I made an interesting discovery this week concerning the Scottish National Identity Register entries from September 1939, recorded as an emergency wartime census two weeks into the Second World War. I had requested a copy of a record from the National Records of Scotland (www.nrscotland.gov.uk) to try to identify the date of birth of a Scottish born woman for whom a birth record cannot be located. Only one source was given for a date of birth, and that was that recorded for her birthdate on her English death record. As I did not know where she was in September 1939, or whether this birthdate was indeed correct, I requested that the NRS perform a look-up for the household of her family to try to pin her down. Two of her children were born in Scotland in the late 1930s, and I supplied their details in the hope that this could be used as a sideways method to pinpoint her location. The strategy worked, and an entry was found for her, which indeed listed a different date of birth.
The interesting discovery, however, concerned where the family was stated to be based. The address given was simply 'The Manse', with no burgh or town listed, and simply 'Perth' (i.e. Perthshire) listed as the county where located. There are a lot of manses in Perthhsire! Thinking this to be an omission by the person extracting the information, I queried this, and the entry was referred to the NHS Central Register (https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/nhs-central-register) held in Dumfries, where the original records are held. It transpired from the NHSCR representative that the Scottish
records are not collated in the same way as the Scottish censuses, but
in alphabetical order by 'NHS range' (I am still trying to clarify what
this means exactly). The way that they are collated seemingly makes it more
difficult to identify a location where folk were recorded if this is not identified on the page itself.
Nevertheless, from a subsequent dialogue with extract service manager Keith McKenzie, I was advised that from the context of other records it appeared to be an entry from the Forteviot/Dunning area, which tallied with a known area where she was later resident in November 1939, albeit at a different address. I was further advised that there were in fact a few families listed at 'The Manse' in prior and subsequent pages in the same register, none of which had the town listed either - it was suggested that this may have implied that the property housed families evacuated to Perthshire at the start of the war, with one possible location identified, which I am currently seeking further information on. The reason for the omission is simple - this was an emergency wartime census, and the box was simply not filled in on some schedules, as the enumerators sought to rapidly identify the names of individuals who would need identity cards.
The moral of this story is that if you receive a record which appears to have a deficiency, never be afraid to query it! In this case the NRS provided an extract exactly as requested of the information for the individual in question, as presented on the page - but the inability to see these original records, as can be done with the English and Welsh equivalents, makes it difficult to see the context of how the records were originally presented. The NRS system presents typed extracts from the register at £15. It is to be hoped at some stage in the future that the NRS can digitise the register, as has been done in England and Wales.
Note also that the ability to see a record from other possible collections, in its original context, can often yield cues and further information that cannot be viewed in a typed database. For example, an original record may contain a person's signature, or a baptism entry in a database may look totally different in a register when it might be found that it was added many years later and not at the time of the event, which may not be immediately apparent from a database, and which may prompt further questions such as why a late registration took place. ALWAYS try to see an original copy of a record where possible!
To request copies from the Scottish 1939 National Identity Register, visit https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/nhs-central-register/about-the-register/1939-national-identity-register-and-how-to-order-an-official-extract
(With thanks to Keith McKenzie at NRS)
Chris
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