1939 Register Update

[MaryA]

I need to give that a better try, at least it accepts single letter followed by * so you get a start.

Oh I like that! Knew the entry for my grandparents but not the address, started at A and continued on, came to G and success, then also with Ga*. Went and referred to the alphabetical street index for 1938 and realised a house that had been mentioned many years ago on the corner of Garnett Avenue in Kirkdale. Sadly I tried googlemaps for the house number and it doesn't seem to be the right one, nearly 90 house numbers in the street so it's going to take a while to get the right one.

Well one thing I've realised is that the search doesn't accept there are house numbers, solves that problem then doesn't it.

Aha! under the Advanced Search tab there is also an Address search. If you put in the street you get each household and can preview them, gives you the name of the householder.

[Blue70]

Once you have the street name it's a case then of doing an address search putting in the street name & Liverpool. Next part is a bit boring, click on each household in the street until you find the house you're looking for.


Blue

[MaryA]

Well, hovering as you have said, giving the reference, the last three digits you put in must provide the schedule for a certain number of the neighbours, so there's not so many to go through.

Particularly take note of whether the name on the top of your preview is the "Household" of the name you are searching for ie when I previewed William R Lant (yes a mistranscription) the name of the household at the top was Potter Household, so they must have been lodging. So when searching the address numbers, it is the Potters I needed, not Lunt/Lant, and guess what - they were at the address I expected!

[Blue70]

A lot of people appear to be free searching. FMP should have realised that few people had accessed this information in the past due to pricing and done some work on what people would be willing to pay for access. I think leaving people in the dark about exclusive charges until late on made those people who were FMP subscribers and potential new customers feel reluctant to pay for the 1939 Register at the prices given by FMP.


Blue

[MaryA]

Yes there are a lot of protests about the price on the Facebook group too, the only plus side to FMP's version being the price that was being charged previously.

As far as it goes for "breaking the code" as it were, well didn't we all do it when the 1911 and even back to the 1901 census, I remember the spreadsheet of references and instructions being passed around to identify whereabouts a family lived and who was in the household. It will always happen. The little guys fighting against the big guys.

[MaryA]

Let's keep this post for any general discussion about the 1939 Register or your findings if you wish to tell us.

There is now a summary of hints and tips for using it here http://forum.liverpool-genealogy.org.uk ... 39&t=14931

[Katie]

Have they took away the numbers that help to discover who else is in the house. On Sunday the following number was viewable 4857a/16 and I was able to find who else was in the Schedule by using this. These numbers seem to have disappeared.

[Blue70]

Yes FMP have made some changes. They removed the Ref first and then must have realised that the Ref was still there in the URL. Now we can no longer use the URL to help find other household members the combination of letters and numbers doesn't appear to relate to the search facility. An additional name now appears in previews to help identify the right household. Some users have said they aren't seeing the second name on previews for some reason.


Blue

[MaryA]

Now you see, when I checked my example above of William R "Lant" in Garnett Avenue previously the additional name it showed in the preview was his wife Catherine. I had worked out that they were lodging in the Potter household, but now Catherine is missing from the preview and "Frank Potter and three other people" are listed.

FMP don't really know what they are doing.

[BarbaraW]

I just got an "exclusive" offer from FMP as a subscriber of £3.95 to unlock a household, but looks from the wording as if it's just one household.

I have no urgent need to look for anybody I am just curious, so will hang on until it's hopefully included in the sub.

[steveflan]

Just a quick question. If you purchase a household, do you get to see the unlocked people on the actual schedule or are these redacted in some way?

[Blue70]

Just a quick question. If you purchase a household, do you get to see the unlocked people on the actual schedule or are these redacted in some way?

Yes you get to see what FMP calls unlocked records, that is all those records on the image that are not officially closed records. The closed records are on the image but they have been redacted so you can't see them on the image. The records that are closed are usually people born after 1915 who were alive c1991.


Blue

[BarbaraW]

Sorry if this has been asked before. When a person pays to unlock a record is it available for that persons eyes only or is it unlocked for everybody else to see?

[Blue70]

You only get the images that you pay for.


Blue

[MaryA]

Yep they aren't that nice

[BarbaraW]

Thanks Blue. Lol Mary, will defo be waiting then!!

[steveflan]

Just a quick question. If you purchase a household, do you get to see the unlocked people on the actual schedule or are these redacted in some way?

Yes you get to see what FMP calls unlocked records, that is all those records on the image that are not officially closed records. The closed records are on the image but they have been redacted so you can't see them on the image. The records that are closed are usually people born after 1915 who were alive c1991.


Blue

Cheers Blue. Just realised that I mistyped my question somewhat - I was, of course, referring to locked records with regards to redaction - but thanks for the clarification.

One thing that is interesting is that my maternal grandmother passed away in 2008 and was born in 1918, yet her record is unlocked in the register. Also, she is down as Annie Blair (Holden) in 1939. Holden was her maiden name but she wasn't married until 1943, and in the register she is living with her father and mother (William and Annie Holden) as I would have expected.

[Blue70]

Just a quick question. If you purchase a household, do you get to see the unlocked people on the actual schedule or are these redacted in some way?

Yes you get to see what FMP calls unlocked records, that is all those records on the image that are not officially closed records. The closed records are on the image but they have been redacted so you can't see them on the image. The records that are closed are usually people born after 1915 who were alive c1991.


Blue

Cheers Blue. Just realised that I mistyped my question somewhat - I was, of course, referring to locked records with regards to redaction - but thanks for the clarification.

One thing that is interesting is that my maternal grandmother passed away in 2008 and was born in 1918, yet her record is unlocked in the register. Also, she is down as Annie Blair (Holden) in 1939. Holden was her maiden name but she wasn't married until 1943, and in the register she is living with her father and mother (William and Annie Holden) as I would have expected.

Other people have found people who should be redacted viewable on search and image including living people. There are also instances of people who should be viewable who are not. There is a process for uncovering redacted records of deceased people. For subscribers to FMP a copy of a death certificate and address where they were living on 29 September 1939 is enough to get the record uncovered. Obviously you will have already paid for the image or will then pay to view the image. For those who are not FMP subscribers (including those using pay as you go credits) there is a hefty charge of £25 to uncover the record. This charge was set by The National Archives it is paid by FMP for its subscribers but not for non-subscribers.

The 1939 Register differs from the usual ten year census in that it was updated. Surnames were changed. Surnames in brackets are usually the surname at that time and the other surname is usually a later surname that has been added. It is confusing that FMP have put surnames from 29 September 1939 in brackets and not the later surnames in their transcriptions. It would have made more sense to put later changes in brackets.


Blue

[steveflan]

I agree (re names) that it does seem odd that the name at the time is in brackets whilst the "other" (changed to) name is the one that is shown. I'm assuming that this is to try to help people searching for, say, their grandmother but only knew her by her married name, rather than her maiden name - but still looks odd to me viewing it that way.

[MaryA]

But so useful as I have found a couple whose marriages I was never sure about - generally because the line was a bit far away for me to want to purchase certificates so my tree flagged them as uncertain.