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1939 register. Searching for my uncle

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  • 1939 register. Searching for my uncle

    Please can someone help me solve this problem? My mother,who died in the 1970s, is on the 1939 register in Chichester although her family home was in south London and her parents and grandparents are in their house there at the time. If she was an evacuee this was never mentioned by my mother so it was a complete surprise to me. She was about 13 at the time and she had a little brother who was 5. He died in 2007 but I have not found him anywhere in the 1939 register. There are no closed records at the address where his parents were but there are two where my mother was living in Chichester - one above her in the list and one below her in the list. In the hope that the one below her was her little brother, I obtained his death certificate and requested through FindMyPast to have the record opened.

    That was about a month ago and I have heard nothing from them nor can I find out how to trace my request and check what date I sent it.

    Can anyone suggest what I should be doing next? I am new to internet research so I'm on a steep learning curve!
    Main research interests.. CAESAR (Surrey and London), GOODALL (London), SKITTERALL, WOODWARD (Middlesex and London), BARBER (Canterbury, Kent), DRAYSON (Canterbury, Kent), CRISP (Kent) and CHEESEMAN (Kent).

  • #2
    The 1939 Register was taken on 29th September 1939 with a view to the provision of identity cards.

    You have to bear in mind that any census is just a snapshot of where people spent that particular night and might not be their permanent address.
    Who was your mother with?
    Were they family members or strangers to you?

    She could have been on holiday or just staying a few days.
    I can understand you not wanting to put names on here, but if you don't want to you could send me a PM (private message) and I can see if I can find her brother.
    If he died in 2007 his record should be unlocked. Of course, a mistake could have been made.
    Elizabeth
    Research Interests:
    England:Purkis, Stilwell, Quintrell, White (Surrey - Guildford), Jeffcoat, Bond, Alexander, Lamb, Newton (Lincolnshire, Stalybridge, London)
    Scotland:Richardson (Banffshire), Wishart (Kincardineshire), Johnston (Kincardineshire)

    Comment


    • #3
      She was with a young couple in their 20s and no one in my family recalls the names. Knowing her family background, a holiday without her family is very unlikely and it is surprising that the younger brother (my uncle) was not with his parents.

      Thank you you for offering to search for me but as a new forum member I would prefer not to share the names, especially as they are close relatives. Can you suggest another place that I could search? Or a different way of searching?
      Main research interests.. CAESAR (Surrey and London), GOODALL (London), SKITTERALL, WOODWARD (Middlesex and London), BARBER (Canterbury, Kent), DRAYSON (Canterbury, Kent), CRISP (Kent) and CHEESEMAN (Kent).

      Comment


      • #4
        Oh, now I'm feeling really silly! I've just gone back to FMP to see if I could find my request and Lo and Behold! It has been unlocked and my uncle is there! I thought they would send some kind of email acknowledgement.

        So what next? Is there any way to find out if they were evacuees? They are both listed as At School so is there any way to find out more?
        Main research interests.. CAESAR (Surrey and London), GOODALL (London), SKITTERALL, WOODWARD (Middlesex and London), BARBER (Canterbury, Kent), DRAYSON (Canterbury, Kent), CRISP (Kent) and CHEESEMAN (Kent).

        Comment


        • #5
          With regards to the 1939 register entry for your mother, what is recorded in the occupation column - "at school" or is there a job description? What date of birth is recorded for her - was she old enough to be working and in a residential placement?

          ETA posts have crossed!

          Jay
          Last edited by Janet in Yorkshire; 13-12-19, 19:28.
          Janet in Yorkshire



          Genealogists never die - they just swap places in the family tree

          Comment


          • #6
            They were aged 13 and 5 respectively. Perhaps their Mother felt that the big sister was old enough to look after the little brother. How difficult it must have been though, to put your children on a train not knowing where they would end up.
            Main research interests.. CAESAR (Surrey and London), GOODALL (London), SKITTERALL, WOODWARD (Middlesex and London), BARBER (Canterbury, Kent), DRAYSON (Canterbury, Kent), CRISP (Kent) and CHEESEMAN (Kent).

