Genealogy Chat

From the British Library - which hold a very comprehensive collection:

Electoral registration was introduced in 1832 and registers have been issued for each parliamentary constituency every year since then, with certain exceptions.

Registration was suspended in both World Wars and there are no registers for 1916 and 1917 (1915-17 in Scotland) and from 1940 to 1944 inclusive.

From 1919 to 1926 inclusive there were two registers a year called the ‘Spring’ and ‘Autumn’ registers. There were also two registers in 1945 and 1946; in addition to the regular registers in October, there was a special register in May 1945 for the general election and a supplementary register of service voters in March 1946.

http://www.bl.uk/collections/social/spis_er.html

Some interesting info on this site, but in reality, electoral registers are of little practical use until after 1918, when as a sweetener to those returning from the war, the government agreed to enfranchise every male over 21 and women over 31.

Women had to wait a further ten years before they could vote at 21.

Apart from very recent Rolls that have been indexed by name (2002 0nwards, I believe) Rolls can only be searched by address.

Thankyou Janice

Not sure of the exact date but early 1900s at least.

THE ELECTORAL WOULD ANYONE BE ABLE TO TELL ME WHEN THIS CAME INTO FORCE PLEASE