Alternatives to the Census

​For much of the 1800s and briefly into the 20th Century the census provides us with a valuable insight into life during Queen Victoria’s reign. However, that is only a snapshot taken every 10 years and much can happen in between. Whole townships can be assembled and our house residents and ancestors, contrary to popular belief, moved around a lot as we changed from a rural, agricultural country to an urban, industrialised one.

​For much of the 1800s and briefly into the 20th Century the census provides us with a valuable insight into life during Queen Victoria’s reign. However, that is only a snapshot taken every 10 years and much can happen in between. Whole townships can be assembled and our house residents and ancestors, contrary to popular belief, moved around a lot as we changed from a rural, agricultural country to an urban, industrialised one. 

To find out what happened in between the census and to track possible moves we need to turn to other records. Street directories, electoral rolls and phone books do that job. In fact, as we travel forward from the last census available to us in 1921 (with the exception of the 1939 register), these records will be vital tools in helping us track residents’ and ancestors’ movements.

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STREET AND TRADE DIRECTORIES 

Directories were published by various companies but the Post Office, Kelly’s, Pigot’s and White’s were the most widely used and these can be found in libraries and record offices. In the early days of directories, they only provided details of commercial businesses and the leaders of the community. Eventually the directories became more comprehensive and householders were included, regardless of social status. ​

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Directories were published by various companies but the Post Office, Kelly’s, Pigot’s and White’s were the most widely used and these can be found in libraries and record offices. In the early days of directories, they only provided details of commercial businesses and the leaders of the community. Eventually the directories became more comprehensive and householders were included, regardless of social status. 
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The level of information contained in local directories varies, but you should find sufficient details about a house to help you with your research. Directories typically contain street-by-street lists of houses and their principal occupants. However, do remember that house numbers as well as roads sometimes changed when new buildings or the layout changed, perhaps making way for a railway line or new major road. Often houses were renumbered when the postal system was introduced.  

Directories will provide you with a description of a town or village and may often be accompanied by maps. These all can help you to form a picture of the district around  your house. You should also be able to discover more about the key services such as transport, churches, schools, government offices and shops that served the area as well as  information on specific people, businessmen, traders, and shopkeepers. ​

Where to find directories
Your local library, family history centre or county and town record offices will have a selection of local directories. 
By far the best collection on line can be found at the University of Leicester’s Special Collection site. 
This collection provides access to scanned images and full-text of the trade directories from the 1760s until the 1910s for most of the UK.
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The same content can be accessed via Ancestry, which offers the ability to search by name, place, occupation or keyword, through their database UK, City and County Directories, 1766 – 1946. You will need an Ancestry subscription or you can access this via your local library. 
In Scotland try Scotland Post Office Directories.

 ​Read more about Directorie

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TELEPHONE BOOKS

As with directories, phone books can be helpful in pinpointing individuals in a particular place and time between census years, especially as they were published every one to two years. They were even more important for the years when the census was not available to the public.
 
BT's historical phone books from 1880-1984 are available online. They have been scanned in collaboration with Ancestry.co.uk, or if you like, you can still see copies of the phone books from 1880 to the present in person at the BT Archives

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Of course, you have to remember that not everyone had a phone and so would not be in the directory. Also, agreement had to be met to have personal details published. Thus a number of people were “ex-directory”, which means they would not be listed.
 
Phones became more and more popular, but even in the 1960s it was still considered a luxury item and most people used public telephone boxes. By 1970 only 35% of households owned a phone compared with 90% in 2019                                                                                                                                                                                                      

​Subscription site Ancestry has a collection of phone books published between 1880, (the year after the public telephone service was introduced to the UK) and 1984, from the historic phone book collection held by BT Archives. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/bt/
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 You may find these in your local library, family history centre or record office. It's worth checking and you may be able to access the Ancestry collection for free from there too.
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Read more about Telephone Directories

ELECTORAL ROLLS OR REGISTERS  
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​Electoral registers contain lists of names of people entitled to vote. These lists which were created each year, set out the names of those who were eligible to vote, with their reason for eligibility, such as their residence or ownership of a property.
 
