Electoral Registers

The evolution of suffrage makes these records an increasingly useful source for researchers as the 20th century progresses

Electoral registers list those who were entitled to vote in a given year. For reasons of war, no registers were published in 1916 or 1917, or between 1940 and 1944. Historically, many of our ancestors did not have the right to vote. From 1884, only 60 per cent of male householders over the age of 21 were enfranchised. By 1918, women over 30 who met a property qualification and all men over 21 could vote. And from 1928, all women over 21 could vote. Only in 1969 was the voting age lowered to 18. Electoral registers exist for both local and national elections. Although women could not vote in national elections until 1918, unmarried female ratepayers – the person responsible for paying the local tax, who could be the owner or occupier of the property – had received the right to vote locally from 1869. This right was extended to include some married women in 1894, and by 1900 more than one million women were registered to vote in local government elections in England.

Findmypast and the British Library have digitised registers from the library’s collections for 1832–1932. It includes 220 milllion names, but there are some gaps as the British Library’s collection is only complete from 1947 onwards. Ancestry ( ancestry.co.uk) has worked with the London Metropolitan Archives to digitise electoral registers of the English capital from 1832 to 1965. You can also find electoral registers in local archives.