Is there a way to search the 1939 census just by address?

[SwedishEdith]

Just renewed my Ancestry account and I can't seem to see how you can search the 1939 census just be address? I'm interested in one road but have no names of anyone who lived there. Is it possible to search just a road?

I thought the census was only released after 100 years? So last available one is 1921?

You can definitely see it. Wasn't an official census, it was more of a register/head count at the start of the war.

On Find My Past you can search just by town and street - although if its a long road tou might get rather a lot of results if you don't add other filters.

If you are happy to post the details I can have a look.

It's not a census, it was a register prepared in preparation for war. A lot of the entries are redacted. You can search according to the borough your ancestors lived in, you might then be able to find the actual road. I haven't tried but you can browse this way.

I might be wrong, but I think you can search the 1939 register by birth date...I couldn't find my dgm, as it turns out she was mis transcribed, but found her via her DOB

Thanks for the offer. I'll leave it for now but thank you.

I've tried searching for the borough but can't see which one it be under. I just wanted to look up a house that was built in the late 1920s so don't have a DOB to use.

If you know the address then look up the borough it's in now. You can look at the counties on the right hand side under the browse function. So then look at the drop down for the borough. Lots of counties had urban district councils and also rural district councils, so it can be difficult to find. If it was a village then it will be under the rurals. It's not going to be an easy way to find the address, I'm afraid, and will be a lot of hard work, or luck!

Yes there is.

See attached image. Leave all the boxes blank, enter the street name in the keywords box. The number of results you get will obviously depend on how common the street name is - Oak Avenue returns 1379 results, High Street over 64,000. Using the last column on the results showing the county should help you find the right one. Then click on the photo icon on the far right to see the original image.

Thank you! That works. But, maddeningly, the information about the address I want has been redacted 😫

Will that ever be unredacted after 100 years, I wonder?

May not be online depending on the area, and won't include under 21s but another option would be electoral registers.

@SwedishEdith if you know who was there and can prove their death with a death certificate you can get it unredacted. But if you don't know whose behind the redaction then no you can't. It's really hit or miss as to the removed redactions, a grandparent that died decades before another is still redacted but not the more recently deceased. It's really frustrating that you can't tell if the surrounding redactions are at the same abode or are just the next address along.

Thanks @Ellmau and @ukhgf.I've no names or dobs to follow up here as just being nosy about an address. Was just idle curiosity tbh.

The local history centre for the area you are looking at will have electoral rolls and may do a search for you if you email them.

There may well be a charge though.

Or some electoral registers are on Ancestry/FMP.

Or street directories. would give you some names

Actually, I find FMP is better for non personal name searches.

On Ancestry select search Census and Electoral Registers. Then scroll down and select Card Catalogue. You'll get a list of Electoral Registers so see if your county is there. There is a series of drop down menus to narrow down your search and you can eventually narrow it down to a parish or district and year. Then it's just a matter of going through a particular volume to find the street you're interested in. It's a bit patchy but you may find it.

If there's a borough or county local history centre / library for the area, they will have street directories and / or electoral registers which would list the householder / adult residents.