            Comment


            • #7
              My Mum was in Cornwall in 1939, and she stayed with her Dads cousin, who was married (had a different name of course), and then soon after they lived with someone else as the cousin couldn't cope with 3 girls! My Mum wasn't an 'evacuee' in the sense of officialdom, but she and her 2 younger sisters were taken there by their Dad as soon as war was declared. My Mum was too old to get in the school at 13/14, but her 2 younger sisters got in.

              So just to illustrate what other things were happening.
              Carolyn
              Family Tree site

              Researching: Luggs, Freeman - Cornwall; Dayman, Hobbs, Heard - Devon; Wilson, Miles - Northants; Brett, Everett, Clark, Allum - Herts/Essex
              Also interested in Proctor, Woodruff

              Comment


              • #8
                Thank you for those useful thoughts. I will try and do some more research around the family and see if the host family name crops up anywhere else.

                I'm very grateful for all and any suggestions, it all helps with unlocking the secrets and completing the puzzle.
                Main research interests.. CAESAR (Surrey and London), GOODALL (London), SKITTERALL, WOODWARD (Middlesex and London), BARBER (Canterbury, Kent), DRAYSON (Canterbury, Kent), CRISP (Kent) and CHEESEMAN (Kent).

                Comment


                • #9
                  Do you know what school she attended before she was evacuated? The Chichester Observer is online at Find My Past and there may be a mention of schools. Having researched evacuees in my own town I know that certain schools were evacuated to particular areas but there were many private evacuees too.

                  I've found the Chichester Mayor's Christmas parties programme 1939 for local & evacuated schools, Streatham Secondary and Wimbledon Secondary are mentioned, Furzedown Primary (Wandsworth), Henry Thornton school (Clapham), other schools may get a mention, happy to search for you.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Oh yes, I found my mother in the newspaper in a running race in Cornwall - they had the entire village sports day in the paper, she has such an unusual name I just know it is her, she has no memory of it though
                    Carolyn
                    Family Tree site

                    Researching: Luggs, Freeman - Cornwall; Dayman, Hobbs, Heard - Devon; Wilson, Miles - Northants; Brett, Everett, Clark, Allum - Herts/Essex
                    Also interested in Proctor, Woodruff

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Jill on the A272 View Post
                      Do you know what school she attended before she was evacuated? The Chichester Observer is online at Find My Past and there may be a mention of schools. Having researched evacuees in my own town I know that certain schools were evacuated to particular areas but there were many private evacuees too.

                      I've found the Chichester Mayor's Christmas parties programme 1939 for local & evacuated schools, Streatham Secondary and Wimbledon Secondary are mentioned, Furzedown Primary (Wandsworth), Henry Thornton school (Clapham), other schools may get a mention, happy to search for you.
                      Thank you, Jill. They lived in the Norwood / Streatham area so that would tie up if she was at Streatham Secondary School. I have a subscription to FMP so I'll go and have a look. I'm still learning my way around FMP so I might come back for more advice if I can't find anything.
                      Main research interests.. CAESAR (Surrey and London), GOODALL (London), SKITTERALL, WOODWARD (Middlesex and London), BARBER (Canterbury, Kent), DRAYSON (Canterbury, Kent), CRISP (Kent) and CHEESEMAN (Kent).

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by cbcarolyn View Post
                        Oh yes, I found my mother in the newspaper in a running race in Cornwall - they had the entire village sports day in the paper, she has such an unusual name I just know it is her, she has no memory of it though
                        That's amazing, what a great little snippet of personal history. you must have been thrilled to find that!
                        Main research interests.. CAESAR (Surrey and London), GOODALL (London), SKITTERALL, WOODWARD (Middlesex and London), BARBER (Canterbury, Kent), DRAYSON (Canterbury, Kent), CRISP (Kent) and CHEESEMAN (Kent).

