14 volumes of the Bradford Parochial Registers, 1896 to 1909. Over 25,000 pages, all searchable by computer.
Each of these books contain lists of names and addresses of all of those eligible to vote for the years 1896 to 1909
in the parish elections in the Bradford Union. This comprised Bradford, Bowling, Horton, Manningham, Bolton, Thornbury,
Tyersal, Allerton and Heaton. Each book contains between 1600 and 2005 pages, each with over 48,000 names and addresses
arranged alphabetically by street within each of the sections.
In order to give you some idea as to the contents of the book, the following is available here on line:
A review of the books and CDrom by Roy Stockdill:
This searchable CD-ROM, produced by Colin Hinson, is an excellent aid for those with ancestors from Bradford and its associated parishes.
Whether you are using a PC or a Mac computer, you need Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat Reader - at least version 7 - and if you don't have it slready installed on your machine, then the appropriate files are provided on the disc. All the files are in the PDF format.
Colin has scanned 14 books containing comprehensive lists of names and addresses of all those eligible to vote during the years 1896-1909 in parish elections in the Bradford Poor Law Union, which comprised Bradford, Bowling, Horton, Manningham, Bolton, Thornbury, Tyersall, Allerton and Heaton. Each book contains over 48,000 names and addresses arranged alphabetically by street within the parishes and sub-divisions.
I found the disc relatively easy to use since you can either search each book for a particular year individually, one at a time, or do a global search for all your surnames of interest. Then, clicking on the results that appear in the navigation pane takes you direct to the page of the book in which your ancestor appears. Here you will find voters listed in columns showing the surname and forename, place of abode, the nature of qualification and the address of the qualifying property.
A full global search takes several minutes to complete - but one of the major virtues of family history research is patience!
I found 19 references in the 14 books to my Stockdill family, including my grandfather Albert Edward Stockdill who appeared at Manningham Ward between 1899 and 1908 (he actually died in 1907 but presumably the electoral lists were made up a year ahead).
A word of warning, however! If your family surname changed or varied - as mine did - then you may have to search the variants to find every reference*. For example, my family name flipped back and forth in parish registers and census returns between Stockdill and Stockdale - and the same thing happened here. My great-grandfather, Albert Edward's father, appears in the 1896 and 1897 books (he died in 1896) as Robert STOCKDALE; my grandfather then took over the house and his name appears in subsequent books as firstly STOCKDALE and then STOCKDILL. I even found in 1896 that one of my grandfather's brothers appears as Stockdill and another brother, only three doors away, was listed as Stockdale. Perversity, indeed!
However, that said, for the price of £25 this CD-ROM is excellent value.
*Note: In Roy's case, this is not actually correct, as a search for "Stockd" will produce the results required.[CH]
