The Gotts Surname Family History

The 1939 National Register was taken on 29 September 1939 in order to understand the numbers and location of people to be fed, the workforce, and potentially eligible men for military service. Those already in the military were not included. There were 892,697 men in the British Army and Territorial Army in September 1939: we do not know how many Gottses this included.

This Register formed the basis of the NHS Register, and it was maintained until 1991 before being computerised.  It shows:

• the full dates of birth as recorded (though not necessarily the correct year as checks against when their births were registered can be several years different, often a few years prior!)
• The surnames of women when they remarried.

It is invaluable for giving the full date of birth, tracing future marriages, verifying deaths where the date of birth is recorded, and it is often possible to see the people in the 2002-2014 Electoral Roll.

Now we have been through them here are the statistics:

• 1864 entries examined
• 244 ruled out as not Gottses
• 90 need further investigation
• 1530 people in the families have been placed in Gotts trees, a success rate of 94.4%!
• Of these 717 have or will have the surname Gotts.

Surprisingly, this is slightly less than the number in 1911. Given the birth rate, I would have expected more Gottses exist, even allowing for some of the men being in the army. The main reason is that 277 of the (mainly children’s) names have been redacted as they have not been confirmed to have died by the time the Register was published. Some updates are being done, so potentially more will become available.

If you would like to have some details of your family in this register, then please contact me.