Find Your UK Ancestors with Electoral Rolls

Electoral registers, commonly known as electoral rolls can be very useful in helping you find where your UK ancestors lived, especially in the early 20^th Century, between the 1911 census and the 1939 register. More indexed records are appearing online now and this will only increase in the coming years. This post is a roundup of which electoral rolls are available and where. It also looks at the earlier poll books which can be useful for finding your property owning UK ancestors.

Poll Books

Poll books were introduced in Britain in 1696 by act of Parliament as a measure to minimize voter fraud. Local sheriffs would make a list of voters in his area and would also record the candidate that he voted for. These lists were often published as books and often contained other details about the voter such as address, occupation and qualifications to vote. Only property owners could vote until voting rights were extended in the second half of the 19^th Century. Therefore these books only contain details of a small minority of the population.

Poll books remained in use until the introduction of the secret ballot in 1872.

Many poll books have survived and some have been digitized and are available online. A list of free online poll books can be found on the electoralregisters.org.uk website.

Some poll books are also available on the subscription sites as follows:

The Genealogist has the following poll books:

Bath 1855, 1857
Bristol 1830

East Kent 1868
Kent 1832
Leeds 1868

Lindsey, Lincolnshire 1841
London 1768, 1849
London, Westminster 1774, 1818, 1841

Monmouth 1852
Norfolk 1768, 1806, 1817
Norfolk East 1865

Northampton 1831
Northamptonshire 1702-1831
Northumberland 1826, 1832

Northumberland Northern Division 1841
Newcastle-upon-Tyne 1774
Suffolk 1710, 1790

Suffolk Eastern Division 1832
Sussex 1820
Yorkshire 1741, 1807

Yorkshire West Riding 1835
York 1868

FindMyPast has these poll books available:

Bath Reform 1832-1837
Bedfordshire 1832
Bristol 1830

Buckinghamshire 1831
Cambridge University 1831
Cambridgeshire 1830, 1832

Canterbury Burgesses 1835
Colchester 1830
Derbyshire North 1832

Derbyshire South 1832
Dorset 1831
Durham City 1832

Durham North 1832
Hereford City 1835
Hertford 1835

Rochester, Kent 1830
Shrewsbury 1835
Truro 1832

Wallingford 1832

Ancestry UK has the following:

Bristol 1812, 1830

Lincolnshire 1818
Norfolk 1768
Norwich 1818

Tewkesbury 1832, 1835
Westmorland 1820

Electoral Rolls

Registers of voters, commonly known as electoral rolls, were mandatory in the UK after the Reform Act of 1832. The electoral rolls have usually been published every year since then, apart from the war years. At first, it was only a small proportion of the adult population who appeared on the rolls as only property owning males were eligible to vote. The voting franchise was gradually extended, and by 1867, working class male householders who lived in cities were able to vote. This was extended to rural areas in 1884. In 1918, all males aged 21 and over as well as women 30 and over were eligible to vote. From 1928, women aged 21 could vote.

Most registers will have the names and addresses of listed voters

Online electoral rolls

Here is a roundup of electoral rolls available online.

Family Search has these free collections:

Cheshire 1842-1900
London 1847-1913
Norfolk 1832-1915

The subscription sites have the following collections:

FindMyPast have the largest online collection of British electoral rolls as they worked with the British Library to digitize their collection of registers from 1832 to 1932. This collection is pretty comprehensive and there is good UK coverage, although there are some gaps, especially before 1885. The best years for coverage of most counties are between 1885 and 1915. There are more gaps after 1918.

In addition to the British Library collection, FMP also has the following sets available to subscribers:

Cheshire 1842-1900
Devon 1780-1973
Hampshire 1835-1873

Leicestershire 1836-1970
Linlithgowshire (West Lothian) 1864-1931
Manchester 1832-1900

Monmouthshire 1832-1889
Norfolk 1832-1915
Somerset 1832-1914

The Genealogist has a number of sets:

Devon, South 1865-1869
Dorset, Absent Voters 1918-1919

Stroud 1939
Winchester 1929, 1931, 1934, 1939
Hereford 1936

East Barnet 1937
Maidstone 1891, 1905
City of London 1877, 1894-1895

Somerset, East 1832
Somerset, West 1832
Swindon 1915

Worcestershire, West 1832-1833
Wakefield 1832, 1834, 1835, 1840, 1846, 1847, 1849-56, 1911-18, 1919

Ancestry UK has the following sets:

Liverpool 1832-1970
Edinburgh 1832-1966
Berkshire 1840-1965

Fife 1914-1966
Anglesey 1832-1986
Bedfordshire 1832-1986

Swansea 1839-1966
Newcastle-upon-Tyne 1741-1974
Glasgow 1857-1962

Bexley 1734-1965
Gloucestershire 1832-1974
Sutton 1931-1970

Perth and Kinross 1832-1961
Surrey 1832-1962
West Yorkshire 1840-1962

Midlands 1832-1955
Dorset 1839-1922
London 1832-1965

Physical Records

The British Library holds electoral rolls for most of the UK. The collection is most complete for the years from 1947.

Most local archives hold electoral rolls for their respective counties. See my Parish Register and Archive Guides to find links to the archive websites to get more details for specific counties. Click on the following links to see the guides: