Navy stations or Royal Air Force establishments nor for members of the armed forces billeted in homes, including their own homes. However, the records do include members of the armed forces on leave and civilians on military bases.

Apart from electoral rolls, the most recent useful document we can access is the 1921 census. The 1931 census was destroyed by fire during World War Two. The 1941 census was never taken because we were in the middle of the war and a true population count would have been impossible. Therefore, the next population census which will become available is the 1951 census which, because of the 100 year closure rule, cannot be made publicly available until 2052.

This means that the 1939 Register is a useful stopgap during nearly thirty years of our recent history. It provides information about what ordinary British people were doing on the brink of war but cannot be regarded as a census because so many people were not included.

Searching the register for a person

The register can be searched using most of the popular subscription websites as well as FamilySearch. At the moment, Findmypast  is the best website to use because they update the register on a regular basis. 

Name of person – can include different names for people at different points in their lives from 1939 to 1991. The register was usually annotated when people married, divorced, were adopted or changed their name. You can enter any of their first names or last names in the First name or Last name field and the search engine will find them.

You sometimes need to search for the name of a second person in the household to obtain a result. There is also a facility to search name variants just in case a surname has been incorrectly spelt.

Evacuation - reception areas

By 29 September 1939 there had already been mass evacuations of the population so many people may be listed in an entirely different place from the rest of their family. Seasonal agricultural workers were still in the countryside when the register was taken and not at their normal home addresses in urban areas.

Try searching in ‘reception areas’ which were the rural counties where evacuees were sent; you can find these in various counties including Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Cumberland, Dorset, Herefordshire, Huntingdonshire, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Rutland, Shropshire, Suffolk, Sussex, Westmorland, Wiltshire, Isle of Wight, Isle of Ely, Peterborough, the Holland and Kesteven divisions of Lincolnshire.

When the register was taken it was with the understanding that the records would remain closed for the duration of the lifetime of the individuals listed. Individuals’ records remain closed for one hundred years from their date of birth because of the privacy rules. Records are automatically opened once past the time limit and they will become available to search and view online. Records will remain closed for people born less than one hundred years ago until proof of death is verified. 

When you view the handwritten images you see an entire page except for the closed records which are blanked out. Usually the inhabitants of a household are listed in the same way that they would be on a census, starting the father and continuing with the mother and the children in descending order of age; lodgers and visitors are likely to be at the end.

In some instances the closed entries may not enable you to see where one household ends although you should be able to work it out from the numbering. You can also use the transcription to know how many closed records there are in a household which means that you should be able to work out who is the subject of a hidden entry from your knowledge of the family or from your research of other documents.

In December 2023 Findmypast was able to open up around 187,000 records of people whose entries were originally closed because of the hundred year privacy rule. It is estimated that there are still in excess of twenty per cent of records which remain closed.

So how can you open a closed entry for someone who is deceased without having to wait for the full one hundred years? Simply prove that individual listed in the records is deceased! Providing a copy of an official death certificate or overseas equivalent is the only acceptable evidence. If a valid proof of death is not provided, the record cannot be opened to search. Findmypast aim to open up a name as soon as possible after receipt of the death certificate. 

The requirement is quite specific in as much as you will be required to scan and send a copy of a fully certified death certificate from General Register Office or the equivalent governing body if the death occurred in Scotland, Ireland or a country other than the United Kingdom.

There are various reasons that you may not be able to find someone on the 1939 register:. Here are some of the reasons:

born less than one hundred years ago and still alive

not in England or Wales on 29 September 1939

• appear under a different name
•  
• names may not appear as you expect them to. Try Wildcard searches
• incomplete information
• living apart from their families (do a general name search)
• use reception counties where evacuees were sent
• change of street names.
•  

Transcription errors

Bear in mind that, like most census returns, the information given was not the original household forms but is a result of information being copied to forms from the original document. It is a transcription so there could be errors. 

Because of privacy rules, transcribers were not given an entire register page but each transcriber was provided with a column of data which meant that no transcriber saw the whole entry for a family. This sometimes became slightly problematic when reading the handwriting.

One common error relates to dates of birth. Rather than being a transcription error, the original enumerator may have written the date incorrectly or the person provided incorrect dates. It is often the year which is inaccurate because most people knew the day and month of their birth.