{"id":41719,"date":"2018-11-06T11:33:06","date_gmt":"2018-11-06T16:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=41719"},"modified":"2023-08-03T15:13:11","modified_gmt":"2023-08-03T19:13:11","slug":"genealogy-101-voting-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/genealogy-101-voting-records.html","title":{"rendered":"Genealogy 101: Voting Records"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/em><\/strong>: In this article \u2013 part of an ongoing \u201cIntroduction to Genealogy\u201d series \u2013 Gena Philibert-Ortega gives tips on how to use voter registration records to fill in details on your family tree. Gena is a genealogist and author of the book \u201cFrom the Family Kitchen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Getting ready to vote today? Your ancestor may also have voted and left behind information that can help you in your family tree quest. As we trace our family history, we seek out records that not only link children to parents but also put our ancestors in a specific time and place. Decennial census records do this by providing information about our ancestors at 10-year intervals. Other resources like city directories document our ancestors\u2019 locations more frequently.<\/p>\n

Voter registrations are another type of \u201cnames list\u201d that, like the census or city directory, provide researchers with their ancestor\u2019s location at a specific time. These records are valuable to family historians because they provide a date, name, and residence for our ancestors. Voter registrations don\u2019t record every ancestor, but when appropriate these records should be used in our research.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Omaha World-Herald (Omaha, Nebraska), 25 October 1930, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The first voter registration law was enacted in 1800 in Massachusetts. As you can imagine, voter registration laws \u2013 like vital record registration \u2013 took some time to be enacted throughout the country. It wasn\u2019t until 1900 that the last of the western and southern states had voter registration laws. (1) That\u2019s not to say that Americans weren\u2019t voting prior to 1900, it just means that official voting register lists may not exist before then. (2)<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Worcester Daily Spy (Worcester, Massachusetts), 18 October 1883, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Not Everyone Could Vote<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are many reasons why people either did not vote or were disenfranchised throughout history \u2013 but suffice it to say that in the early years of America, most rules stipulated that only white land-owning men could vote. For example, property qualifications for voting continued in \u201cVirginia until 1851; Louisiana and Connecticut until 1845; North Carolina 1857.\u201d (3) These types of voting restrictions ensured that only white men of some wealth, at least wealthy in land, could vote.<\/p>\n

So, just as in any research, make sure to read about voting in the place your ancestors lived for their time period. That history might help you better understand why an ancestor is not appearing in available voting records.<\/p>\n

Information Found on Voter Registrations<\/strong><\/p>\n

Depending on the time period and the location, voting registers can range from having just a name and address to more detailed information that provides rich genealogical facts. One example can be found in the Adams County, Washington, voting registers for 1880-1910 found on FamilySearch. (4) These registers include the voter\u2019s name, age, occupation, place of birth, time of residence, place and date of naturalization, date of declaration of intention, and signature.<\/p>\n

Where to Find Voter Records<\/strong><\/p>\n

Start your search for voting records with FamilySearch. In the FamilySearch Catalog<\/a>, search by Place and Keyword to find voting records for the place your ancestors lived. A Catalog Place search for the county and\/or state of interest can also be done. In the results list, look for the subject category \u201cvoting registers.\u201d<\/p>\n

A search on the worldwide library catalog WorldCat<\/a> for the name of the place you\u2019re researching and the words \u201cvoting register\u201d can also help you find transcriptions of voting records. Other places to search include state or county historical societies, or a state archive. In some cases, early voting registers may not be extant and the information lost forever.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Grand Rapids Press (Grand Rapids, Michigan), 26 October 1916, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lastly, don\u2019t forget to search GenealogyBank\u2019s Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a> for clues about when elections were held, when voters were registering, and who could register to vote.<\/p>\n

__________________<\/p>\n

(1) \u201cFor National Voter Registration Day, Here\u2019s How Registering to Vote Became a Thing,\u201d Time (http:\/\/time.com\/4502154\/voter-registration-history\/<\/a>).
\n(2) You can learn more about the history of voter registration by reading the report \u201cRegistration of Voters in the United States\u201d by Joseph P. Harris at https:\/\/hdl.handle.net\/2027\/uc1.$b22360<\/a>.
\n(3) Nancy Isenberg, \u201cWhite Trash. The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America\u201d (New York: Penguin Books, 2016) p. 130.
\n(4) \u201cWashington, County Records, 1803-2010,\u201d images, FamilySearch (https:\/\/familysearch.org\/ark:\/61903\/3:1:3QS7-L9CT-XJWM?cc=1910364&wc=7G3H-N1C%3A180934701%2C182749001<\/a>), Adams > Voter registrations 1880-1910 > image 4 of 33; State Archives, Puget Sound Regional Branch, Bellevue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this article, Gena Philibert-Ortega gives tips on how to use voter registration records to fill in details about your ancestors on your family tree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":41745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12713],"tags":[12,2719,37149,37147],"class_list":["post-41719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genealogy-research-tips","tag-genealogy","tag-genealogy-search-tips","tag-voter-registration","tag-voting-records"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/photo-1018-2016-featured-graphic-classroom.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41719"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93581,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41719\/revisions\/93581"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}