Genealogy Chat

I HAVE done lookups on 2005/6 Electoral Rolls before now .... and I have REQUESTED lookups on 2003/4 Electoral Roll's recently. ........... please read on ...

My family and I have now been on the receiving end of a 'lookup' and it's caused a little upset .... not 'major' but enough to provoke tears. PLEASE, if your asked for a lookup on the Electoral Roll, PLEASE think about the consequences this may have. Our situation is NOT life threatening, but for others it MAY be. None of us know all the reason's people ask for up todate info on people's whereabouts, it's NOT always for genealogical reasons. I'm NOT suggesting we don't help each other ... but maybe if we point people to where THEY should look for Electoral Rolls ... instead of making it so easy, and doing the lookups for them ... it might reduce possible problems. I KNOW this sounds a little 'far fetched' but my daughter has received a birthday card from her biological father ... and she's now petrified he will turn up on the doorstep ..... or maybe he's watching her .... We ARE in touch via e.mail, so for us the problem CAN and WILL be solved, but I'm thinking of others in similar situations ..... Please think twice about doing Electoral Roll Lookups within the last 20 years ? Elaine ;-)

There is a way to prevent this happening. When you get your electoral registration form in October, make sure you tick the box which says you wish the details to be witheld from the 'short' register. By default your details are on long and short registers, So, you must tick the box if you do not want your details to appear on the edited register which anyone can buy. It's the short register which can be bought by the database companies (and therefore 192[.]com) and where they get the junk mail details from. The long register is harder to check - it requires someone to physically go to the area in question and look at it. I know this won't solve the problem now, but it will in future years.

Cheers Jools ..... I have never noticed this on a form ? Wonder if it's not too late to go and get this sorted now ? ... we completed a form just a couple of months ago ( as well as last year ..) I'll nip to council offices this next week and ask. Thanks Jools .... hope this helps others .... Elaine ;-)

Wesbite for info on the short and long registers is here http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/your-vote/access.cfm

Hi Elaine I am so sorry to hear about your upset. I must confess that the looking up of living people has always worried me - we can seldom be certain of the motives of the person asking for the look-up. The tick box on the electoral roll form has only been there for about 3 years. I have ticked it every time, but someone only has to go back to about the 2002 electoral roll, and there I am with my family for all to see. The only way to overcome this problem is to move house, which does seem a bit extreme. So yes, start ticking the box from now on, but be aware that you cannot remove the information which has already been placed in the public domain. Tina

Elaine, It's funny you should mention this today, because only last night the same thing was going through my mind. I offer electoral roll lookups and although I always ask people to send me the information via PM, not put details on the boards, I never enquire as to why they are searching for that particular person. Sometimes people say that they're looking for, say, a distant cousin whose address they lost 40 years ago, and then I get a message a few days later to say that they'd had a wonderful reunion. I would be quite distressed if I thought that I'd given out someone's details and their use caused upset. Yes, you can 'opt out' of the public version of the electoral roll, we did so ourselves and it definitely cuts down on junk mail. Should I stop offering lookups or should I ask people exactly why they want to trace a person? I'd be glad of anyone's advice. Mandy x

Hi Elaine Your point really needs to be reiterated again and again. On my one names study, I have lists of everyone on a recent electoral roll. A certain cemetery has its website online. Putting the two together, I can readily identify elderly, and posssibly vulnerable, widows. It is quite bad enough to discover that your tree has been stolen by name collectors. To be contacted direct may be far more alarming. Those who are aware of potential risks will already be exdirectory and not on the public electoral roll, but plenty of people can conceive of no problem... until they confront it.

anyone who uses b4usearch... it uses old data - we were on there despite opting out of the public electoral roll as soon as we could. But they will now remove your details if you ask them to. They have provided a link for you to click on to do this.

I think this should kept nudged every now and then, to enable people to know about problems that could arise, and about the opting out.

***MANDY in SOMERSET** Having thought about your question ... should I stop doing lookups ... I asked myself the same question time and time again this last few days, before putting this thread up. My own thoughts are that I personally will NOT do lookups requested during the last 20 years ( maybe longer ) .... but I might be prepared to guide people to where they should spend money and get the info for themselves. I will no longer ask for help when tracing possible relatives for my FT. I wouldn't want to encourage others to help ... It's difficult .... and there isn't an easy answer. Except to say, IF we are looking to locate living family members during the last 40-50 years, hopefully we may have close family members who can help us with info or suggestions. If anyone is desperate enough, as Jools points out, we CAN go to the short registers, and see if the folks we are searching for are still at the last known address. What we have to bear in mind, is that we usually make sure we can be located or keep in touch with those that we WANT to stay in touch with ...... those who don't know where we are, don't NEED to know. Elaine ;-)

So could you say for instance offer lookups 1930 and previous? maybe just make a day that you put in your thread and not offer lookups for anyone born after that date to ensure that theyre deceased?

I was a bit worried about this because i was going to offer electoral look ups in southend on sea as I am off there tomorrow, so what would be the best way to do this without causiing any potential upset

Sticky - not offer to do the lookups?? It's the only solution. Jools

I guess that would be the perfect solution, just a shame that some people are legit and want it purely as research for their tree, Oh well

I'm not suggesting folks have to be deceased ... and it is a very difficult situation to be put in ... do we help or don't we ? I noticed recently, a lookup request, because a relative was celebrating a 90th birthday, and the person who asked for the lookup, was hoping to find the rellies to invite them to a surprise birthday party. The above seems a very genuine request ..... and I sincerely do hope that the poster found the rellies and have a fantastic do .... but, what if ~ this was just an excuse ? and the person being sort was actually someone's ex wife or similar ......... we just don't know .... and what are the consequences ??? I'm not trying to scare monger or be a pessimist, just that our own situation made me think ! No, we didn't want to be found by this particular person, but luckily for us, I can cope with the situation. What if I couldn't ???? ..........would we now have to move to avoid any further upset ? I personally won't do any lookups in future within the last 20 years. At least this way, anyone who may have moved to avoid being found, will have had a chance. If they stayed put then I can't see any problem's in making contact at that address. I don't mind if anyone wants to use our situation and discuss it on General ....... get some thoughts off a wider spectrum of people. Elaine ;-)

Elaine Thanks for your thoughts on my comments (sorry, I've only just come back!). I'd rather err on the side of caution and not do lookups than make a mess of anyone's life, which is literally what could happen. I think it's quite a good idea to discuss this on General so I have posted a thread. Please let me know if there's anything in it you would like me to remove or amend. Mandy x PS: 'It's Spring Again' ...if you opt out on the electoral forms, you are only opting out of the 'public' version that gets sold on. You will still appear on the full version.

It's Spring again ........ Can't see any reason why anyone would need to check that you are on an Electoral Roll ?? .. are you thinking things like Credit Checks etc ? .. if so, they use the origional register, NOT the one available to the public. Hope this helps. ! Elaine ;-) Mandy*** Lets just hope the thread on 'General' doesn't cause an argument or disagreements .... they don't need much !! Just get ready to delete !!! lol !

Hi Derbyshire I can sympathise with you on this one - the same thing happened last year when the violent father of my nephew posted requests on Genes for electoral info to find out where my sister lived - and within a few hours of posting he had his answer and lost no time in starting with the harrassment again. I would suggest that people do think twice before handing out up-to-date details of living persons because you just never know for what reason those people are searching.

Can I just say that ticking the box on the Electoral Roll so that your details aren't published isn't 100% reliable, so do check that it has been done. I know a family that ticked the box and yet their details are on the Electoral Roll on the 1837 site for all to see. They are not best pleased! Bev x