Plymouth & W Devon Poll Books & Electoral Registers 1780-1973 - findmypast

[kiterunner]

Plymouth and West Devon Electoral Registers 1780-1973 (http://search.findmypast.co.uk/search-world-Records/devon-plymouth-and-west-devon-electoral-registers-1780-1973?utm_source=fmp&utm_medium=email&utm_content=759596-A-13-A&utm_campaign=fridays&utm_term=FMP-CAM-Fridays-8116-12-AU&dclid=CPSGxP3emcoCFZU6Gwods2gIJg)

This little gem in their description of the database makes me wonder whether their staff know anything about history at all! "Some registers even recorded who your ancestor voted for. Did your ancestor support Labour or Conservative?"

[Shona]

That is really bad! They also seem to know little about qualifying for the franchise. There is a little but about the 1918 and 1928 electoral registers, but nothing about who was allowed to vote prior to that. There is also this little gem:


Searching the Devon, Plymouth & West Devon Electoral Registers 1780-1983

'If you are having trouble finding your ancestor, try to search for their name without a year. In some volumes of the electoral registers, the year of the register has not been indexed and therefore will not appear in results if you are requesting a specific year.'

As there seem to be 74,000 records in the set, it is more likely you won't find your ancestor because they didn't qualify for the vote in the first place.

None of the men I know who lived in the area at the time are listed because they weren't entitled to vote and were dead before the franchise was extended which would have included them. I think that up to 1918, men in receipt of poor relief in the previous 12 months were excluded.

As I recall, there were different rules for qualifying for the franchise depending on whether you lived in borough or country constituencies.

[Shona]

The records include all of Plymouth plus Ivybridge, Tavistock, Tamerton Foliot, Wembury and Cornwood.