Findmypast has an Australia Electoral Rolls Collection

Findmypast marked Australia Day 2017 with the release of a new Australian Electoral Register search experience. You can now explore them from a single screen, simplifying your search for Aussie ancestors.

Electoral Rolls are Australia’s census substitute and are an extremely useful genealogy tool for local, family, and social historians. You might find your ancestor’s name in the electoral rolls from Australia.

Most of the transcripts of the Australia Electoral Rolls will include the following information: first name(s), last names, sex, birth year, occupation, year, number, house name, street, address, place, sub-district, District, State, County and Page.

It is possible to search the Australia Electoral Rolls records by name, birth year, event year, occupation, place, street, sub-district, district, and other household member. You can also search by address alone, using the address tab in the search engine. It is also possible to search by occupations alone using the search engine at Findmypast if you are doing general research on a particular profession (without having to enter a name).

The Australia Electoral Rolls collections include records from the following states and territories:

* New South Wales (state electoral rolls for the years 1903 and 1913 and commonwealth electoral rolls for 1935) – 100% have images

* Northern Territory (for the years 1895, 1906, 1922, 1930, 1931, 1937, and 1940)

* Western Australia (commonwealth electoral rolls for the years 1939, 1943, and 1949) – 100% have images

* Queensland (for the years 1860-1884 and 1895 -1915 for state electoral records and 1903, 1906, 1913, 1922, 1934, 1941, 1949, and 1959 for commonwealth electoral rolls) – 45% have images.

* Tasmania (commonwealth electoral rolls for the years 1916, 1934, and 1943) – 66% have images

* South Australia (commonwealth electoral rolls for the years 1939, 1941, and 1943) – 100% have images

Findmypast has helpfully provided links to each of the above collections on their website. This might be useful for genealogists who know which state or territory their Australian ancestors lived in.

Each collection thousands of names of those who were living in that state at the time and were eligible to vote. Women are included in these rolls; women received the right to vote in the Commonwealth of Australia in 1902. Prior to that, South Australia had enfranchised women in 1895 and in Western Australia in 1899. Australia was the second country in the world to grant the vote to women.

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