New
Records Available To Search This Findmypast Friday
I received the following announcement today from FindMyPast, I'm sure it will benefit many of you.
Put your plans on hold this weekend as
this week’s Findmypast Friday update
is our biggest yet with millions of Electoral
Registers from England,
Ireland, Scotland and Wales released online for the very first time in
association with the British Library.
The 100 year period covered by these fascinating
records includes some of the most important events in the history of British
democracy: from the vote being extended to working class men and the reform of
representation up until women’s suffrage. Explore these extensive new
collections to discover where your ancestor lived, when they could vote and
details of the property your family owned in the 19th & 20th centuries.
England & Wales, Electoral
Registers 1832-1932
The England & Wales, Electoral
Registers 1832-1932 form the largest single collection released on Findmypast
to date with over 5.4 million images and approximately 220 million names. The
registers have been released in association with the British Library and are
the result of a mammoth digitisation project to scan 100 years of microfilmed
copies of printed registers, housed on 2.25 miles (3.62 linear km) of shelving.
Electoral Registers are listings of all those registered to vote in a
particular area. The lists were created annually to record the names of
eligible voters and their reason for eligibility, such as their residence or
ownership of a property.
This is the first time these registers have been made
available online. They can be searched by name and constituency, as well as by
keywords which will allow you to discover the history of your family’s home in the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries.
Britain, Absent Voters Lists
1918-1921
Britain, Absent Voters Lists 1918-1921
contains over 20,000 pages listing over 100,000 names of service men, women
serving with the auxiliary forces, merchant seamen, diplomats and others
working in occupations recognised as supporting the war effort. Absent voters’
lists are registers of eligible voters who were absent from their homes. Lists
were sent to the Adjutant General’s Department of the War Office who then
arranged to send voting cards to men and women in the UK and ballot papers to
those in France.
Lists were completed by August 1918 and
therefore include names of men who were killed, missing or taken prisoner in
the period of time between the compiling of lists and the publication of the
register. Records can reveal your ancestors name, a description of their
service and their qualifying premises allowing you uncover details of the home
they left behind and the part they played in one of history’s bloodiest
conflicts.
Ireland, Electoral Registers 1885-1886
The Ireland, Electoral Registers
1885-1886 contain over 3,000 records covering 12 counties. The 1880’s was a
period of drastic change in Ireland, from land reform and the beginning of the
Home Rule Crisis to the rise of the Irish Parliamentary Party. It was also a
vibrant time for Irish culture with the Gaelic and the Irish Literary Revivals
in full swing. Search the registers by name or address to pinpoint the exact
location of your family during this exciting period of Irish history. From the
Act of Union in 1801, until Ireland’s independence, over 7,000 electoral
registers were created, but the British Library only holds the registers for a
single year.
Scotland, Linlithgowshire (West
Lothian), Electoral Registers 1864-1931
Containing over 23,000 records, the
Scotland, Linlithgowshire (West Lothian), Electoral Registers 1864-1931 cover
the traditional county of Linlithgowshire. The registers allow you to find out
where your West Lothian ancestors lived, what they did and whether they owned
property in the area.
Electoral Registers are a powerful resource for genealogists.
For the first time, these registers are available online and can be searched by
name. Previously, when researching your family history you would need an
address in order to find your ancestor in the register for that constituency.
Today, we can search by name across thousands of places to discover your
ancestors. Remember to check our dedicated Findmypast Friday’s page
every week to keep up to date with the latest new additions.
