Find your ancestors in England, Pollbooks and Directories 1830-1837

Search through various pollbooks and directories to discover your English ancestry. Who did your ancestor vote for in the election of 1830? Was your ancestor a dedicated follower of the Quaker faith? Reveal your ancestor’s occupation and residence, or in some cases, read a biography of your ancestor’s life.

For each record, you can view a transcript and an image of the original source. The information you discover will vary from transcript to transcript depending on the source and type of event. Viewing the image can give you even more clues about the lives of your ancestors.

The transcript may include the following information:

• Name
• Year
• Occupation
• Place
• County and country
• Event type
• Source

Discover more about these records

Pollbooks published the names of the electorate and how they voted. In some cases, the books include the individual’s residence and occupation, as well as those who did not vote in the election. As the publishers and not the election clerks assembled the books, there are many misspellings of names and places. Pollbooks started in 1696 with an Act of Parliament, which gave the county sheriffs the responsibility of recording elections. The Secret Ballot Act of 1872 forbade the publishing of how individual’s voted and thus ended the need for pollbooks.

In this collection, you will also find The Quaker Annual Monitor. It is a list of all the British Quakers who died within the last twelve months. For many people listed, obituaries with short biographies including causes of death were printed. In some cases, the obituary or memorial is several pages long and details the individual’s dedication to the faith. The Monitor is an excellent source for family historians as the obituaries may include the names of other relatives.