My Family in 1939

Here in the UK, a census has been taken almost every ten years since 1841. There were a few censuses before that, but before 1841 they only counted people – they didn’t include lists of names.

These census records are released 100 years after the date of the census and this data is of great interest to genealogists. The most recent census that we have access to is from 1911 and the one from 1921 will be released at the start of 2022.

But occasionally, other records emerge that are almost as useful as a census. For example, in September 1939, on the eve of the Second World War, the British government took a national register which was used to issue identity cards to everyone.

Last November, FindMyPast made the contents of this register available to everyone. Initially I didn’t look at it as I have a FindMyPast subscription and I was annoyed that this didn’t cover the new records. I assumed that eventually the new data would be rolled into my existing subscription, so I decided to wait.

I didn’t have to wait very long. Yesterday I got access to the records. So I settled down last night to find out what I could about my ancestors in 1939. As it turned out, it didn’t take long. There were only ten of them and they were split across four households.

This is most of my father’s family. You can see his parents, James and Ivy Cross. They are living with Ivy’s parents George and Lily Clarke. George worked for Greene King all of his life (for over sixty years) and this is the last job he did for them – running an off-licence in Holland-on-Sea. James and Ivy lived in the same building until James died in 1970. I remember spending a lot of time there when I was a child. I even have vague memories of George who died when I was three or four.

My father was born three months after this register was taken – in January 1940 – so it’s interesting to note that Ivy is, at this time, six months pregnant.

Just down the road are the rest of my father’s family – James’ parents Albert and Lily Cross living with their daughter (my great-aunt) Grace. Albert’s father (another James) was the lifeboatman who I have written about before.

Looking a bit further afield, we find most of my mother’s family living in Thorpe-le-Soken. You’ll see my great-grandparents, Robert and Agnes Sowman, along with three closed records. Records are closed if the people in them are born less than 100 years ago and aren’t known to have died. The first two closed records here are my grandmother, Cecilia, and her sister Margaret. Both of these woman are no longer alive, so I should be able to get FindMyPast to open these records by sending them copies of their death certificates. The third closed record will be for Constance, the third daughter in the family.

And finally, here’s the final part of my family. Maud Turpin, living alone in Maldon. Maud is Agnes Sowman’s mother. Actually, this record showed me the only piece of information that I didn’t already know. Previously, I wasn’t sure when Maud’s husband Alfred died. He was still alive in the 1911 census and this record gives me strong evidence that he died before 1939. I think I’ve found a good candidate for his death record in 1931.

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So that’s a pretty good summary of what you’ll find in the 1939 register. It’s a good substitute for a census (particularly as there was no census in 1941 – as the country was too busy fighting a war) and it’s nice that it’s not covered by census privacy laws, so it has been released to the public about 25 years sooner than you might expect. But, certainly in my case, I already had a lot of knowledge about my family in this period so I didn’t learn very much that was new. If I had paid the £7 per household that FindMyPast had initially asked for, I think I would have been very disappointed.

I should point out that You don’t just get this information. Each results page gives a map (actually, a selection of maps) showing where your ancestors lived. This is a nice touch. There are also random newspaper cuttings and photos from the locality. You might find these interesting – I really didn’t.

Has anyone else used these records yet? Have you found anything interesting?

p.s. And yes, if you’re paying close attention, you’ll notice that there’s one grandparent missing from my list above. Ask me about that in the pub one day.