Thank you for all of the wonderful information about the Great Registers. I found my ggrandfather in the 1890, but one day I hope to identify what name he used before the one we know. He "appeared" about 1874 in Sacramento. When I get time I will search the 1870 and 1872 registers. He should have been in Alameda or Sacramento. Maybe some day I will find him in the 1870 census. I did not get any replies regarding the WWI alien registrations in Alameda - guess no one has experience with ordering these. That will be my next mission. Betty

Hi Betty, Men registered to vote when they moved to an area, or turned 21. Your ggrandfather could have registered at any time after 1872 [since he's not in that register]. The earliest books cover more than a single year. Voter registration drives usually occurred right before any contentious election, be it local, state, or federal. Election representatives would travel throughout a county and register the men wherever they were living or working. The Great Register was enacted into law in California in 1866 and the first books have an 1867 registration date. The registers are helpful for several reasons: 1. It will tell you what general area of the county the man was living, his nativity, age, occupation, and if naturalized, where and when that occurred. 2. Some men, such as my ggrandfather, moved several times within the county. Each time he had to re-register with his new residence if he moved out of the district he was previously registered in. 3. If the man moved out of county, or the county split, there is a notation in the comment area stating when the man moved, and where he moved to. 4. I've yet to determine the reason, but in 1896, every registered voter had to re-register regardless of whether or not they had ever lived anywhere else since originally registering. I suspect some sort of nasty voter fraud had occurred in the recent past because the 1896 Great Register is the only one that includes a complete physical description of the voter -- height, weight, hair color, eye color, and any distinguishing markings. Hope this helps, Anita C. Monterey County Betty Loose wrote: > Thank you for all of the wonderful information about the Great > Registers. I found my ggrandfather in the 1890, but one day I hope to > identify what name he used before the one we know. He "appeared" about > 1874 in Sacramento. > When I get time I will search the 1870 and 1872 registers. He should > have been in Alameda or Sacramento. Maybe some day I will find him in > the 1870 census. > > I did not get any replies regarding the WWI alien registrations in > Alameda - guess no one has experience with ordering these. That will > be my next mission. > > Betty > > > ----------------------------------------- > NORCAL ARCHIVES: > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/ > Enter NORCAL. Browse by month. > Or click the "Search all archives" link to search by keyword. > ----------------------------------------- > To post a message to the NORCAL mailing list, send an email to NORCAL@rootsweb.com > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to NORCAL-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > >

Betty, When Charles Jaycox registered to vote in 1872, his application stated that he lasted voted in Ohio in 1868. That was a big help to me. marilyn ________________________________ From: A. Mason Design <amason@redshift.com> To: norcal@rootsweb.com Sent: Wed, April 14, 2010 7:35:11 PM Subject: Re: [NORCAL] Great Register Hi Betty, Men registered to vote when they moved to an area, or turned 21. Your ggrandfather could have registered at any time after 1872 [since he's not in that register]. The earliest books cover more than a single year. Voter registration drives usually occurred right before any contentious election, be it local, state, or federal. Election representatives would travel throughout a county and register the men wherever they were living or working. The Great Register was enacted into law in California in 1866 and the first books have an 1867 registration date. The registers are helpful for several reasons: 1. It will tell you what general area of the county the man was living, his nativity, age, occupation, and if naturalized, where and when that occurred. 2. Some men, such as my ggrandfather, moved several times within the county. Each time he had to re-register with his new residence if he moved out of the district he was previously registered in. 3. If the man moved out of county, or the county split, there is a notation in the comment area stating when the man moved, and where he moved to. 4. I've yet to determine the reason, but in 1896, every registered voter had to re-register regardless of whether or not they had ever lived anywhere else since originally registering. I suspect some sort of nasty voter fraud had occurred in the recent past because the 1896 Great Register is the only one that includes a complete physical description of the voter -- height, weight, hair color, eye color, and any distinguishing markings. Hope this helps, Anita C. Monterey County Betty Loose wrote: > Thank you for all of the wonderful information about the Great > Registers. I found my ggrandfather in the 1890, but one day I hope to > identify what name he used before the one we know. He "appeared" about > 1874 in Sacramento. > When I get time I will search the 1870 and 1872 registers. He should > have been in Alameda or Sacramento. Maybe some day I will find him in > the 1870 census. > > I did not get any replies regarding the WWI alien registrations in > Alameda - guess no one has experience with ordering these. That will > be my next mission. > > Betty > > > ----------------------------------------- > NORCAL ARCHIVES: > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/ > Enter NORCAL. Browse by month. > Or click the "Search all archives" link to search by keyword. > ----------------------------------------- > To post a message to the NORCAL mailing list, send an email to NORCAL@rootsweb.com > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to NORCAL-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > ----------------------------------------- NORCAL ARCHIVES: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/ Enter NORCAL. Browse by month. Or click the "Search all archives" link to search by keyword. ----------------------------------------- To post a message to the NORCAL mailing list, send an email to NORCAL@rootsweb.com ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to NORCAL-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message