A long-term project to digitise carefully and accurately all of the electoral registers for the City of Liverpool from 1832 to 1970 held by Liverpool Record Office in the Central Library & Archive has just come to fruition.
This has resulted in over 671,000 high quality images and more than 8 million records being searchable online for the first time via the Ancestry website.
Previously, people researching their family tree would have had to visit the Record Office in person and consult the fragile originals. They would also have needed to know the addresses where their ancestors lived and then look up the relevant polling district which changed frequently through time. The simple search is now possible online and is free at all of Liverpool’s public libraries as well as Central Library.
Councillor Wendy Simon said: “This transforms access for everyone to such a vital series of records which is so useful for family and local history in so many ways. By opening up this major resource it will fascinate many and lead to lots of interesting discoveries and connections being made, which previously was very difficult and time-consuming if not impossible.
“We are very grateful to the dedication and patience of all of the experienced and knowledgeable Liverpool Record Office team in seeing this project through from conception to completion and to the excellent support, skill, and investment of the Ancestry team. The originals will be preserved permanently in the state of the art repository of Liverpool Record Office under the expert care of the Conservation team.”
Senior UK Content Manager Miriam Silverman said: “Electoral registers are such an essential resource for people researching their family history and these newly digitised Liverpool records will certainly be a huge help to the local community, as well as people all around the country. We’re really happy to have been a part of the project and to continue bringing interesting and useful records to Ancestry members.”
