17 April 2013

Ancestry Adds London, England, Overseer Returns, 1863-1894

The 294,388 records in this collection from the London Metropolitan Archives are described as overseer returns. In a British genealogical context we usually think of an overseer as an official who administered poor relief - Overseer of the Poor.
In this case it's overseers’ returns of electors, listing people who have claimed the right to vote in a parish.
The returns, for about 160 parishes, are bare bones: name, address. The printed documents, with annotations, are arranged alphabetically by name (last, first) in annual bundles by polling district and only list those, men, claiming the right to vote in this period before universal suffrage.
Checking on people I know to have been in London the collection, as name indexed, is incomplete. If an ancestor is included you may well find residence between censuses.

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