2 million more records opened on the 1939 Register

[Merry]

Originally Posted by kiterunner

They are really pushing it with their new post on FB, "What amazing discoveries have you made in the 1939 Register?"
Tempted to post that I discovered that loads of people were dead who everybody thought were still alive, lol.

lol!!

re the New box thing....

Clicked the 1939 register tab in the blue bar on FMP, entered a name and clicked Search. The next page with the Results on it has the Filter and tick box on the left under the Edit Search button.

I just tried doing a general search from the main page, and I see it comes up for me on any of the Results pages.

[kiterunner]

That's weird, because I don't see it on this computer, but I assume it is on my laptop, will have a look in a little while.
Edit - okay, I see on their FB page that they are trying this out and it works on Microsoft Edge browser which I use on my laptop but not on this computer. That explains that!

FMP seem to be denying that there is a problem as they posted this on Facebook:

We are proud of the fact that we currently have an accuracy figure of 99.89% on correctly opened records. The nature of the 1939 Register means there will be a tiny fraction of inaccuracies when opening such a large volume of records. We have an easy way to request the closure of a record, agreed with The National Archives, to ensure a record can be closed in the fastest time possible. Please fill out the Close an open record form if you believe a record should be closed, alternatively contact our support team at [email protected] with details, so we can assist.


From what I have heard, this is not an "easy way" or the "fastest time possible". It looks as though the fastest time possible is to be an MP or a Lord and be mentioned on their Facebook page! But what worries me most is the ordinary people whose records have been opened who do not have FMP subs or close relatives with FMP subs and who are unaware that their records have been made public. Their solution doesn't help them. I suppose they don't care about people who don't know about it.

The other famous person who I mentioned to them still shows up on the 1939 Register but as he isn't a politician I guess they aren't bothered.

[kiterunner]

Their figure of 99.89% accuracy would suggest that about 2,200 of the recent 2 million records were opened in error but I reckon it must be much more than that.

[Merry]

I would tend to agree with you Kate. It's really hard for us to prove though.

Tomorrow I'm going to contact them about the pages around mum's record and see what they have to say this time.

If it were me and still alive I wouldn't care it doesn't tell much anyway.

[Tom Tom]

I found quite a few relatives (still living) in the new batch.
Emailed last night, and got a reply today, saying they shouldn't be open etc etc. Said I would have to prove they were alive to have the record closed.
These are people who are alive, and who are under 100.

Rang them up after I got the email and spoke to the lady there. She refused to accept there was anything wrong initially, until I mentioned it had been all over social media and that people like Dennis Skinner etc had been released. This soon stopped her!
She said to email her the names, which I have done.

What annoys me is the fact they are not doing what they say they do. Shows very few scruples.

[Nell]

Good news, I've had an email today to say they have withdrawn my Mum's name.

[Merry]

Originally Posted by Nell

Good news, I've had an email today to say they have withdrawn my Mum's name.

Did you have to send them any form of "proof" Nell, or did they take your word for it?

[kiterunner]

Glad to hear they are removing names of some living people, but I would like them to acknowledge that there is a big problem! I was racking my brains trying to think of a way to get a list of living people in England and Wales of the right age, with birthdates and enough biographical information to confirm whether I find the right person, to get some statistical information to throw at FMP, and I found that Wikipedia has a "List of Living Life Peers", so I am going through those ignoring the Scottish ones and any who are too young, looking them up one at a time, and out of the first 5 I looked up, I have found 2 on the 1939 Register, both marked "New". I will continue till I have looked up a decent number before contacting FMP with the results, though!

Doing some very rough calculations based on their figures, 41 million records altogether, 33 million open now (including the 2 million new ones) and 99.89 accuracy rate meaning that there should be 36,300 records wrongly opened, altogether, and if there are 8 million living people who were included on the register, the chances of one of their records being open should be 0.45%, i.e. if I picked 200 living life peers of England and Wales in the right age bracket, I would be expecting to find 1 of their records open. Hopefully someone at FMP understands statistics.

[Merry]

Kate, make sure you contact them before the 30 days is up. When did they release the 2 million names? I was thinking it was 9th Nov, but that was the GRO index stuff