Those with London ancestors will relish the latest new archive on Ancestry.co.uk: Electoral Registers for London for the period 1835-1965.

These registers list the names of all those eligible to vote in elections. The right to vote at first did not cover everyone. Property ownership prevented access to the vote for the lower classes. Women were also excluded. It was not until 1928 that all men and women over the age of 21 were allowed to vote. For more information on whether your ancestor may have held the right to vote, see this useful London Metropolitan Archives fact sheet.

The registers can be searched by name and it is possible with the aid of a map to drill down to a particular address.

If you have previously obtained details of your ancestors in the 1911 census from one of the census suppliers such as Findmypast or Ancestry, it may be worth going back to check the return again as the ‘infirmity’ column previous blanked out can now be revealed.

In 2006 the Information Commissioners Office Ruled that the 1911 census could be released early providing personally sensitive information was hidden. This is why on the returns the ‘infirmity’ column was blanked out.

The 100 years is up and the column can be revealed. Findmypast are presently in the process of changing their returns. Ancestry it is believed will follow.

The forthcoming 2012 looks to be a good year for family tree researchers. Findmypast.co.uk have announced some useful archives which will be added to their site during 2012.

These include the 1881-1901 Scottish censuses, giving the the most complete England, Wales and Scotland census collection.

Three million crime, courts and convicts records in partnership with The National Archives, as described in this August press release.

More local record collections (as yet not identified), including Wales, Westminster, Canterbury and Hertfordshire.

Electoral rolls 1832-1928, in partnership with the British Library.

New tools to help you organise your research. Maritime birth, marriage and death records, and new and improved help & advice section

The new British Newspaper Archive www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/ is now available. This is published and managed by brightsolid in partnership with the British Library. It is an ongoing project and more papers are being added each day. As of today there are 3,121,094 pages covering the 18th and 19th centuries. They anticipate that in ten years there will be 40 million pages digitised.

It is a pay-to-view site. It is free to search and a search returns a sentence or two of the newspaper. Probably enough for one to identify if it is of interest although some of the scanning is not perfect by any means.

You can buy a 12 month subscription, or 30 or 2 day packages containing credits (The cost of credits depend on the date of the paper, and whether it is black and white or colour). The resource can be used free in the British Library’s Reading Rooms.

If you have access to the Gale Archive through your local library or have already searched the website British Library 1800-1900 you may find some titles are already repeated in those archives.

The Essex Record Office has now gone live on their pay-to-browse access to parish registers (Essex Ancestors section of SEAX). Previously the access was free. The project has been delayed as they wished to test the system thoroughly before its launch.

To examine parish registers online now requires pay-to-browse subscription. The good news is that there will be almost 300,000 images and the time span of the registers will be widened considerably more than was available before.

Essex Ancestors will eventually offer all Essex parish registers that are in their archive. Parishes starting with the letters A to F will soon cover the period after 1837, and many wills are also available. Parishes with letters G to Z for 1837 onwards, and the remainder of the wills, will follow in the coming months. Marriages for the last 50 years will be excluded.

Access will be free in the Record Office public search room and at the Saffron Walden Archive Access Point. Subscriptions are as follows:
1 day £5.00, 1 week £15.00, 1 month £25.00, 6 months £50.00 and 1 year £75.00.

See their FAQS page for more detailed information.

Ancestry.co.uk have just announced that they have just completed the first part of the transcription of the 1911 census.

The first release covers Wales, Channel Islands and Isle of Man. These are now fully searchable by name and place, and all the occupants of the house are indexed.

At the moment only the householders schedules are available for England.

See their 1911 census introduction page for information on how search the 1911 census.