General Chat

Anyone know what the initials YALA then a number means after a name on the Electoral Role?

Thanks :-D

Can't think of anything. What year and borough is the Roll in question? The ones for London on Ancestry often have abbreviations defined at the front on images 3 or thereabouts

Hi Ken, it's for Islington in the 50's, will go and look at the early pages to see what I can find.

Thanks for answering :-D

An interesting question, Lynda :) I had not seen that abbreviation. I wonder if it might be something to do with when a person had just reached voting age?

There is a list of other abbreviations here, in case they are of help another time / to others:
http://www.genealogistsforum.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=13016&page=3

Men

R = Residence qualification
B = Business premises qualification
O = Occupation qualification
D = Qualification through wife's occupation
NM = Naval or military voter

Women

Rw = Residence qualification
Bw = Business premises qualification
Ow = Occupation qualification
Dw = Qualification through husband's occupation
NM = Naval or military voter

J = juror
SJ = special juror

a = absent voters

Thanks Joy :-D

I've just had another look at the register, and the date is actually 1945, it is for my Grandparents, and they both have the YALA with there names, but the 7 numbers that follow each name are different, and don't run concurrently .

The plot thickens :-D

Afraid I don't know what they mean, but also for some residents are the initials AFSD.

Could the seven numbers represent a date?
If so would Year Attained Legal Age make sense (if date rather than year)?

Here's an example:

Both living at the same address

Cushion, William YALA 1795 612

Cushion, William AFSD 43/5

1945 Islington

I have no idea really lol, but just went for a look around the registers (as you do) and noticed that where I have seen those letters/numbers it is where the people have the same name, so maybe their registration number or similar for identification purposes.

I could of course be spouting a load of bull!! :-D

Yes they do look like numbers off an identity card. The four letters are an area code. It would seem that your theory is probably correct.

Lyndi, I think you have cracked it, well done :-D

I have looked on the 1945 & 1946 Electoral registers, for Grandparents, both have the same YALA & numbers, where I thought one of those YALA & numbers were for my Grandmother, however, on closer inspection, it is for there son, who has the same first and second name as Grandad, so it looks like how they differentiated them.

I now wonder what the YALA +numbers were used for, was it just for electoral purposes, or something else, next mission :-D

The numbers were the numbers on the National Identity Card. They were also used by the NHS for some time.
http://www.1911census.org.uk/1939.htm

Thanks for that Ken, those numbers could come in handy for other research maybe :-D

That's interesting, added to note book.

Thanks :-D