Voter's Records

Photo courtesy Family History Daily

Next week, we go to the voting booths and make our selections to decide the fate of different candidates and issues in our area.

Have you ever wondered if you can access your ancestor's voting records?

The answer is yes, and no. While you can't see which way your ancestor voted, you can sometimes view their voter registration.

Voter's registers can be harder to find, but are well worth the effort. Along with census records, they place our ancestors in specific places at specific times.

You can:

• Fill in gaps between censuses
• Find middle names
• Find spouses and other family members registered at the same address
• Naturalization information
• Where born
• Political party affiliation 
• Migration from other locations.
• Physical characteristics

EXAMPLES OF REGISTERS:

1903 Mason Township Lawrence County, Ohio Quadrennial Enumeration.
This places my 4 X great uncle, William Tagg, in Lawrence County in 1903.
He disappeared after the 1900 Census and I have always assumed he died.
Now I know to start my search for his death record after 1903.

State Voter Registration Records:

• Ohio- Ohio counted adult men every 4 years in various counties to determine voting districts, called quadrennial enumerations. Some of them are view-able on the FamilySearch.org web site and the Ohio History Connection has some of them in their Library And Archives. 
• Historic records not available on FamilySearch yet. Ohio took quadrennial enumerations of men 21+ years old to determine voting districts from 1803-1911. Under taxation...
• Current registrations: Check Your Voter Registration
• Arizona - Has "great registers" similar to California's at Ancestry Library Edition (ALE)  (and Ancestry.com) , FamilySearch.org and at their State Library
• California - "Great Registers"
• 1900-1968 is available on ALE  under "California, Voter Registrations, 1900-1968
• Available on FamilySearch.org "Great Registers 1867-1890"
• California State Library has 1866-1898 and 1900-1944 on microfilm
• Chicago - (not a state!) have late 1800 voters records at FamilySearch and some are also available on ALE
• Georgia -  At FamilySearch.org - has the 1867-68 Returns of qualified voters
• New York - ALE has a list of registered voters in 1880
• Kansas 
• On ALE,  Leavenworth, Kansas Voter Registration, 1859 and Kansas Election List, 1854
• And for free on the Kansas GenWeb site
• Massachusetts  - on ALE Massachusetts, Applications of Freemen, 1630-1691
• Wyoming - The State Archives has poll lists and voting lists in their collection.

RESOURCES:

• FamilySearch - do catalog search for location "United States, Indiana" then go to bottom of list for "Voting Registers"
• Ancestry Library Edition - catalog search "voter" narrow by location or date. Returns many census records
• Fold3 - enter "voting" in search box.
• Cyndi's List  search for "voters"
• Worldcat.org - search under the location and "voting register"

WEAKNESSES: 

• Before 1920, will not include women in most locations in the US
• In earlier time periods will only include white men of property
• Convicted felons aren't permitted to vote

Arizona Voter Registration 1866-1955 on Ancestry Library Edition showing the EARP brothers, Wyatt, Morgan and J.C. (James) in Pima County (Tuscon) Arizona. Virgil Earp was listed several pages earlier.
The right half of the entries (not shown) provided information on date and place of naturalization.

This 1904 Voter Registration for Wyatt S. Earp shows his birthplace "Ills" for Illinois.
From  Ancestry Library Edition

These entries from the California Voter Registrations 1900-1968 on Ancestry Library Edition show Walt Disney and
his wife, Lillian. Interestingly, she is listed as a Democrat and he is a Republican.

SOURCES:

• "Reasons Why You Should Be Researching Voter Records - A Hidden Gem", The Ancestor Hunter , 12-8-2018
• Haddad, Diane, "Tracing Ancestors in Voter Records" Family Tree Magazine.
• Philibert-Ortega, Gena, "Genealogy 101: Voting Records", GenealogyBank, 6 Nov. 2018.
• "United State Voting Records", Family Search Wiki
• "Voting Created Some Fascinating Genealogy Records! Here's Where to Find them", Family History Daily.

