Australian Electoral Rolls, 1901-1936, now online

Geoff Rasmussen

26 Nov 2007

For those with Australian roots, locating 20th century families just got easier thanks to Ancestry.com’s publication of the index and images of the Australian Electoral Rolls.

Covering the years 1901-1936, the rolls are a vital source for people tracing their Australian families. These are especially important given that census records are not available for searching due to privacy laws.

Information in the rolls usually includes:

name of voter
gender
address
occupation

So if you have lost track of an ancestor in this time period, you will probably locate them in these records as electoral rolls are generally country-wide.

Searching the database is open to subscribers of Ancestry.com. Click here to begin your search.

Comments (9)

I am irrate that online access to the Australian Electoral Rolls, which should be free, particularly to Australian citizens, is now only accessable at high cost through Ancestry.com. These ancestry companies are making a fortune from something that we have every right to access freely. I know of very few people who can afford such high subscriptions. Not happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think it absolutely stinks that a private company now has the “rights” to charge for access to this material. What happened to the rights of the taxpayers who should be the owners of this material? It should be available freely in the public domain, not only to those who can afford to pay $120 per year.

I would like South Australian infomation, will it become available?

Is there a possibility that South Australia will be included at a later date?

This is a GREAT resource for those with lots of Aussie ancestors! Previously we had to make overnight travel arrangements to and from the National Library at Canberra (we live in regional Australia) to access the full range of Australian Electoral Rolls there.
Even though not all rolls are covered by the Ancestry.com offering, the fact that you can search all their rolls by name is a great boon in itself. Previously, we had to trawl for days through endless microfiche to find relatives – now HEY PRESTO – we have found ancestors who have moved all over the east coast of Australia – which we would never have discovered before!
We decided to pay the monthly fee for access, which seems excellent value considering the massive cost savings in travelling and accomodation at Canberra. I can only hope that Ancestry.com adds more of the earlier NSW rolls to their offering, as they only provide 1931 and 1936 at present. Still, it has been a fantastic resource for us and we have literally found hundreds of very useful entries within the first 3 weeks! Enjoy…..

I agree with Ron Lobegeiger, but maybe Ron, if you check with your local Family History club or library it could be possible that the may have access to them.

Some libraries have Ancestry databases freely available, the National Library of Australia is one.
And it’s availability is much appreciated.

Just had a quick look at it, but there is nothing for South Australia. Why?

This is ok for anyone who can afford to pay the annual subscription or per view costs. What about some pensioners who are doing family research. It is the same with most sites now, charging big money even if you only want to search several people. Also to all those people out there who “borrow” data from a free web site then submit it to Ancestry claiming it as their own work even though it is incorrect, don’t as you will get caught.