The Cheshire First World War Servicemen’s Index

Spring 1919 Absent Voters’ lists online

The 1918 and 1919 Absent Voters’ lists are an invaluable resource for anyone seeking ancestors serving in the First World War. Absent Voters’ lists give names and addresses (down to street name and house number), details of individuals’ service including rank, service number, unit (battalion and regiment) or ship.

The printed lists are available nationally but, until now, only visitors to the Cheshire Record Office have been able to see the local copies, which include additional handwritten information, providing data unavailable from any other source.

Thanks to volunteers working remotely, and funding from Cheshire East Reflects, the amended version of the 1919: Spring Absent Voters’ list and supplement – “address book” for the whole of Cheshire, is being transcribed, indexed and made available free of charge. This particular version was chosen for indexing because it has the most varied information useful for family and local historians. The Absent Voters’ lists for all nine Cheshire constituencies have been digitised and images, from Wirral to Stalybridge and Hyde, are being made available for transcription by volunteers working remotely, using an online portal.

Names, addresses, ranks, regimental numbers, units and notes relating to each serviceman have been extracted and once completed and approved, the individual records are added to the free, searchable database straightaway.

This index and database is a “work in progress” and records are being added all the time. If you do not find the person or place you are seeking, keep looking or sign up to transcribe some entries yourself.

Contact us (using the Contact Us link below) and quote Absent Voters if you would like to be involved and help us build the index for your area. All you need is enthusiasm, access to a computer and an email address.