Family History

Where did my ancestor live?

Discovering where your ancestor lived can be a useful way of helping you trace your family tree back further. Census records, electoral registers, poll books, trades directories and rate books can all provide a further snapshot into the world of your ancestors.

Trade Directories 

A useful source that lists individuals and where they lived are London directories. These mainly list individuals involved in trade, commerce and the professions and, as people had to pay to be listed, they are far from comprehensive. However they predate the first useful census returns of 1841, and, as the 19th century progressed they expanded and include lots of useful information about the places they cover - short histories, details of schools, hospitals, local officials, etc.

Trade directories are also useful as they post-date the 1891 census and continued to be produced until 1991. They can be also be used as an "name index" to the census returns. Directories up to 1816 have alphabetical list of names only. From 1817 onwards odd years do contain street directories. From 1855 the principal separate sections of Kelly’s Directories are streets, commercial (tradesmen listed alphabetically), trades (tradesmen listed by profession) and court (people of social standing listed alphabetically).

Our holdings of London Directories, 1736-1991 are available on microfilm. We also hold three series of local directories for St Marylebone, Paddington and Pimlico dating from the mid 19th century to the mid-20th century. A complete list of our holdings is available in Section 4-Directories in our Guide to Holdings.

A searchable web site compiled by Leicester University is also available. Historical Directories is a digital library of selected local and trade directories for England and Wales, from 1750 to 1919.

Court Guides

A collection of Boyle’s Court Guides, Royal Blue Books and Royal Kalendars is available covering many years from 1792-1940. Boyle’s Court Guides have street directories from as early as 1792 as well as the court section listing people of social standing. Royal Kalendars are useful for looking up civil servants. A complete list of our holdings is available in Section 4 – Directories in our Guide to Holdings.

Rate books 

The first poor rate was imposed by an act of 1597-1598 and rate books were compiled in order to keep a record of each person's assessment and whether or not it had been paid. As well as rates taken to pay for the relief of the poor, rates were also levied for the repair and maintenance of highways, for the parish watch, sewers and general improvements.

The rate books give the names of ratepayers listed by street, and detail the amount of rates paid. The ratepayer is the person paying the local taxes and can be the occupier or owner of the house. The books can be used to establish how long someone was at a particular address and are often available from the start date of a building or first occupation of a street.

Our collection starts in the 16th century and runs to 1968. There is an index by street to both St Marylebone and Westminster. Unfortunately, there is no street index to the Paddington rate books and only one set of ratebooks every 10 years is extant for the parish and Metropolitan Borough of Paddington from 1860-1910. Apart from this virtually all the rate books have survived, making this one of the most reliable sources we have. Information Sheet 11 : Pre-1841 Censuses and Inhabitants lists (PDF file) provides a full list of our holdings, as does Section 10 – Civil in our Guide to Holdings.

Electoral Registers and Poll Books

Poll books are a really good way of tracing your ancestors, where they lived, and their political inclinations. Prior to 1832, in boroughs, there was no fixed qualification and franchise eligibility depended on local circumstances and tradition. It was generally linked to ownership of land, by men over 21, of property assessed as worth £10 or more a year. Only a small percentage of the population could vote, about 1 in 10 men and no women. Poll Books were published from 1696 right through to the 1872 Ballot Act when secret voting was introduced. The information contained in the books usually includes the person’s name and who they voted for, and sometimes address and occupation of the person. A full list of our collection of Poll Books is detailed in Section 5 – Electoral Registers and Poll Books in our Guide to Holdings and in Information Sheet 14 : Electoral Registers and Poll Books.

The 1832 Reform Act extended the franchise, and lists of people entitled to vote in local or parliamentary elections have been compiled every year since then (apart from during the two World Wars). They can be used in conjunction with rate books to establish how long someone was living at a particular address and are especially useful as they list all of the residents who are entitled to vote, not just the head of household. There were voting restrictions, for example women over the age of 30 were only given the vote in 1918 and women over 21 in 1928. Remember that only British citizens have the right to vote so other nationalities are not listed.

Our collection of electoral registers is far from complete for the years 1832-1900, For the old City of Westminster (South Westminster) the complete series begins in 1906. The St Marylebone area series begins in 1918 and the Paddington area series begins in 1902. There are no electoral registers from the years of the two World Wars. A full list of our collection of electoral registers is detailed in Section 5 – Electoral Registers and Poll Books in our Guide to Holdings and in Information Sheet 14 : Electoral Registers and Poll Books.