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Findmypast Fridays

Millions of new electoral registers and more

Liam Kelly
5 June 2020

This Findmypast Friday, we've added millions of British and Canadian family records to our ever-growing collections.

Including a mammoth tranche of additional electoral registers and new resources from Canada, here's what’s new this week on Findmypast.

In partnership with the British Library, we’ve added over 16 million names to this collection. Voting lists are compiled annually of people who are eligible to vote and include their reason for eligibility, such as their residence or ownership of a property. You're likely to find your ancestor featured more than once.

Sylvia Pankhurst living in Woodford

Having won the right to vote, some of those at the forefront of Britain’s suffrage movement are found in our electoral registers. Sylvia Pankhurst is listed in Woodford from 1925 to 1931.

Electoral Registers can reveal fascinating facts for your family tree including:

  • Your relatives' names and addresses
  • Their occupations or ages (sometimes)
  • The year of the register
  • Nature of qualification or a description of the property
  • The name, description and residence of the landlord or other person to whom rent is paid
  • The polling district or place and constituency your ancestors were registered

This invaluable record set includes those first entitled to vote after 1918 and is an excellent substitute for the lost 1931 England & Wales Census.

A General and True History of the Lives and Actions of the Most Famous Highwaymen, Murderers, Street-Robbers, etc. has been added to our collection of publications relating to British history, heraldry, culture and genealogy.

As seen on A House Through Time, the publication charts the disturbingly fascinating lives of 18th-century criminals in Britain. The stories you'll discover include accounts of the voyages and plunders of the most noted pirates and court reports from the most notorious trials at the Sessions-House in the Old Bailey, London. 

433 additional volumes with over 353,000 images covering Newfoundland, Ontario and Toronto have been added to help research your Canadian ancestors. This collection of directories spans over a century from 1853 to 1975.

Almanacs and directories are an excellent resource for anyone wants to understand more about their past. They provide insights into notable individuals, business owners, tradespeople, civil servants, church leaders, courts and judges, school teachers and much more. Plus, you can explore the history of a house by searching the publications by address, where you may discover previous proprietors.

Published as searchable PDF documents, using keywords and wildcard searches can help you pinpoint the record you're looking for.

This new index includes over 29,000 names of those who received assistance to emigrate to Ontario between 1865 and 1883.

Immigration Records with Rich Venezia

Findmypast expert Jen Baldwin is joined by Rich Venezia, immigration expert, on Let's Discuss...!

Posted by Findmypast on Wednesday, May 27, 2020

From the records, you may be able to learn the following about your ancestor:

  • Their name, trade and nationality
  • The year and date of their application for assisted fare
  • The ship they travelled on and port of entry
  • Who they travelled with
  • Their final destination

Created by the Toronto Emigrant Office, there are four volumes of assisted immigration registers. The registers are a chronological listing of those new immigrants broken down as follows:

  • Volume 1: 3 January 1865 to 20 September 1870
  • Volume 2: 26 September 1870 to 31 July 1873 and 2 October 1874 to 29 December 1876
  • Volume 3: 1 January 1877 to 31 January 1883
  • Volume 4: 24 May 1873 to 2 October 1874

We'd love to hear your family's immigration stories and how they've helped shape your present and future. Reach out to us on social media using #WhereWillYourPastTakeYou?

Two new publications and updates to other titles make for an exciting week of discoveries in our newspaper archives. Brand new to the collection this week are:

As well as those brand new editions, the following three papers have been updated:

  • Munster News covering the years 1916-1918 and 1920-1921
  • Penrith Observer covering the years 1905-1906
  • Sunday Mirror covering the years 1919-1938, 1947-1952, 1954-1955, 1957-1963, 1965-1975, 1977-1985 and 1987-1999

If you're feeling inspired to dig deeper into your past, read our family records guides to learn more about our extensive resources, while our help hub offers useful tips on how to make the most of them.