Regulations For Past Electoral Registers

[lyall]

Does anyone here know what the regulations are for looking at electoral roles for 1932 and 1941? I have been looking for some of my brother-in-laws family as my sister has hit a brick wall. As we are not 100% sure on names even, I decided to go back to the beginning. I have addresses that her father-in-law lived at in both 1932 and 1941 so decided my best bet was using the electoral registers. (know im unlikely to get 1941 electoral registers will probably be 1938 or 39)

I contacted both the Local Studies Centre at Sunderland City Council and Durham Archives as I wasn’t sure where the records for Ryhope were kept. Both places have been very helpful, but I have had different responses from both places. Sunderland will only confirm or deny that a person lived at an address, ie I have to have a name for them to check. Durham on the other hand appears to be able to give me the names of anyone on the electoral role at the address I wish.

Is this something to do with the dates? is there a cut off point for giving names out? or is it whatever rules a particular council wishes to use? Im just a bit confused, tried googling ‘rules’ for looking at past electoral registers but didn’t seem to find anything that covered it.

Any ideas?

[Buenchico]

The printed electoral rolls have always been, and remain, public documents. (It's only the modern electronic versions, in their unedited form, that aren't open to the general public). So you can walk into any relevant council office and demand to see the current unedited roll for the area in printed form. It's your legal right. (I've done it lots of times).

Since the electoral roll for a specific period was in the public domain at the time of its publication, there are no laws protecting the information at a later date. However many librarians and archivists seem to misunderstand the Data Protection Act and impose unnecessary restrictions upon access to the data. That leads to lots of discrepancies between the policies of different organisations.

For example, in the days before '192.com', the then current national electoral roll was available on CD and available in most public libraries. I frequently used those CDs in Ipswich library, and in other libraries in East Anglia. However when I asked for the CD in a London library I was told (in very strong terms) that
(a) I would be breaking the Data Protection Act if I was to ever consult one of those CDs ; and
(b) the library would be breaking the Data Protection Act by simply having such a CD on its premises, even if they didn't make it available to anyone!
That librarian was, of course, talking utter rubbish but it illustrates the level of misinformation that is fed to people whose job it is to supply accurate information!

Further, as well as seeking to conform with the Data Protection Act, each local studies centre will have its own policy as to how long documents referring to named individuals must be protected (and also their own rules as to which documents fall within that policy). For example many local studies units will make the log books of old schools available immediately they come into their possession but information relating to named teachers or children (such as school punishment books) is kept private for, typically, 80 or 100 years.

So once again there will be differences between centres. Some will regard certain information as coming within (say) an '80 year rule', while others won't and yet others might not even have such a rule.

[sandyRoe]

Would local libraries hold commercial street directories?

[lyall]

So it’s basically an archives/archivists misinterpretation of the rules. Must admit in my local library some people let you look at current electoral roles, others flatly refuse, but I thought it covered just the current roles, obviously not.

No point in planning a trip to Sunderland then to ask face to face, I could understand it if the people I am looking for were alive but they died in the 1950’s! Their child and grandchild are also dead; who could it hurt now to know their actual names? Frustrating!

Not sure Commercial street directories would be of use to me here as I don’t believe these relatives were in business. I was kind of counting on the electoral role as I know my brother-in-laws relatives were at a specific address on a specific date, but as we don’t know their actual correct name with the rules Sunderland use they had to say no to the suggestions/alternatives I put forward. Hopefully I’ll have better luck with Durham tomorrow.

thank you for helping