1939 Register Opening (or not) of Entries for the Deceased

[AdrianBruce]

I've seen people saying, "But XXX is dead so their 1939 Register entry should be open". Well, yes, but there are all sorts of things to go wrong with that process - and I just thought of another today, which actually looks plausible based on my parents' situations.

Mum died in 2010 and her entry on the FindMyPast 1939 Register is open. Dad died in 2015 and his entry is not open. (Yes I know how to get it opened but it won't tell me anything - sorry...)

So FMP know that Mum has died but not Dad. Now, it could be that Dad's 1939 entry shows the wrong date of birth, or something similar that breaks the identification, but I think it's something simpler than that.

How does FMP know that someone has died? Because, you may say, they use the GRO index. But it occurred to me, only today, that the GRO index (the England & Wales Deaths 1837-2007 collection on FMP) only goes up to 2007. Beyond that, the GRO have not distributed their indexes so FMP can only use what they refer to as United Kingdom Deaths 2007-2017, which is "copyright Wilmington Millennium Ltd" and appears to come from a bunch of sources like funeral directors, newspapers etc. (Ancestry do a better description of it, if I could find it).

And Mum, whose 1939 record is open, is in United Kingdom Deaths 2007-2017. Dad, whose 1939 is closed, isn't in United Kingdom Deaths 2007-2017, hence FMP can't start the automatic process. I have, by the way, no idea, why one parent is in that Wilmington collection and the other isn't.

You may, of course, already realize this.

[AdrianBruce]

By the way - one annotation on Mum's entry gives a partial answer to another question that's asked. Her change of name on marriage is marked up on the 1939 with a date of 13.12.49. That's not the date they got married, nor is it the date that her new card was issued (which was 29 Nov 1949) - so logically the date marks some point later, such as when the page was updated. I wouldn't suggest that every office followed the same process, though they might, but just in this one case, because I have her Id card, I can get some idea of what the date isn't.

[Thunder]

I am still awaiting the entry for my mum who was born in 1925 and died in 1987 to be released. The problem is that the entry has to be the same EXACTLY as the death entry. TNA have been aware of the problems with the 1939 Register and how the project was run and have been open about that, so they give the 1921 Census for 'England and Wales' to the same company!. I see no reason to pay a large sum of money for an entry which gives little information and it should (perhaps) be released in five years' time.

[meekhcs]

My husband's Mother died in 2016, her entry in the 1939 Register is open, presumably because her death is recorded in the United Kingdom deaths 2007-2017 mentioned by Adrian. I noted however that the date of death recorded in the UK deaths 2007-2017 is wrong. She died on the 9th of the month and we registered her death on the 20th. UK deaths have used the 20th as her date of death.

[AdrianBruce]

There are always errors, I'm afraid. That one, I have to say, I find curious, though, as I can't envisage how the registration date is a topic of interest anywhere outside the GRO.