1939 Electoral Register - date of compilation?

[iolaus]

No idea if this could be her but on the 1939 there is a THIRZA Ward born 1875 in Camberwell

[chris_49]

No idea if this could be her but on the 1939 there is a THIRZA Ward born 1875 in Camberwell

Thanks, thats a possibility. If Thetis can be transcribed Thabit, then Thirza is no further adrift.

[Guy Etchells]

Does anybody know when the 1939 electoral rolls were compiled? Due to a lack of success correlating with anyone on the 1939 register, I assumed it was the one issued in late 1938. However, a thread here:
 groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/soc.genealogy.britain/Qn0QxkpAGMA
implies that it was issued on Nov 15th 1939 but using a "qualifying date" of 1st June which seems a long gap.

I ask as I was surprised to see that my relative Thetis Mary Ward was registered to vote at the (London) Dorchester Hotel in 1939 yet by 1960 was at Luxborough Lodge, which turns out to be the (former) workhouse! Of course she was probably a hotel servant, since almost everyone there was female. But I can't find her on the pre-war register, which would give her job, birth year and marital status, I've tried everything. Nor can I find her in 1911, or her death record

The presumption is that she is Thetis Mary Miles born 1875 Saltley, Birmingham and found on the 1881 and 1901 (garbled as Thabit on A***y transcription) who is presumably the one who married Alfred R Ward in Christchurch district in 1915 and perhaps had a son there the next year - there simply isn't another Thetis Miles in the country (the USA one is there on the 1940).

Chris

From 1919 Electoral Registers were taken twice a year in Spring and in Autumn.

I have not read the thread you referred to but it could be there was confusion between the Spring registers which were published in June and the Autumn registers which were published in October/November (updated in September).

However I must admit I have not checked what happened in 1939 as it could be that due to the preparations for war the autumn update in 1939 was cancelled and the spring edition was used.

Cheers
Guy

[stanmapstone]

From the Wells Journal - Friday 15 September 1939

[rosie99]

Chris,  The 1939 that you refer to is it the 1936 one that Ancestry appear to have mistranscribed as 1939      http://www.rootschat.com/links/01l67/

This is the first page relating to that book of registers - note Ancestry have 1939 as the header when the sheet shows 1936

[rosie99]

No idea if this could be her but on the 1939 there is a THIRZA Ward born 1875 in Camberwell

Looks like this marriage 
Sep qtr 1923 
Frederick Ward  (spouse Woodward)   
Thirza Woodward       
Camberwell    1d   1792

[chris_49]

Thanks everybody.

Stan and Guy, it seems that the intended date for release of the electoral roll was indeed in October but may have been delayed to November - though perhaps only in some local authority areas. The informant in the thread I posted a link for didn't give any sources. Either way, June 1 was the qualifying date.

Rosie, I was just going to post that I'd found that out for myself. I did a test for a hotel management family member - unusually named Isador Abrahams - and he was on the rolls from 1936-39 and at the Dorchester from 1937. Crucially in 1938 he's there but Thetis Ward isn't. I think the mistake occurs because there's a break in the microfiche record where they add their disclaimer about not copying, etc, and the wrong page got stuck on the front.

Yes, Thirza Ward is not Thetis. There's a correction on the original, but only from Thurza. She's married to a Frederick whereas Thetis wed an Alfred and has not been found to have remarried. Thanks for trying anyway.

[chris_49]

I noticed that 1939 was the last electoral roll compilation until 1946. So in the 1945 General Election only those on that roll - all aged 27 and over - would be eligible to vote. Yet I was told that it was mainly young people - particularly service personnel, many of whom were still voting by post from abroad - who helped win Labour their landslide that year. Was the register updated in some way?
 

[stanmapstone]

The Times (London, England), Thursday, May 24, 1945
"It is estimated by the service departments that about 90 per cent. of the members of the forces eligible as voters have been duly registered. Special arrangements have been made to permit as large a number as possible of members of the forces overseas, and seamen, to have facilities for voting by post. Others will be able to vote by proxy."
The Times (London, England), Thursday, Jul 19, 1945
The November municipal elections - the first of their kind since 1938 - will be decided on the October electoral register, which is now being prepared...... The existing service registers will remain undisturbed, except in so far as men and women are transferred to the civilian register on demobilization
Stan