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Electoral Registers - what date were they actually compiled?

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  • Electoral Registers - what date were they actually compiled?

    Is there a website showing over the years the actual dates when Electoral Registers were actually taken/compiled?

    I tend to search Electoral Registers and then record within FTM where an Ancestor was living that year the Register was published. However what I am doing is actually incorrect as the information as to where my Ancestor lived had been taken months before.

    Must admit that it was something that I knew but had not done anything about. It is though something I have again thought about as a Electoral Register just looked up has an Ancestor in 1957 living at an address, yet he died in 1956.


  • #2
    I don't have an answer but found this information on the LMA (London Metropolitan Archives) website.

    'There are three dates associated with each register: the qualifying date, the date when the register comes into force, and the date on which the register is replaced. The qualifying date is the most important for the purpose of tracing ancestors or missing persons because it establishes residence on a particular date. From 1832 the qualifying date was normally either June or July with the register coming into force at the end of that year. From 1953 the qualifying date became October with the register coming into force in February.'

    Out of interest, I then looked again at the Electoral Register for my Ancestor that had died in 1957, and scrolled forwards to the Opening Page. Turns out that the Qualifying Date was 10th October 1955 and that the Register was in force between 16th Feb 1956 - 15th February 1957.

    So whilst Ancestry show me an address in the 1957 Electoral Register, and that is the year I was about to enter into FTM, to be accurate I should be entering 10th October 1955.




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    • #3
      In Scotland usually end June and published in October.

      Comment


      • #4
        It certainly is October now, not sure if that's always the case, and maybe there are occasions when it isn't.

        Forms sent out in September, and I bet if you have filled in form and died before October date no one bothered to tell anyone in time.

        When I did it the forms were delivered 4 weeks before I think.
        Carolyn
        Family Tree site

        Researching: Luggs, Freeman - Cornwall; Dayman, Hobbs, Heard - Devon; Wilson, Miles - Northants; Brett, Everett, Clark, Allum - Herts/Essex
        Also interested in Proctor, Woodruff

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        • #5
          I have just checked four of the years in which Ancestry has an Electoral Register for this Ancestor.

          The 1957 Register has a qualifying date of 10th October 1956.
          The 1956 Register has a qualifying date of 10th October 1955.
          The 1955 Register has a qualifying date of 10th October 1954.

          But then oddly, and I have just double-checked. The 1953 Register has a qualifying date of 20th November 1953. Qualifying date the same as the Electoral Register on Ancestry.

          So it seems that when adding information into one's Tree for an Electoral Register entry, to be truly accurate as to what date one's Ancestor was actually living at the address, one needs to scroll back through the Register to find the correct Qualifying Date.

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          • #6
            and the registers are only printed, they could have moved within weeks of completing the forms.
            Carolyn
            Family Tree site

            Researching: Luggs, Freeman - Cornwall; Dayman, Hobbs, Heard - Devon; Wilson, Miles - Northants; Brett, Everett, Clark, Allum - Herts/Essex
            Also interested in Proctor, Woodruff

            Comment


            • #7
              As to moving after completion of an Electoral Register, that, of course, could also apply to a Census.

              What though has got me thinking is to what do others do in respect of which date is used when adding an address found in an Electoral Register? Does everyone accept the year that Ancestry say, or does everyone scroll back to find when exactly the Register was compiled and so accurately represent what date one's Ancestor was living at an address?

              Using my previous example of a 1957 Electoral Register, would you use 1957 for the date, or scroll to find and then put the date as 10th October 1956?

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