Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine has tweeted a link to an article I have previously written about Scottish poor law records, which can be read at www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/tutorials/what-are-scottish-poor-law-records/.
In response, North Lanarkshire Heritage has kindly tweeted the following:
During lockdown you can access North Lanarkshire's set of Poor Law records on Ancestry for free. Just click on the link on our online resources webpage: https://www.culturenl.co.uk/museums/museum-and-heritage-free-online-resources/
On this page you can sign up for a temporary free account that permits access to North Lanarkshire Archives & Local Studies records only. These collections are as follows:
- North Lanarkshire, Scotland, Poor Law Applications and Registers, 1849-1917
- North Lanarkshire, Scotland, Electoral Registers, 1847-1969
Here is the onsite blurb for each collection:
About North Lanarkshire, Scotland, Poor Law Applications and Registers, 1849-1917
Historical Context
After the Poor Law Scotland Act of 1845, Scottish parishes were able to establish institutions called Parochial Boards to care for the poor, house them and give out relief. Whilst there was a Central Supervising body, each institution was locally run. Unlike the poor in England, those who were destitute in Scotland were able to appeal if denied relief.
This collection contains applications for relief from parish institutions in North Lanarkshire. To establish the needs of the applicant and their eligibility, Inspectors of the Poor recorded large amounts of personal data in ‘registers of applications’ or ‘general registers of poor’.
Applications and General Registers will normally include:
Name of applicant, including maiden name of women
Age and/or birth date
Birthplace, including county of birth (compulsory from 1865)
Religion (from 1865)
Dependants, including children’s names, ages, places of birth
Marital history
Names of applicant’s parents and parents-in-law, confirming where born and if still alive
Previous addresses
About North Lanarkshire, Scotland, Electoral Registers, 1847-1969
This database contains yearly registers listing names and residences of people in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, who were eligible to vote in elections. These year-by-year registers can help place your ancestors in a particular place and possibly also reveal some information about property they owned.
Coverage for the area and timeframe is not complete, so it may be helpful to check the browse menu on the right for details of which volumes are included.
Historical Background
Electoral registers are lists of individuals who are eligible to vote during the time the register is in force (usually one year). Registration for voters in Scotland has been required since 1832, and registers were typically published annually. Restrictive property requirements denied the vote to much of the population for years, though these were eased somewhat in 1867 and 1884 through the Second and Third Reform Acts. There were also requirements when it came to local elections that varied from borough to borough (e.g. residence), and voters had to petition to be added to the electoral registers.
Property restrictions were finally removed for men in 1918, when most males age 21 and older were allowed to vote. The franchise was extended to some women over age 30 in 1918, but it was not until 1928 that the voting age was made 21 for both men and women. Thus, the number of names listed in the registers increases with the expansion of suffrage.
Searching the Registers
Electoral registers typically provide a name and place of abode, and older registers may include a description of property and qualifications to vote. Registers were compiled at a local level, with names appearing alphabetically within wards/districts. Many of the registers in this database have been indexed electronically, which allows you to search them by name, but if you’re searching for a somewhat common name it will be helpful to know the area in which your ancestor lived to narrow your results. The street address can be searched in the Location field.
Please find below a guide to the codes used in the registers:
R Residence qualification
BP Business premises qualification
O Occupational qualification (occupation in this case is occupation of a property, not employment)
HO Qualification through husband's occupation
NM Naval or military voter
From 1928, with the advent of women's suffrage, the following codes can be found:
R Residence qualification (man)
Rw Residence qualification (woman)
B Business premises qualification (man)
Bw Business premises qualification (woman)
O Occupational qualification (man)
Ow Occupational qualification (woman)
D Qualification through wife's occupation
Dw Qualification through husband's occupation
NM Naval or military voter
The following extra codes can also sometimes be seen
J Eligible to serve as juror
SJ Eligible to serve as special juror
a Absent voter
BP Business premises register
CI Civilian residence register
SE Service register
RR Ratepayers register
Please note that no registers were produced during the war years 1916, 1917 and 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943 and 1944.
Note: This index was created using text recognition software, records were not transcribed. We have created indexes of the electoral registers for every fifth year.
Have fun!
(With thanks to North Lanarkshire Heritage)
Chris
Pre-order my next book, Sharing Your Family History Online, at https://bit.ly/SharingFamHist. My book Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 is also out, as are Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.
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