Cemetery Gravestones & Court Records

On October 2, Lisa did a wonderful blog on doing cemetery research Cemeteries...where else would you find your dead relatives?

Next week, you will have the opportunity to take your cemetery research even further with Jill Keppler's talk on Cemetery Gravestones on 30 October. Learn what stories the stones themselves have to tell.

 SIGN UP HERE.

And there are still spots available at the Genealogy Slam: Order in the Court!

Sign up HERE.

Did I mention that Light Refreshments will be served and Door Prizes will be given away?!?!

Fall Genealogy Slam! ORDER IN THE COURT!

• Did your immigrant ancestors have to renounce allegiance to a foreign sovereign to become a United States citizen? 

• Did your ancestor own land in the same county as three other men with the same name?

• Did your grandpa serve time in prison? (Mine did!)

• Did your ancestress have to sign away her dower rights when her husband sold land?

Join Medina's new Genealogy Team and discover how court records can enhance your family history research!

Medina's Genealogy Team features veteran researchers, Lisa Rienerth and Kathy Petras, the new Family History
& Learning Center Manager, Lauren Kuntzman, and new member, Nichole McCluggage.

                                                                                                                                                                

26 October 2019
Saturday
12-4 p.m.
Medina Library
Community Rooms

SIGN UP HERE!

This fall the team will expound upon court records. Lauren will give an overview and talk about Criminal Court Records. Kathy will explain Probate Court Records. And Lisa will talk about Land Records. Nichole will keep us all in line!

Join us and learn more about these daunting topics.

Judge Albert MUNSON

Albert Munson as a younger man from the 1881
History of Medina County and Ohio

Judge Albert Munson was a man of many talents and abilities. But his early years were punctuated with very humble circumstances.

Albert was born to Lyman and Nancy (Porter) Munson on 8 Aug, 1829 at River Styx. He was one of 9 children. His parents came to Ohio in 1816 from Massachusetts and were farmers. 

Albert's first attended a log schoolhouse, later studying at the Sharon Academy. The Academy was a product of the Universalists (religion) in the area who were looking for a non-sectarian educational option.

In 1844 while Albert was still a teen, a political speaker did not show up for his speech. Albert volunteered to speak extemporaneously on the duties of citizenship and finished to cheers and applause. He was fascinated by politics from that time forward.

He organized the River Styx Lyceum where debate was prized. He later said that prepared him for his love of lifelong learning.

Around 1850, Albert contracted dysentary. He would complain of  Rheumatism the rest of his life.
Other benchmarks from Albert's long life:

• Worked 5 years at general store of Allen Howes in Sharon. Then to Colborn & Munson in River Styx. 
• While working at the store, he married Harriet Easton in 1854. Children followed: Cora E. and Lyman E. 
• He then farmed his father's homestead. 
• He worked hard for Republican party throughout Medina County when that party was just getting started in 1856, delivering hundreds of speeches.
• He was physically incapacitated to serve in the Civil War so he recruited other soldiers. For that service he won an appointment as Colonel of the Militia by Ohio Governor Todd in 1862. 
• In 1869 he was elected to Ohio House of Representatives. He was re-elected in 187, serving a total of 4 years. He worked on codifying Ohio State laws, which were later copied by other states. 
• He was a temperance man. 
• After studying on his own for years, he was admitted to the bar in 1873, although he never practiced as a lawyer.
• He worked to bring the Railroad to Medina in 1871-72 and continued to support bringing railroads to Medina for the rest of his life. 
• In 1875 he was elected Director of Ohio Farmer’s Insurance (now Westfield Insurance). 
• In 1878 he was elected Judge of the Probate Court of Medina County and  “never had decision reversed by the higher courts” 
• He moved to Medina to be closer to his work. He was a judge for 2, 3-year terms (6 years). He used the honorific title "Judge" the rest of his life. 
• While he was judge he heard many cases of insanity. From 1880-1881 newspapers:

