Genealogy Chat

I know everyone in the country was supposed to be included in the 1939 Register but how easy would it have been to avoid it and would that have had awkward consequences? For instance would it have affected the issue of ration books?

The reason I ask is that I can find no record in the 1939 Register of my O.H's grandparents, aunts and uncles. I know the grandparents were averse to official form filling and sometimes operated in that grey area on the edge of legality but would they have been able to avoid the register altogether?

Some people didn't register on the day for various reasons but they certainly would have had trouble getting ration books without registering.

Have a look here:
http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/tag/national-registration/
" However, once the household forms had been copied up into the register books any later registrations would go into a separate new register, the Current Register (which is not part of the 1939 Register release). So, sadly, a small number of people who were definitely in England and Wales on 29 September will not be found in the register, no matter how hard you look."

Presumable those who didn't register on the day are not included in the list even if they registered soon after.

I had difficulty finding my family- in the end I had to search with just a forename and the date of birth. I finally found some of them badly transcribed.

If you can share some of the names maybe we can help find them.

Thank you both. I suspect my missing people may be on the Current Register.

I am looking for Walter Charles Scotton b. 1885 and his wife Alice Louisa (nee Day), b. 1885. It's most likely they are in the Camberwell registration district

EDIT: Sorry I managed to press submit before I had finished.

They were certainly in Camberwell between 1915 and 1931.

There is a Walter C Scotton b. 1909 on the register. He is related but is not the one I am looking for.

Charles W Scotton 1884 St Albans R.D. Hertfordshire.

?

Thank you Kay. I don't think that's him. He appears as Walter everywhere else, though transposing names could be down to the transcriber. There's no evidence that the family ever went north of London though I know they went into Kent during the war.

EDIT. Just realised I put wife Alice's birth as 1885 earlier. Sorry, that should have said 1890

have you tried doing a street search using the last address that you know they had before 1939?

I found my great aunt under her second married name when I did that! Her first husband was still alive and she was living with him in the address I knew, but he died and she remarried in 1951.

The Register was used as the basis for the NHS and as a result was continuously updated into the 1990s .................. that is why my brother and uncle are shown in clear. They were both born after 1915, but both died around 1990/91

Unfortunately the last definite address I have for them is 1911 but they had a number of children between 1915 and 1931 who were all registered in Camberwell and OH thinks his grandparents lived in East Dulwich which would come under Camberwell. I hoped to find them to fill out the story a bit more but it isn't too important.

I couldn't see them either- there was this couple- but no other records of others in the household.

Alice Scratton 1884 Hendon M.B. Middlesex
Walter Scratton 1885 Hendon M.B. Middlesex

EDIT: I don't think this is correct- according to the death record of Alice Louisa Scotton, she was born 12th July 1889, which doesn't match.

I tried searching for Alice with just forename and date of birth, but couldn't see anything.
---------------------------------------------------------

Walter's daughter- matches birth date 28th Feb 1915

Vera W M Martin 1915 Camberwell London
Robert F Martin 1912 Camberwell London
1 more person who is officially closed
--------------------------------------------------------------

Ooh- found them: SCOTTER

Alice L Scotter 1889 Camberwell London (Birth- 12th July)
Walter E Scotter 1888 Camberwell London
George J Scotter 1911 Camberwell London (Birth -14th November)
3 more people who are officially closed

Well done. Thank you. I had tried various spellings of their name but missed that one, not helped by the fact that I have Walter's birth date as December 1885 so I need to double check that.

Thank you again for your help.

Just been doing some checking and there are quite a few errors in the entry for Walter Scotton and family. I'm not sure if it was bad handwriting, bad transcription or they didn't know how old they were.

Walter E Scotter should be Walter C Scotton and his birth year should be 1885, not 1888 (2nd December).

His wife Alice's birth year should be 1890 (12th July).

I had totally forgotten that I had both their birth certificates from yonks ago (memo to self: must keep tidier records) so I am sure of their birth dates. I wondered where 1889 came from for Louisa as 12th July was correct but I see it is on the death registration. Whoever registered her death must have got her age a year out.

I wonder how many other people are failing to find their relatives because of minor errors like these?

Edited because my iPad had turned relatives into real actives :-S

My Grandad's birth is also a year out on the 1939 register.

As for the death- she declared she was 20 in 1908 on her marriage certificate- perhaps the family didn't know her true age?

Marriage:
Name: Alice Louisa Day
Estimated birth year: abt 1888
Age: 20
Spouse: Walter Charles Scotton
Spouse Age: 23
Record Type: Marriage
Event Date: 29 Nov 1908
Parish: Christ Church, Battersea
Borough: Wandsworth
Father Name: George Samuel Henry Day
Spouse Father: Thomas Scotton
-------------------------------------------------------

I'm not sure my children would know my exact birth year off the top of their heads. They always seem to remember my birth date though :)

Austin, I think you are probably right about the family not knowing Alice Scotton's true age but they are a difficult family to keep up with anyway as ages go up and down and they seem to interchange names at will. The George Samuel Henry Day given as Alice's father on the marriage details you have given is, in fact, Alice's younger brother. Her father was Samuel George Day. Father and son both sometimes use the name Samuel and sometimes George.

OH suddenly remembered the name of the road the Scottons had lived in so I was able to do a bit more tracing and found that living with them was a lady I have never heard of before. So I now have to try and find out who she was. She may have just been boarding with them or renting a room but it would be nice to find out in case she is some sort of family member.

Frustrating hobby isn't it? Every answer seems to throw up another question.

It is an extremely frustrating hobby, but so addictive! Especially when very old members of the family seem to want to avoid the truth, and even tell a few porkies because they're embarrassed to admit their grandfather may have had a few children out of wedlock after their grandmother died!! OK, rant over :-D

Do you fancy sharing the lady's name? If you need a fresh pair of eyes, just shout.

Depending on the age of the stranger, do bear in mind that her surname may be the one she took when she later married.

Although the entry normally has one surname in brackets, a preview on one of my extended family didn't.

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards/board/ancestors/thread/1355947

Lily J E Spearman 1925 Sittingbourne and Milton U.D. Kent
Died
First name(s) LILY JOAN E
Last name SPEARMAN
Gender Female
Birth day 19
Birth month 5
Birth year 1925
Age -
Death quarter 3
Death year 1989
District BEXLEY

She was born as Lily Joan Eileen Kelvie but married a Spearman in 1945

As I said in my earlier post, the 1939 Register was continually update until the 1990s, as it had formed the basis for the National Health Register.

I was still surprised to see my great aunt indexed separately under her second married name!

My "spare" lady is Eleanor Wotton, b. 1870 so she would have been around 69 when the Register was produced. There is no man of that name in the household so she is probably either single or widowed.

I've had other commitments yesterday and this morning so haven't had a chance to look into this but I haven't come across the Wotton name before nor is Eleanor a name used before in the family as far as I know. I believe the Scottons were renting their house and I suspect they were sub-letting a room to Eleanor. They were a family who took every opportunity to make an extra penny or two. ;-)

Vera

I did a street search on my parents and grandparents. The roads were not very long, so it was not too arduous to do a full search of the names

That's how I got the full names of all the people in the households, and discovered that brother and uncle were "open"