Perth and Kinross Electoral Registers 1832-1961 on Ancestry

Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) has released another important Scottish collection which will be of immense use to those with connections to Perth and Kinross - the Perth and Kinross, Scotland, Electoral Registers, 1832-1961 records, as sourced from the A. K. Bell Library in Perth.

From the site:

About Perth and Kinross, Scotland, Electoral Registers, 1832-1961

Electoral records are useful for tracking individuals over time and place because they were created on an annual basis. This database contains electoral registers listing names of voters for Perth and Kinross in Scotland.

Historical Background

Prior to 1832, the vast majority of the Scottish population did not have the right to vote. In 1832, the Scottish Reform Act of 1832 sought to level the playing field when it came to parliamentary representation and lowered the property threshold, enfranchising much more of the population. The 1832 act allowed owners or tenants of residences worth more than £10 the right to vote provided the appropriate poor rates and taxes had been paid for the previous year. Further reforms in 1868 and 1884 added even more voters to the voter rolls. By 1930, voting rights became universal in Scotland.

What You May Find in the Records

Electoral registers may list an eligible voter’s name, address, occupation, qualifications for voting, and a place where the property that qualified a voter is located.

These records were extracted using a new OCR indexing method. They were not transcribed. We encourage you to correct any errors you find in the data by going to the image and editing the name in the correction panel at the bottom of the page.

Here is the full source citation from Ancestry:

Original data: County Assessor's Department. Supplementary Registers, County of Perth. Registers of Electors. Digital images. Perth and Kinross Council Archive, Perth, Perth and Kinross, Scotland. Kinross Commissioners of Supply and Associated Committees. Freeholders and Voters' Records. Digital images. Perth and Kinross Council Archive, Perth, Perth and Kinross, Scotland. Perth Town Council, Perth Commissions. Administrative Records, Registers of Parliamentary & Municipal Voters. Digital images. Perth and Kinross Council Archive, Perth, Perth and Kinross, Scotland.

To access the collection please visit http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=60557 - I have a lot of connections to Perth, so I know I will be busy for a bit!

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including my recently released Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. My Pinterest account is at https://www.pinterest.com/chrismpaton/.