• 9 cases appeared in the paper 
• 5 women and 4 men 
• 3 of the women were judged insane and all of the men were. 
• They were sent to the Asylum at Newburgh, OH.
• After that he bought Samuel Bradley’s hardware business and ran that business for 25 years as A. Munson & Son 

Ad for Sam Bradley's Hardware store
Medina Gazette July 9 1880

Ad for Munson's Hardware store.
They kept their ads simple & focused
on the products. Sometimes, they
referred to the store as "Dad & I"
Medina Gazette, 28 Dec 1899

Advertising heating stove and fine
English China at the same time.
Quite likely, the Munson's furnished
their home with products from
the store. Medina Sentinel
4 Sep 1903, p.4

A sample of the Munson's personal china
on display at the Medina County
Historical Society.

• He was a member of these fraternal organizations, as well as the Literary Society: 
• Morning Star Lodge (Masons)  
• Independent Order of Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F.) 
• Royal Arcanum, Council No. 372. 
• He claimed he was personally responsible for William McKinley being elected as President. In gratitude McKinley came to Medina for a speech. After his election, McKinley offered Munson any position he wanted in gratitude for all of Munson's help.  Munson, who was around 70 years old, said being postmaster was good enough. The post office was two doors down from his hardware store. He was postmaster for 6 years. 

Judge Albert Munson
History of the Western Reserve by Harriet Taylor Upton

• From  1907-1908, he wrote column for Gazette “Reminiscences of a Busy Life” (play on "Recollections of a Busy Life" by Horace Greeley) that described many facets of his long life. 
• Albert died 27 June 1911 In Medina (Gazette 7-28-1911, p.4)

His spiritual beliefs:

Probably one of the most interesting aspects about Munson was his religious beliefs. He was a Spiritualist. 

"Spirit" Picture of Albert Munson
in the collection of
Medina County Historical Society.

Spiritualism is the belief that the spirits of the dead can communicate with the living, often through the use of seances and mediums. It grew out of the early 1800's in New York. By 1860, it had spread world wide. It was very popular in the 1870's, particularly in the River Styx area where Albert grew up.

In 1879 he attended a (possibly his first?) séance in Sharon. It was thought at the time it had to do with the insanity cases he was hearing as a judge.

Why would the spiritualist church be appealing to Munson at this time?

• Growth as a movement. Started in US in 1840. Reached its height in popularity from 1880-1920 
• The Universalist Church might have made him more likely to investigate other ways of worshiping. 
• He had already lost his parents and siblings:
• Father Lyman in 1863
• Mother Nancy in 1850
• Sister Emeline in 1876 
• Brother Lyman in 1843 
• Sister Nancy in 1852 
• In 1881, he lost his good friend, James Garfield 
• William McKinley in 1901
• One of the mediums he used was possibly a cousin on his mother's side.

Munson believed he had a psychic link to McKinley and was convinced that the President would not live out his second term. Visiting McKinley in Canton, Munson urged the president to surround himself with guards, but McKinley replied, "Who would kill me?" Munson left, believing it would be the last time he saw his friend. And it was. McKinley was assassinated on 6 September 1901 .

Munson held a seance in his home, trying to each his friend. During the seance, McKinley remembered all the help Albert had been to his political career, especially the 1885 campaign. Munson invited McKinley's grieving widow to one of the seances, but her doctor soon put a stop to further seances as he felt it was detrimental to her health.

In his obituary it was stated that Munson believed "Death was only an incident in the journey to other scenes." One by one, death took each of the Munsons leaving none from that branch of the family. Each was cremated, a practice that had been revived in the 1870's.

Books from the Munson library:

Held at the Medina
 County Historical
Society

Held at the Medina
County Historical
 Society

Letter from McKinley:

Letter written by Wm. McKinley in 1885, before his presidency.
Collection of the Medina County Historical Society.

 Transcript of a seance conducted by  Annie L. Chamberlain, channeling the spirit Electa:

Munson's mother's spirit confirming that Miss Porter is indeed a relative:

Transcription of a seance from 1903.
In the Medina County Historical Society Collection.