During the 19th and early 20th centuries the vote was gradually given to more and more people and was eventually  extended to working class men and thanks to womens‘ suffrage, finally to women.

The registers can therefore help us to discover the period that adult members of a family lived at a certain address. 
From 1918, and more so since 1928, the registers list all adult members of the household, both male and female. However, unlike the census, they never show place of birth, details of children under the age of 18 and other similar information.
 
Never the less these entries help us form a picture of the households as they evolve. 
As younger members of the family are entered in the register, we can assume they have reached voting age and therefore it is possible to calculate their approximate year of birth. Even more helpful, from 1950 the register lists all those that will be become 21 during the coming year and from 1970, the birth dates of those who will become 18 during that voting period.. 
 
Even prior to 1918 the registers give a fairly precise indication of the family's property holdings, needed to have the necessary voting qualifications.
So, to help us understand what information could be available, it might be useful to briefly consider how the right to vote changed over the years. 

​In 1832 voters were split into two categories - the county and the borough voters.
​In the counties the right to vote was restricted to those owning or having a life interest in land worth at least forty shillings a year. This right also applied to copyholders who held land from a manor worth at least £10 a year and those who had leases for more than 20 years on property worth at least £50 a year.

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In 1867 every household, whether owners or tenants who paid rates, as well as lodgers in unfurnished accommodation paying at least £10 a year were able to vote. In the shires all males who had freehold, copyhold or leasehold property worth at least £5 per annum and occupiers of lands or tenements whose rent was at least £12 a year, now became eligible to vote.
 
In 1884 all male householders and occupiers of lands and tenements worth at least £10 and lodgers paying at least £10 a year could now vote. The previous forty-shilling freehold rights were retained for inherited land, or land acquired by marriage, as were the rights of freemen in boroughs. Those who occupied a dwelling house by virtue of any office, service or employment could also now vote.  
 
1918 saw the end of the property qualifications and the vote was given to men aged 21 and women aged 30, as long as they had residential status or occupied business premises for six months with a value of at least £10 a year. Women however had to be householders, the wives of householders or to have been to university.
 
An Act in 1928 gave the vote to all adults at the age of 21 and in 1969 the qualifying age was reduced from 21 to 18 ​
 
These records can be found on pay to view sites. Ancestry has worked in partnership with the London Metropolitan Archives to digitise their electoral registers from 1832 to 1965. Full access is available to subscribers only.
 
Findmypast  and the British Library have combined to digitise historic registers for the period 1832-1932 held in the Library’s collections. Access is available free of charge in the Library’s reading rooms; otherwise full access is available to subscribers. 

In the boroughs the right to vote was for the lifetime of an individual. Added to this householders paying a rent of at least £10 a year (provided that they had been in occupation for at least 12 months, paid poor rate, assessed taxes and lived within seven miles of the borough). 
​This Act defined a number of additional categories of voters, such as beneficed clergymen, irremovable schoolmasters, parish clerks and sextons and certain classes of mortgagees, annuitants, trustees, etc. At this time many middle-class tenant farmers and shopkeepers gained the vote, but the artisan and agricultural labourer (and women of course) continued to be excluded.
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Read more about Electoral Rolls and Poll Books

If you would like to know more about the issues in this blog in your country here are some links that may help

Directories
Canada Directories Collection
Canada, City and Area Directories, 1819-1906
USA
U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995
City Directories
Directories and Almanacks at Find my Past
Online Historical Directories
An over looked but free way to find directories is to go to Internet Archive   Just enter "city directory" with quotes in the search box and press "Go".
Phone Books
Where to find USA Telephone Books
Electoral Rolls 
USA Cyndis list, provides a useful link to Poll books and Electoral Rolls
Australia Electoral Roll on Find my Past
Ancestry Australia, Electoral Rolls, 1903-1980

Don't forget you can find out lots more at TracemyHouse.com
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