News & Information

Pat, its not as simple as they've removed it for all.  There are reports that some of the overseas sites are still showing it.  I can't comment on that as I only use the UK site.  That said, I can see the TNA Registration Number on the Free Preview when using IE11 (and I've been forced to relogin in IE11, probably though an expiring cookie, and that hasn't removed the facility), but if I use Firefox it is excluded and I get the name of a second person in the household but no Ref number.  Other people have experienced issues viewing it in IE11 but can view in other browsers, and yet more cannot see it in any browser.  FMP Support have apparently told at least one person that the reference is still visible.  It seems to be a bit hit and miss as to who can and can't see the TNA Ref and in which internet browser.

I realise that there are many and different problems with this but I was just trying to point out that the Reference can still be obtained from the URL - so it is possible to check whether you have the correct family combination of names before committing payment for the original.  

For example if I search for Ernest HASE in Bristol - I find just one entry Ernest S L HASE  born 1886.  If I preview that record I am told that living with him is an Ella HASE (who I know is his second wife) and one other person plus one more who is officially closed.  The URL for this entry is 

http://search.findmypast.co.uk/record/locked?id=tna%2fr39%2f5024%2f5024g%2f009%2f40  

I have made bold the Piece Number 5024g and the Unit number 009

If I now search again - with no name but simply enter the Piece and Unit Numbers in the boxes at the foot of the page I can see 36 names of people living in the same road - they are listed in alphabetical order - and these include a Emma HASE born in 1864, who was Ernest's mother.  The person who is redacted is most probably Ernest & Ella's daughter who was born in 1928 and actually died in 2012.

 I didn't know that Emma had lived with her son - she died in 1940 and was buried in Weston-super-Mare Cemetery.

Interesting post on Chris Paton's Blog about the disappearing TNA Ref on the preview screen - http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/1939-national-identity-register-terms.html

Thank you, Pat, for your advice on how to access the register details; it worked fine for me. I opened up two tabs both connected to findmypast. On one I searched for the surname and on the other I did the detailed search with the TNS reference. This meant that I could easily switch from one to the other without having to redo the surname search. However it does not give as much information as you might expect. When you are told that so-and-so plus one more person are on that record, unless the surname is the same you have no idea who the other is. The list is alphabetical of all the people in that area. In the case of my grandmother it is practically the whole street. Also they are not necessarily related even if in the same household as lodgers and servants are not identified. Still, I did what I thought would be the easy search for my family surname - SHORTO - as we are a fairly closed family (all related). I got two and a half pages of SHORTO; plus over four pages of SHORTS, plus a few odds SHORTE etc and of course the ubiquitous SHORT. Of the approx 90 SHORTS I have easily fitted 70 onto our tree they should have been SHORTO. The name SHORTS did not exist in the 1800s - I can fit every single one from that era into our family. The name SHORTS came into being during the Great War and was an Anglicised form of the German SCHULTZ when German things were not well regarded. The moral of this is that this register is littered with transcription mistakes - I have already found numerous initials incorrect, a BURDEN transcribed as BARDEN and I have yet to trawl through those indexed as SHORTO. Still on the plus side I have identified the husband of one member who was until now unknown to me.