Ancestry adds Swansea area records

Three interesting new databases for Swansea and the surrounding areas of Wales sourced from the West Glamorgan Archive Service are now on Ancestry.

Electoral Registers, 1839-1966 has 5,779,593 records
These annual electoral registers for 10 sub-areas within Swansea typically provide a name and place of abode. Older registers may include a description of property and qualifications to vote. Registers were compiled at a local level, with names appearing alphabetically within wards/districts. Many of the registers in this database have been indexed electronically from the printed registers, which allows you to search them by name. The street address can be searched in the Location field.

Poor Law Union Records, 1836-1916 has 148,073 records
The types of records found in this collection include

Creed registers
Admission and discharge registers
Registers of births
Registers of deaths
List of paupers and abstract of accounts
Master's report and journal
Registers of young persons
School attendance books
Workhouse punishment book
Lunatic registers

These records are for the Gower, Neath, Portardawe and Swansea Poor Law Unions and can be browsed and searched.

Gaol Records, 1877-1922 has 102,110 records
Each record image has typically eight cases per page and will include the following information:

Prisoner's name (and aliases used)
Age
Trade
Offence
Date that the sentence commenced or the date that the prisoner was received into custody
Verdict
Sentence
Names of the Officials involved

The collection also includes Nominal Gaol Registers for the years 1877-1922 for Swansea, Brecon and Carmarthen prisons, as well as a handful of photo albums of prisoners.