1939 Register Update
With over 85,000 'closed records' newly opened up the 1939 Register now contains more than 33.9 million searchable records.
Each record includes the names of inhabitants at each address, their date of birth, marital status and occupation. There is also contextual information, including period photographs, infographics, region-specific newspaper articles and historical and contemporary maps tailored to each record.
The population of England and Wales in 1939 is estimated at 41 million although some, like my father who was in the merchant marine, were not registered at the time. I estimate that some 2.4 million under age 100 will still be alive. Perhaps up to 4 million records that should be open are not. That's a very rough estimate.
British Armed Forces, First World War Soldiers' Medical Records
More than 21,000 additional records from
TNA series MH106, a representative selection of the original collection, have been added to the collection. The records include admission and discharge registers from hospitals and casualty clearing stations, field ambulances, an ambulance train and a hospital ship.
In addition, more than 1.8 million transcripts are now available in the
United States, National Veterans Cemetery Index. Transcripts may include birth years, death years, service, rank, death date, home town, burial place, father’s name and spouse from the American Civil War and the two world wars through to Afghanistan. However, there is a large number of duplicate records; for instance, Thomas E la Bruyere who died in 2002 has 17 separate entries.
