Manual revisions to the 1939 England and Wales Register

[TonyTomlin44]

I'm trying to understand not only a specific record but the process and reasoning behind it.

It's the 1939 England and Wales Register that's got me stumped.

I've always undertood that the Register was taken due to the impending war and the fact that the next Census would only be held in 1941. It was necessary to have an up to date record of everyone particularly any foreign nationals who may be destined for interment. Therefore, like a Census the record was taken and could not be changed.

In my current research I've come across a very clear record that was taken in 1939 but had subsequently been manually changed.
The person listed, single female in 1939, has had their surname changed to their subsequent married name but that marriage only took place in 1947, 8 years after the Register was taken. There are also some notations against the revision but I'm not able to interpret them.

So, my question really is - was it normal for the Register to be updated with later events - surely not for everyone - maybe this person was a foreign national - but now I'm just guessing.

I could attach the record but I'm new here so not sure if that's accepted practice.

Anything anyone has to offer would bw appreciated.

[grangers14]

From The Nation Archives...

The Register was continually updated while National Registration was in force, when it was a legal requirement to notify the registration authorities of any change of name or address. This ended in 1952, but since 1948 the Register had also been used by the National Health Service, who continued updating the records until 1991, when paper-based record keeping was discontinued.

Changes of name for any reason were recorded; in practice this was mostly when women changed their surnames on marriage or re-marriage, but also includes changes of name for any other reason, such as by deed poll.

The majority of these name changes appear in the indexes so you can search for a person using either their name in 1939 or any subsequent name.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help ... -register/

[TonyTomlin44]

Brilliant - thanks

[grangers14]

Is this completed?