1939 Register Opening (or not) of Entries for the Deceased
Posted: 07 Feb 2021, 18:25
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.
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.