Recording Electoral Roll entries

[John Hill]

I received a GEDCOM the other day in which UK Electoral Roll entries were recorded as Census Events. This seemed oddly inappropriate to me.

But what to use? I don't like Misc. Event very much, and am unsure whether an Electoral Roll finding is an Event, a Fact or just something to put in Misc. Notes.

So what do you do (or suggest)?

[kmgenealogy]

Re: Recording Electoral Roll entries

I received a GEDCOM the other day in which UK Electoral Roll entries were recorded as Census Events. This seemed oddly inappropriate to me.

But what to use? I don't like Misc. Event very much, and am unsure whether an Electoral Roll finding is an Event, a Fact or just something to put in Misc. Notes.

So what do you do (or suggest)?

John, I would think these would be similar to the California Voter Registration entries I have come across in my research. I'm kind of like you, don't quite know what to call them. So far, I've only used them as Sources for "Residence" events. I have them under source type "Free Form", using fields "Register"-California Voter Registration, 1900-1968, "Media Type"-Online database with images and "Location of Source"-Ancestry.com. Any other info goes into the source detail but I don't always use the Detail since I usually put the name & other info in the Residence "Memo" section. I've attached a screenshot so you can see what I mean.

Hope this is helpful.

[John Hill]

Re: Recording Electoral Roll entries

John, I would think these would be similar to the California Voter Registration entries I have come across in my research. I'm kind of like you, don't quite know what to call them. So far, I've only used them as Sources for "Residence" events. I have them under source type "Free Form", using fields "Register"-California Voter Registration, 1900-1968, "Media Type"-Online database with images and "Location of Source"-Ancestry.com. Any other info goes into the source detail but I don't always use the Detail since I usually put the name & other info in the Residence "Memo" section. I've attached a screenshot so you can see what I mean.

Hope this is helpful.

That is a very reasonable suggestion. I'm not too bothered about the layout of the Source, which will apply wherever the event/fact/note is recorded. But Residence is a very reasonable Event and I'll use that.

I don't generally find electoral roll data very informative, but in this case it is possibly significant, because one of the children recorded at that address has a different mother's maiden name from the other and from the mother. Odd.

[kmgenealogy]

Re: Recording Electoral Roll entries

<snip>I don't generally find electoral roll data very informative, but in this case it is possibly significant, because one of the children recorded at that address has a different mother's maiden name from the other and from the mother. Odd.

Glad the Residence event will be helpful to you.

Perhaps that child is a stepchild of the mother. Is there a husband listed and, if so, was he, perhaps, previously married?

[John Hill]

Re: Recording Electoral Roll entries

Glad the Residence event will be helpful to you.

Perhaps that child is a stepchild of the mother. Is there a husband listed and, if so, was he, perhaps, previously married?

It seems unlikely, because it was born later than the child that does have the correct mother's maiden name. Yes, there is a husband listed and I have found no trace of a previous marriage by either husband or wife.

To complicate the matter, there is a marriage between a different man with the father's surname and a woman with "rogue" surname, five years after the birth of the child in question - yet no obvious family connection between the two men. But it is possible that the child was an "accident" of the other couple, taken in by the first family. I would have expected a double registration under both surnames, but perhaps that had been avoided somehow.

It's all too far from my main interests for me to spend more time on it, alas.

[kmgenealogy]

Re: Recording Electoral Roll entries

It's all too far from my main interests for me to spend more time on it, alas.

Ah, the "joys" of genealogical research! Good luck.