#FearlessFemales - Day 9 - Family Documents

Today's challenge in the Fearless Females month is:

March 9 — Take a family document (baptismal certificate, passenger list, naturalization petition, etc.) and write a brief narrative using the information.

The document I picked is my Mother's National Registration Identity Card

Based on information I've found on the internet, the cards were originally buff and were issued shortly after "National Registration Day" - September 19, 1939. My mother would have been 4 years old.

The card I have, above, is blue and was issued just after my mother turned 16. Class Code B meant that she was between the ages of 16 and 21. You didn't become an adult until age 21.

People over the age of 16 had to keep their cards with them at all times. Cards had to be presented on demand or brought to a Police Station within 2 days.

The Registration Cards were also used as a way to work out how many ration cards to issue to families, so it was important that cards were kept up-to-date, new cards received for babies born during the registration period and cards handed in if someone passed away.

The need to keep National Registration cards was repealed in early 1952, but my mother kept hers up-to-date until shortly after she immigrated to Australia at the end of 1953 listing the address in Glebe where she lived with her Uncle Andy and Aunty Gert who she met for the very first time when she arrived on the boat "Oronsay"