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Who lived in your
house in 1939?

41 Million lives recorded in England & Wales at the outbreak of the Second World War.
The official home of the 1939 Register

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Find a person in the 1939 Register

Who
When
Where

Records of people younger than 100 and still alive, or who died after 1991 are officially closed. You can find more details here.

Find a house in the 1939 Register

Country

Records of people younger than 100 and still alive, or who died after 1991 are officially closed. You can find more details here.

Enter a street name and town to get started — or just use your postcode

Records of people younger than 100 and still alive, or who died after 1991 are officially closed. You can find more details here.

Discover the 1939 Register

  • Household transcript

    Find full names, dates of birth, occupations, addresses and more.

  • The original Register

    See the original hand-written pages. Zoom in or pan left and right for a closer look.

  • Statistics

    Get an overview of your town demographics and society in 1939.

  • Maps

    Use them like Google Maps. Type in your street and see what's changed.

A collage of photos of an old 1939 map, household transcripts of the 1939 register as viewable on Findmypast, original scanned pages from the 1939 register and statistics regarding the British population in 1939.

Save their stories on a family tree

  • Preserve and honour your relatives' lives
  • Find undiscovered family records, with our help
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Getting Started with the 1939 Register

What is the 1939 Register?

Taken at the outbreak of World War II, the 1939 Register contains the personal details of 41 million people in England and Wales. Find out more about the 1939 Register here.

Bringing the Register online

A team of hundreds has been working for over a year, conserving, scanning and digitising over 1.2 million pages. Find out more about the process here.

How to explore the Register

If you need a hand searching through the millions of names in the 1939 Register, you can watch the handy how-to video we created here.

Explore life in 1939

Women's fashion in the 1930s

From siren suits to liquid stockings, find out how women dressed in the 1930s

Evacuation

With the threat of air raids imminent, Britain’s children had to escape the cities

Men's fashion in the 1930s

Inspired by royalty and Hollywood, this is how the discerning male dressed in the 1930s

Rationing

With the new German threat on shipping in 1939, action had to be taken to prevent food shortages

The road to war

The 1930s was a decade that culminated in global conflict. Here’s what led the world to war

The 1930s home

The home of the 1930s was changing, as brand new conveniences revolutionised daily life