The Munson House
Now a private residence, the Munson family lived here until Cora Munson's death in 1956.
Originally it was at 231 East Washington Street. The Community Design Committee moved
the house was to its present location on Prospect in 1985.
Numerous seances were held here.

SOURCES: 

• Butalia, Tarnunjit, Religion in Ohio: Profiles of Faith Communities  on Google Books: https://bit.ly/33gSDJC
• Find A Grave
• King, Joann, Medina County: Coming of Age 1810-1900 
• Kraynek, Sharon, Recollections of Medina Characters 
• Medina County Gazette
• 28 Dec 1899 
• 9 July 1880
• 1 May 1997, page C5
• 27 May 1881, page 7.
• 29 June 1879, page 11.
• 11 July 1879, page 3.
• 21 Dec., 1984
• Medina County Historical Society Collections.
• Medina County Sentinel
• 4 Sep. 1903, page 4.
• 4 Aug 1911, page 1 
• Perrin, William Henry, History of Medina County and Ohio (1881)
• Upton, Harriett Taylor, History of the Western Reserve
• WikiMedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Judge_Albert_Munson_House.jpg
• Wikipedia:
• Spiritualist Church https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritualist_church

P.S. Thank you to Tom Hilberg for correcting my mistake. The Community Design Committee NOT the historical society moved the MUNSON House to its present location.

Cemeteries....where else would you find your dead relatives?

Guest Blogger, Lisa Rienerth, Library Associate, Medina Reference

Friendsville Cemetery - Westfield Twp.

Woodlawn Cemetery - Wadsworth

Using gravestones and cemetery records can be extremely helpful when doing your family research.  They can provide information on a relative who lived and died prior to the state or county recording vital records; it may lead you to other vital records; and it is always good to have one more source to provide the proof for your research. Plus it is one of the few physical connections you will have with a deceased ancestor.

There are a few hurdles you may need to overcome when doing this type of research. First, the gravestone only provides the birth and death date, but you have to remember, this information, though carved in stone, may be incorrect. Tombstone carvers make mistakes. Also, it may be hard to find the final resting place of your ancestor and even if you do find it, the stone may be unreadable due to age and other damage.

Don't let these reasons discourage you. The following instructions will help with these hurdles.

Let's start with an online search.

Two websites that I use are Findagrave.com  & Billiongraves.com. These sites depend on members to upload memorials and photos.  Finding your relative on one of these sites can be a tremendous help. Even if there isn't a photograph of the tombstone, the information given for the memorial is helpful and it provides a name of the cemetery where you may find even more records. There is usually a map of where the cemetery is located, which is helpful especially with the small and out-of-the-way cemeteries.



Look for other online sources. Sometimes the cemetery is large enough to have their own online database and sometimes the city, county or state may have one. Sometimes I just google the name of the city/county/state with the word "cemeteries" and see what comes up. I just found Ohiogravestones.org, a site for the State of Ohio, the other day.

Different online genealogy sites can also be helpful. The main two I use are FamilySearch.org & AncestryLibrary Edition (through your local library). These type of sites are adding more and more cemetery records to their databases and digitized images. They also will link to other sites like Findagrave and Billiongraves.

If you don't know where or when your ancestor died, you can use the U.S. Census to narrow down your search. This is another source you can find on online genealogy sites like the ones I mentioned above (this type of research was covered in the MCDL Genealogy Blog on 3 April 2019). If you find them in the census records and follow them through the decades, whenever you come to a year they are no longer listed, this may be a clue to where and when they died. For example, George Smith was found in the 1850, 1860 & 1870 U.S. Census in Montgomery County, Ohio. He is not located in the 1880 U.S. Census in Montgomery County, Ohio or anywhere else. This may be a clue that he died between 1870 & 1880 in Montgomery County, Ohio. This isn't a definite answer, but it does zero in your research to a smaller area.

