Yes, you had to be "British" to vote. The electoral register contains people who can vote and those who can serve on juries (not necessarily the same people). So, either the person was born in UK (or a dependency) or they were naturalised (Usually it was the husband who naturalised and the wife and any dependent children-those under 21 were included). Women were not on the register until they gained the right to vote, so not having a wife show (before 1918 for women of "means" and over 30, 1928 for women aged 21+) is no indication that they were not living there. Around naturalisation there was a lot of confusion-people included children who were British by birth, for example, not realising. One of my GGF's non-dependent children assumed he was British when his father naturalised even though he was out of the country and over 21 at the time. I don't think anyone bothered to check the truth of his declaration "The son of a naturalised British citizen". HTH Sherry On 28/01/2008, david and lesley <bbqman@bigpond.net.au> wrote: > I was always under the impression that one needed to be a citizen of the > country in order to vote. Wouldn't that mean that if your missing Hannah was > on an electoral roll she must have been naturalised?? Or am I wrong in > assuming the electoral roll in the UK only lists those eligible to vote? Or > have I misunderstood altogether, and she wasn't on the roll herself?