2009 Electoral Roll Query

[BarrattFamily]

Hi,

Can anyone tell me if the 2009 Electoral Roll that I can access on 192.com is complete and the same as the roll that would be on microfilm at the LRO?
I have been using it to try and find my Barratt family that I only discovered existed last year - courtesy of a bigamist grandfather!!
Did anyone see the episode of 'Who do you think you are?' with Kim Cattrall? We have an almost identical story with the difference in our family being our grandfather left his 2nd wife and children too...

I have all of the names (married names too) of the first family and I have spoken to cousins of this family in Liverpool by phone. They verify everything I have but they have lost track of them over the years. I am now at the point of drafting a letter to the newspaper in Liverpool. Hopefully they might be able to help us find them. I am going with my husbands mother and sister to visit Liverpool in July so I am very keen to find any remaining family members so she can meet them.

Bye for now
Leonie

[jan44]

Hi Leonie,

What a task you have, I don't know about the elec rolls at LRO and how up to date they are, I think they will be in book form.

I don't use 192.com I use a cheaper site http://www.tracesmart.co.uk/

I have a lot of success with it in the past.

The best of luck with your research.

Jan

[BarrattFamily]

Thanks for that piece of advice Jan. You have saved me a bit of money for the future.
I wish I had known about tracesmart earlier but will use them after my 192.com credits run out. I bought 100 credits on 192.com from my birthday money. I could have bought over 200 credits from tracesmart.
I told my family that I don't want gifts, just money for family research. It's great because then I don't feel guilty spending money and my family love creating gift voucher slips to add with the money. My husband gave me $200 and wrote - to be spent on death certificates...
This isn't the first - or won't be the last - financial lesson I have learnt from tracing my family history!!
Leonie

[MaryA]

It would be difficult in the Record Office, even if the most recent are available there, since you need to search by address, and I'm guessing that in the circumstances you wouldn't have an address.

Any Electoral Rolls online that recent won't be complete, not because the provider hasn't uploaded the data, but because for the last couple of years people can choose to opt out of having their details published, and many have done so.

I realise this post sounds very negative but I don't want you to have high hopes of complete databases that just aren't there.

[BarrattFamily]

Thanks Mary for your help.

I understand what you mean about going through the rolls at the Record Office. I tried searching for someone on the old Australian Electoral Rolls at the State Library. I knew they were from Sydney but there were so many electorates and I had no idea what suburb they had lived in. It was looking for a needle in a haystack. I had to give up. One day when I have all the time in the world.... I'm dreaming.

I think I will stop wasting my money, keep it for spending money on my holiday and try the paper to see if they are interested in helping out.