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          give the newspapers a go in FMP , if they have good names you could be lucky
                          Carolyn
                          Family Tree site

                          Researching: Luggs, Freeman - Cornwall; Dayman, Hobbs, Heard - Devon; Wilson, Miles - Northants; Brett, Everett, Clark, Allum - Herts/Essex
                          Also interested in Proctor, Woodruff

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            My family lived near Chichester and mum & her sister got mentions during their school years during the war for concerts, or events at school and when mum was knocked off her bike.
                            Last edited by Jill on the A272; 13-12-19, 22:38. Reason: punctuation

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              I did search the 1939 papers for mentions of their arrival but I need to spend some time searching the next few years, don’t I?
                              Is there a way in FMP to stop it from saving everything that you look at into My Records? It would be more useful if it only saved ones that you choose to save.
                              Main research interests.. CAESAR (Surrey and London), GOODALL (London), SKITTERALL, WOODWARD (Middlesex and London), BARBER (Canterbury, Kent), DRAYSON (Canterbury, Kent), CRISP (Kent) and CHEESEMAN (Kent).

                              Comment


                              • #16
                                I think FMP just keeps the list of things you ever looked at in case you want to find them again. To be honest I never, ever look at the list! If I want to save something I download it to my computer. What FMP does (presumably using the My Records list) is place a tick against every record you have viewed. This is extremely helpful, unlike Ancestry which present you with an unsortable list of search results with no way of marking those you have viewed.
                                Anne

                                Comment


                                • #17
                                  If you can find out the name of the school that they went to that might help you to locate a possible school record. There are various ways that a child might have been evacuated. If they are on the 1939 Register living in Chichister then they might well have been part of the first wave of children evacuated from London at the beginning of September. This was known as the phoney war and that first wave of evacuees soon came back to live in London. It was the second wave of 1940 when children stayed longer with their "foster homes". Most of the First wave evacuees from London went with their schools. Do you know which schools in London they attended? If you know the London schools you may be able to find out more from the archive nearest so for example if they were living in Middlesex the LMA have a gbig section on Evacuees from that area,. Age 13 and 5 they would have been at different schools but if they were at the same address in 1939 the 13 year old would probably have attended the senior part and the 5 year old the junior part of probably the same school. In this case they would most probably gone by train with the teachers in charge.

                                  They could have nbeen sent to relatives/friends or private evacuees but this sort of evacuation tended to occur with the second wave onwards. It is also worth contacting the Evacuees Association as they have a lost touch section as well as having a lot of other information. If you kow the address they lived in London try to locate the schools nearest that address and then try to locate records. A

                                  Janet

                                  Comment


                                  • #18
                                    Funnily enough I was researching a family the other day. Two of the younger children were in Mid Wales (their parents and family in Manchester). I couldn't identify the couple they were with so thought they might be evacuees. After the War the whole family moved to Wales leaving me wondering if the couple were actually family or if the children liked it so much they all went??
                                    Anne

                                    Comment


                                    • #19
                                      Originally posted by Anne in Carlisle View Post
                                      Funnily enough I was researching a family the other day. Two of the younger children were in Mid Wales (their parents and family in Manchester). I couldn't identify the couple they were with so thought they might be evacuees. After the War the whole family moved to Wales leaving me wondering if the couple were actually family or if the children liked it so much they all went??
                                      Anne
                                      '
                                      There were occasions where children were so happy that they stayed with the "Foster Parents" sometimes with the parents' blessing but sometimes against parental wishes. And sometimes families became very friendly and corresponded after the war and that could have sparked a family going to live near the "foster parents" My mother became very friendly with the family to which I was evacuated in Bodmin.

                                      The British Association of Evacuees website is

                                      www.evacuees.org.uk



                                      Janet
                                      Last edited by Janet; 14-12-19, 19:00.

                                      Comment


                                      • #20
                                        Originally posted by Anne in Carlisle View Post
                                        I think FMP just keeps the list of things you ever looked at in case you want to find them again. To be honest I never, ever look at the list! If I want to save something I download it to my computer. What FMP does (presumably using the My Records list) is place a tick against every record you have viewed. This is extremely helpful, unlike Ancestry which present you with an unsortable list of search results with no way of marking those you have viewed.
                                        Anne
                                        Thank you, Anne - downloading the good stuff sounds like a good idea.
                                        Main research interests.. CAESAR (Surrey and London), GOODALL (London), SKITTERALL, WOODWARD (Middlesex and London), BARBER (Canterbury, Kent), DRAYSON (Canterbury, Kent), CRISP (Kent) and CHEESEMAN (Kent).

                                        Comment

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