Genealogy Chat

Can anyone tell me what are the "rules" about when electoral list can appear on this site or similar eg Ancestry?

I have finally traced an ancestor to Swanley Kent - but had to pay £70 for a search of the 88-90 electoral registers as these did not appear to be online. Don't know what happened to him after that date.

Is there a legal time limit before they can go online? Is it up to each local authority?

I think it depends on when or if the Registers happen to be digitised. Only some have been.
That in turn probably depends on money, manpower, and demand.
There's no rule about it.

General info about ERs here:

https://www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/tutorials/electoral-registers/

have you looked on electrol list on here

Electoral Rolls on GR are under "Search" at top right of this page.

But they don't show anything before 1998, and specific years at any address are only from 2002 onwards.

From 2002 they are on FMP

Also remember that from November 2001 it became possible to opt out of the public Electoral Register - so if your relative was alive then, and chose to opt out, they will not appear on the online ERs.

You can search by address at the main public library for the area.

You have to accept that a vast amount of info has not yet been uploaded to the internet

Thank you all for advice. Cant remember how to mark "answered".

You can't "mark as answered" on the Genealogy Chat board - goodness knows why.

You can, however, edit the title of your thread to say it's been answered.

"Mark as Answered" is only an option on the Find Ancestors board - at the top of any of your posts on a thread started by you.