Newest Article
130 Years of London Electoral Registers Released Today!
AUTHORED BY RUSSELL JAMES
Our NEW London, England, Electoral Registers, 1835-1965, take you back through the history of Britain and London’s democratic system. More than that, they let you trace your ancestors’ movements between census years and well into the 20th century, giving you far greater precision in your timeline of their lives.
Electoral registers listed everybody in a particular area who had the right to vote. They were started in 1832 and taken just about every year from then on.
At first, they only included middle-class men, as these were the only people who could vote. However, as more and people were allowed to take part in elections they gradually became comprehensive lists of local adults and by 1928 everyone over the age of 21 was registered.
Electoral registers reveal each person’s name and address. In early records, you might also find details of how they met the voting criteria, such as the size of their property, whether they owned or rented it, and even their occupation.
Because these records were compiled annually they enable you pinpoint any changes to a precise year. For example, you might know that one ancestor moved house between 1871 and 1881. That’s quite a long period of time in comparaison to these days when we might move three or four times in a decade – perhaps more! By following that person through the registers, you can see exactly when their address changed.
The first and last years when a relative appears in the registers are also crucial. Before 1969 each person was added when they reached 21 meaning that you can effectively work out their birth year. And they were usually listed right up to their death, so a sudden disappearance might suggest they emigrated or passed away that year.
Our new addition, the London Electoral Registers, 1835–1965, is a particularly extensive collection, including more than 139 million records from all over London. Just click here to start searching the records.
Past Articles
GUEST BLOGGER: My ancestor risked his life for horses
Guest blogger Andrew Mills is a passionate family historian and Ancestry.co.uk member who discovered this great war story of bravery in his past.
My paternal grandfather’s elder brother Bertie Sidney Mills was born during the second quarter of 1874 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Although his father’s occupation was, according to census returns, a clerk of engineers, Sidney (as… Read more
The Ancestry Android app is here!
AUTHORED BY KENDALL HULET (FROM ANCESTRY.COM)
For all of our Ancestry.co.uk users that have been patiently waiting for an Android app, your wait is over! We’re happy to announce the launch of our new Android app just in time for the holidays.
Download the app now.
The new Ancestry app for Android phones and tablets allows you to… Read more
Image Viewer Updates – Print Current View Now Available
AUTHORED BY JIM MOSHER (FROM ANCESTRY.COM)
Thanks to all of you who have provided feedback on the Beta Image Viewer on the blog, via the message boards, through the survey, and directly via email (feedback-imageviewer@ancestry.com). We appreciate the input – both positive and negative – and have used it to further improve the viewer.
Today, an updated… Read more
Christmas Challenges Revealed: The answers
As part of this month’s Ancestry Advent Calendar we set you a series of fun and festive challenges, asking you to track down suitably seasonal entries among our records.
Thousands of you joined in, so a massive THANK YOU to everyone who took part! We revealed the answers the day after each challenge on our Facebook page but in case you… Read more
Postcard Poser – December
Can you guess the location of this month’s postcard poser? Seasonally-themed (but not in the obvious way), this one is also tricky for a major reason which I’m sure you clever lot will take no time to point out!
For those who are new to this feature on our blog, every month we … Read more
Our favourite meal of the year: Christmas dinner!
On Friday evening my husband and I found ourselves watching the BBC’s ‘Stuffed: The Great British Christmas Dinner’ – a wonderful documentary looking at how our much-loved Christmas meal came to be what it is today.
For the first time ever my husband and I will be spending Christmas just the two of us this year as our… Read more
My story – from the Wild West to starting an online business
By our guest blogger Bryher Scudamore, who is managing director of autodotbiography ltd.
I have just put my bank account, my home, life-savings and my future on the line? Why? Is it because there is insanity in my family, and I’ve inherited it? Not as far as I know. … Read more
1911 Census – millions more searchable records
Good news today for millions of you tracing your ancestors in many of Britain’s most populated counties. We’ve completed the second part of our 1911 Census transcriptions, so records covering London, Lancashire, Yorkshire and 17 other crucial counties are now fully searchable!
We’ve now transcribed more than half of the 35 million records that make up… Read more
Advent Calendar Challenge – Day 1 answer
Yesterday we launched the Ancestry Advent Calendar and challenged you to find out, by searching our 1891 Census, what the name of Mary Christmas’s eldest son who had left home by 1901 was. The answer was JOHN. How did you get on with our festive challenge?
Don’t forget you can search records, build your family tree and discover more about your family history over on the main site.