Another online source is Archive.org. This site will help you find transcribed cemetery records and find where the cemeteries are located.

Findlay Republican Courier - Newspaperarchive.com

Obituary and death records can also be found online through genealogy sites and databases.

You can search for obituaries in many of the newspapers that Kathy Petras talked about in her 7 August 2019 Blog. Sometimes the place of burial is mentioned in the obituary.

The more recent 20th century death records are more apt to have the cemetery listed than the pre-1900 records.

 




Cemetery records can also be found in libraries, archives, historical societies or government offices. You need to research the area where you believe your ancestor died and see which repositories are in the area and what types of records are kept there. For example, the Medina Library has a Tombstone Inscriptions book compiled by the Medina County Genealogical  Society. It is nice to have, because some of the transcribed tombstones are no longer readable.








The Western Reserve Historical Society is a local repository that owns not only local published cemetery records, but also out of state records. You can do an online search of their collection to see if they may have what you are looking for.

Trip Preparation

After using the above resources you should have a good idea of where you ancestor is buried. Now it is time to prepare for your visit to the cemetery. You may not be going to the ends of the world, but you need to take a few items to make the visit a successful one.

For more ideas on what to take, check out Your Guide to Cemetery Research by Sharon Debartolo Carmack.

O.k....you are packed and ready to go! Here are a few things to remember when you arrive...

Shaw Cemetery - Lafayette Twp.

• Treat the area with respect and be careful of the markers.

• Do not try to excavate or fix the marker.

• When walking among the stones be careful where you step. The ground is not always level. 

Guilford Center Cemetery

Photograph more than just the tombstone....

Take one of the surrounding area to help you find the stone again if necessary.

Mound Hill Cemetery, Seville 

Take one of the tombstones around the one you found, these could be family members.

No headstone!?

You have walked the whole cemetery and you didn't find a tombstone...yet you know the person you are looking for is buried there....or you found the headstone, but you can't read it due to the fact that it is over 100 years old and the carvings have been worn smooth.

Do Not Fear! There are other places you can look! 

The Sexton, the person who looks over the cemetery and its records, may have the information you need. Even if you find a readable headstone, these records may give you even more information than what is on the tombstone. 

There is usually an office on the grounds of the cemetery. If there isn't one or you don't know if there is a sexton or not, go to the city or county offices. The Parks & Recreations office can usually tell you where those records are located or they may have them. If there isn't a Parks & Rec office, just check with the City Hall, they may at least be able to point you in the right direction.

Fostoria Fountain Cemetery, Ohio

The sexton or cemetery records may give you more than a name and dates. Sometimes it list other family members and sometimes cause of death.

Wilson Family Cemetery
Findagrave.com added by Medina County Graves, ID # 47506344

If the cemetery is affiliated with a church, contact the church to see if they keep the records. If it is a private family cemetery, you may need to get permission to search.

When you get home after your successful cemetery trip don't forget to download, identify & update as soon as possible! If you wait too long you will forget the details.

Searching for my ancestors in cemeteries is one of my favorite types of research. I hope you enjoy it and may all your searches be successful!


Sources:

All Medina County cemetery photographs, unless otherwise noted, were taken by me, Lisa Rienerth.

AncestryLibraryEdition, census records

Solether obituary, Findlay (Ohio) Republican Courier, 3 February 1966, page 24; digital images, Newspaperarchives.org.

FamilySearch.org, Ohio deaths, 1908-1953

Medina County Genealogical Society, Tombstone Inscriptions from the Cemeteries in Medina County, Ohio, 1983 (Evansville, IN: Whipporwill Publications, 1984).

Fostoria Fountain Cemetery, cemetery records, Fostoria, Hancock County, Ohio.


Bibiliography:

Findagrave.com

Ohiogravestones.org

Archive.org

Western Reserve Historical Society catalog (http://catalog.wrhs.org/collections/search)

Your Guide to Cemetery Research by Sharon Debartolo Carmack