Source:England And Wales. 1939 Register

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From MyHeritage

The 1939 Register of England and Wales was conducted on 29 September 1939. For each household member the register records name, gender, address, birth date, marital status, place of residence, and occupation. This collection is an important census-substitute for genealogists and family historians. The entire 1931 Census of England and Wales was destroyed by a fire and no census was conducted in 1941. This makes the 1939 Register the most complete census-like collection for the population of England and Wales between 1921 and 1951*.

The 1939 Register was conducted in ways like a census and includes similar information. One important difference for genealogists is the full date of birth is recorded in the 1939 Register for each person whereas the traditional censuses conducted in England and Wales only records each person’s age.

The information in this collection was gathered under the authority of the National Registration Act of 1939 – an emergency measure at the start of the Second World War. 65,000 enumerators delivered the forms ahead of the official registration day. On Friday, 29 September 1939 (National Registration Day) householders were required to record the requested information on the supplied forms. On the following Sunday and Monday local enumerators visited every household, checked and gathered the completed forms, and issued identity cards to each of the residents in the household.

Of the 42 million individuals who are recorded in this collection, 8.2 million records remain closed due to privacy protection requirements, and about 700,000 additional records appear without full names. Records are closed for those individuals who were born less than 100 years ago unless matched to a registered death record. These closed records will be made public and added to this online collection on a yearly basis going forward.

• The 1921 Census has not yet been released and is expected to be available online in 2022. The 1951 Census is closed until 2052.

From Ancestry.com

Historical Context

Initially taken due to the onset of war with the purpose of producing National Identity Cards, the register later came to be multi-functional, first as an aid in the use of ration books and later helping officials record the movement of the civilian population over the following decades and from 1948, as the basis for the National Health Service Register. The 1939 Register is an extremely important genealogical resource, not only for the rich detail and information recorded for each person and household, but also in helping to bridge a thirty-year gap in census data. The census taken in 1931 was destroyed during the Second World War and no census was carried out in 1941 due to the ongoing conflict. The register, as held by The National Archives, contains data only for England and Wales and does not include records from households in Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man.

Organisation of the Registers

Enumerators collected the data on 29th September 1939. Volumes were organised by place (District or County - see codes below) and then by Enumeration District, represented by a four or five letter code followed by two numbers. These codes were largely based on the 1931 census enumeration units.

Letter Codes for Boroughs and Districts:

   RD - Rural District
   UD - Urban District
   MB - Municipal Borough
   CB - County Borough
   Met B - Metropolitan Borough

What can I find in these records?

You may be able to find the following information (where available):

   Name
   Gender
   Address
   Date of Birth
   Marital Status
   Occupation
   Whether Visitor, Officer, Servant, Patient or Inmate
   Inferred family members
   Other members of the household

Sometimes, you may see extra information on the right-hand side of the image, such as whether an individual had volunteered as an air raid warden. Some records include names crossed out with another name written in an annotation above or at the side, signifying the tracking of the population over time with the addition of women's married names and other name changes over the years.

Redactions

Images have been redacted to protect the privacy of those still alive and we will be annually adding records for those with birth dates older than 100 years or if a record of the death has been reported to The National Archives. Images will also be updated to reflect the opening of the record. All indexes have been created from redacted images as provided by The National Archives and as such, some indexes may not include all information as originally recorded, where it is obscured from view.