The 78 individuals who were not found on the 1939 register were examined to see if there may be a reason for them not being found.
The possible reasons considered were whether they were:
● Closed records (although most should have been found with their parents)
● Dead
● Women who had married / remarried
● Men in the army
● Whether in the same family as other closed records or individuals

Then some conclusions were drawn

The individuals were considered in 4 groups:

Results below or for the Summary click here

Closed records

People in the Register who were born less than 100 years and a day ago and are still alive are ‘officially closed’. The Register was updated until 1991, meaning that the record of anyone who was born less than 100 years and a day ago but died prior to 1991 is not closed.

Closed records in the same households as Pullums could usually be identified or possible identified as a particular individual on my database.

There were however 4 individuals on my database for whom there was no likely record was found.

3 were girls (3, 14 & 17) who are not linked to main tree, for 2 the birth records only have been found and for the other, birth & marriage records only.
The 4th was a 10 year old boy. His 8 year old sister died before 1991 so her record should be open. Their parents were found on the 1939 register but there are no closed records with them.
The same is true for an 11 year old girl (Born after 1916, died before 1991).
The other individual who was born after 1916 and died before 1991 was a 16 year old boy. His parents have also not been found on the register.

Evacuation

Operation Pied Piper, began on 1 September 1939 and officially relocated more than 3.5 million people over 3 days.
Therefore it is possible that these children were evacuated as they lived in London.

Possibly Not Alive

24 individuals were over 79 years of age in 1939 and so likely to have died
(see life expectancy table)

However one 81 year old was known to have died 6 years later (aged 87 in 1945)
Interestingly there is also a group of 3 siblings
and only 5 were on the main tree, so many were questionably Pullums (see below)

Ages of Others

There were 47 who were over 23 (closed) but under 79 years of age (“none” category)

The majority are between 30 and 51.
The 19% over 70 years  and some of the 61 – 70 year old group are possibly not alive especially as their inclusion has altered the graph from a normal distribution curve .

Possibly married women

Of the 47 who were >23 and <79
27 were men and 19 were females, the gender of the other was unknown

Of the 3 born after 1916 who died before 1991
only one was female and was aged 11 so too young to be married.

Of the 19 females of marriageable age:
● 3 were married to a Pullum and they were both still alive.
● One 61 year old woman was either married or widowed but she was known to be alive.
● There were 3 sisters (aged 38, 41 & 42) for whom no records had been found after the 1911 census (mother died in 1915 when they were teenagers), except the youngest where there are possible nursing registration records later.
● A 39 year old was known to be single 10 years earlier but then no further records had been found.
● A 79 year old may have married in 1917 aged 56.
● A 28 year old may have left the country.
● Another was 70 and nothing had been found for all her family since the 1871 census.
● Another was 70 and nothing had been found for all her family since the 1871 census.
● The other 2 were on the database as mothers of children born with the name Pullum
(one of these may have been the same as an individual that had been found).

In the Army

The National Register was taken on 29th September 1939 and listed the personal details of every civilian in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The Register was not intended to record members of the armed forces, so these are mostly excluded.

So at the time of the register, only men aged 20 and 21 would have been in the army
(plus career soldiers and volunteers).

For the records not found however, there are only 7 individuals in this group and 4 of these are female Of the 3 males, they were all too young to be conscripted being born in 1923 (aged 16); 1929 (aged 10) and 1931 (aged 8).

Relationship Groups

Possibly not Pullum

Of the 47 in the “none” category, 22 were on my database but had not been connected to the main tree. Of these 16 were individuals where only one piece of documented evidence was found with the name as Pullum.
For the remaining 6, they are part of 3 family groups (perhaps only 2):
(i) Charles Pullum, whose wife & children had been found on the register.
It is possible that he is the same Charles as one on the main tree if his father’s name was misrecorded on his marriage certificate (same occupation & area). In which case he is a Pullum but a duplicate.
(ii) Charles Pullum, the father of the above – only found on the marriage certificate of his son.
(iii) The parents of a child (whose record could be closed) – no evidence except for her birth record. The child may be another daughter of Charles (i), but her mother’s maiden name is a variation on the maiden name of Charles wife.
(iv) The parents of another child (whose record could be closed) – no evidence except for her birth record. Her birth & marriage have been found but her parents marriage has not.

The remaining 25

The relationships between these was examined and whether it was more likely to be individuals or families that were not found was considered.
They were:
● A family of 3:
Parents and a son, none should be closed but the son is in the “Born after 1916, died before 1991” group
● 3 couples:
(i) A couple (ages 38 & 44) who have no known children
(ii) A couple with no living children, she is 61 but he is 80 so is not in this group
(iii) A couple (ages 38 & 41) who have 6 living children, 2 found on the register with 3 closed records, so still one short
● 3 married men:
(i) Aged 33, known to be alive in 1939, his wife is with her sister on the register.
(ii) Aged 58, known to be alive in 1939, his wife on her own (married) on the register.
(iii) Charles Pullum (47) who may be the one mentioned above but if not, is unmarried.
● a widowed man:
Aged 76 but known to have died later than 1939.
● an unmarried man:
Aged 70 but known to have died later than 1939
● 4 lots of siblings, however they were all adults:
(i) 3 females (38,41,42) one male (40).
Their younger half sibling had been found with their father and step-mother
(ii) 3 males (29, 40,40) and one female (39, unmarried)
(iii) A brother (75 widowed) and a sister (70, may have married 1917) both death dates unknown
(iv) A brother (72 unmarried) and a sister (70 unmarried) both death dates unknown
● The last individual is a child for whom little has been found on and may have died as an infant

Therefore about a third of the missing individuals were with somebody else. This may be lower than the individuals, however, as it is easier to verify individuals who are not alone.

Summary (individuals not found)

The 78 individuals who were not found on the 1939 register were examined to see if there may be a reason for them not being found.
The possible reasons considered were whether they were:
● Closed records
● Dead
● Women who had married / remarried
● Men in the army
● Possibly not Pullum
● Whether in the same family as other closed records or individuals

Closed records
Although a good reason for not finding these individuals, one of the 4 could have been identified if they had been with their parents. This is true also for 2 of the other 3 under 100 years old (but who died before 1991), one who was a sibling.
Possibly not Alive
After consulting life expectancy tables, it seemed reasonable to consider that the 24 individuals over 79 years were probably not alive. But not having dates of death for all but one I could not be sure.  Ironically the only one in the over 79years group for whom I had a death date, was still alive in 1939.
Women who had married / remarried
There were 19 females of marriageable age. 3 were married with husbands still alive and possible a 4th (if her husband had died she had not remarried). One may have married earlier and another may have left the country. For the rest,there was insufficient data on them.
Men in the Army
There were no males of conscriptionable age, so the only ones possibly in the army were career soldiers (none known) or volunteers.
Possibly not Pullum
For 22 individuals, few records had been found for them, to the extent that it was possible that they were not Pullums, had changed their name or were duplicates.
Relationship clues
8 should have been with at least one other individuals. For most of those who were probably alone, there was enough evidence that they should have been on the register except for one.

Conclusion
For 28 of the 78 individuals not found on the 1939 register there was no obvious reason for this.

Last updated: 26.08.16