Julian The simple answer is no. Originally the NHS number was the war time National Registration Number which had numerous forms and mixtures of letters and numbers and occasionally forward slashes, which sometimes showed family relationships, and were sometimes not unique. These were replaced in the 1990s with a ten digit number that is supposedly unique and is now issued at birth registration. This includes a check digit to ensure validity of the whole number. There is no "hidden" information that can be extracted from the number itself. It is no more than a unique identifier. Tony Coombe Retired GP On 07/07/2014 08:21, jjgduffus@gmail.com wrote: > âDear All > > I was. Just wondering if there is a wealth of hidden info in these numbers > that we literally carry through life. > > Is there any good guide to their decoding > > Julian Duffus > > Sog member 1978 to present > > Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone. > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to SOG-UK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

On Mon, 07 Jul 2014 10:33:09 +0100, Tony Coombe <tony_coombe@btinternet.com> wrote: > The simple answer is no. And the more complex answer is ... > Originally the NHS number was the war time National Registration Number > which had numerous forms and mixtures of letters and numbers and > occasionally forward slashes, which sometimes showed family > relationships, and were sometimes not unique. These were replaced in the > 1990s with a ten digit number that is supposedly unique and is now > issued at birth registration. This includes a check digit to ensure > validity of the whole number. There is no "hidden" information that can > be extracted from the number itself. Between rhe war time allocations and 'some later time' then they do have some utility - mine is MCFO 256 which tells me my birth is registered as entry 256 in book MCFO which is allocated to margate (or Thanet, I don't recall what the district was then). > It is no more than a unique identifier. At heart, yes, but for some post-war period, knowledge of someone's NHS number gives a key into the local registrars birth registers. -- Malcolm Austen <malcolm.austen@weald.org.uk> GENUKI trustee <genuki@weald.org.uk> Pedigree User Group <chairman@pugweb.org.uk> Oxfordshire FHS <webmaster@ofhs.org.uk> FFHS Communications Officer <communications@ffhs.org.uk>