Ancestry Magazine

The Politics of Our Ancestors

What were your ancestors’ political beliefs? Did they align themselves with Democrats, Republicans, Federalists, Whigs, Progressives, or some other party? How were their lives affected by the hot issues of the day and the outcome of elections? Did they have connections with elected officials or even run for office themselves?

This season’s controversies, fueled by televised hearings and tell-all books have no doubt led to stimulating conversations and debates with your friends and colleagues, and possibly even strangers. But are there ways to learn whether any of your ancestors were similarly intrigued with the doings of government? Are there sources that could tell you how involved some might have been in the politics of their day?

American history is replete with controversial issues that excited strong feelings among Americans and served to define the campaigns of political parties and candidates. At the founding of the nation, there were heated debates between loyalists and those who yearned for independence. After the colonies became a nation, there were border disputes and questions over expansion and territories and statehood. State’s rights and slavery prompted violent emotional reactions, culminating in the Civil Wa r. Certainly, in every era there were always proponents and opponents of U.S. engagement in wars. Social concerns such as suffrage and workers rights as well as local/regional issues, including building of canals and railroads, engendered intense political debate. And just as in recent times, some candidates themselves provoked strong reactions from their fellow Americans.

Citizen Rights
Many of our ancestors must have taken sides over the issues of their times. Unfortunately, it is rare that we see anything written about the sources we can use to discover the political leanings of our forebears.

One familiar source to family researchers that may be useful is a voter registration list. Although commonly consulted by genealogists to document the residence of an ancestor, finding ancestors’ names on a voter registration list offers a first glimpse at the political side of their lives. Researchers must recognize, however, that suffrage was far from universal until the late twentieth century, so the absence of an ancestor’s name from the local voter registration list may mean he or she was not qualified to vote or had not satisfied local residency requirements, which in some places was more than a year.

To find voter lists that are accessible online check out Cyndi’s List for links to several free sites and Ancestry.com, where numerous lists are available by subscription. Some of the links on Cyndi’s List include 1855 Kansas, 1907 Cleveland, several for various California counties, and a few for other states, plus several for Britain and British Columbia, Canada. The USGenWeb is another online resource that may help you locate voter lists. Unfortunately, California, Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio, and Tennessee were the only states that produced voter registration lists or poll books.

Following are some of the significant dates to be aware of when using voter lists:

1830 Most restrictions based on property ownership and religions had been abolished.

1838 Kentucky allows widows to vote.

1855 Only five states allow blacks to vote.

1870 Fifteenth amendment gives voting rights to black males (although most Southern states soon found ways to hinder this).

1889 Women in Wyoming gain full voting rights.

1920 Nineteenth amendment gives voting rights to women.

1924 Indian Citizenship Act gives Native Americans the right to vote.

1971 Twenty-sixth amendment lowers voting age to eighteen (from age twenty-one).

Political Landscapes
Whether or not your ancestors voted, they may have taken part in political discussions, or their attitudes could have been influenced by the opinions of friends, neighbors, or prominent people in their community.

To get an idea of how your ancestors may have voted in presidential elections, or at least whether they lived in a state that was strongly partisan for a particular candidate, a great website is Dave Liep’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections at <www.uselectionatlas.org/USPRESIDENT/>. This website provides information through maps or charts on election statistics from George Washington to the present. You’ll find all the presidential candidates for each election along with their parties, the Electoral College and popular vote for each candidate, and graphic representations for each state on the percentage of votes that went to each candidate. For some years you’ll even find county-level statistical data. Another source, although not as extensive, is Geostat Center: U.S. Presidential Election Maps, 1860–1996 at <http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/elections/maps/>. Some examples of what you may learn here include:

• If you had family in Georgia, Mississippi, or Missouri in 1832 it’s a sure thing that your ancestors voted for Andrew Jackson, since 100 percent of the popular vote in these states went for him.

• In 18 92, while residents of most states debated about supporting the Democrat, Grover Cleveland, or the Republican, Benjamin Harrison, if your ancestors were in Idaho, Colorado, Kansas, Nevada, or North Dakota, they were debating between the Populist James Weaver or the Republican, and Weaver carried their state. Voters in Zavala County, Texas, and Winston County, Alabama, also favored the Populists, although the rest of their states did not agree with them.

• People loved FDR in 1936, but none more so than the voters in Mississippi and South Carolina who cast 97.1 percent and 98.6 percent, respectively, of their votes for Roosevelt. The popular vote in most states was in the range of fifty to eighty percent.

Similar information at <http://clerk.house.gov/members/electionInfo/elections.html> is available on congressional elections, although only since 1920. You won’t find any historical information on the election of state officials, although it is likely that archives of old newspapers may prove useful for locating some data on state and local elections and the issues that fueled the campaigns.

In Their Own Voice
Of course, the best source of information on an ancestor’s political beliefs is through a diary or letters. Few genealogists are lucky enough to have this kind of treasure. However, with many archives now posting some of their manuscript collections online, we can read personal accounts that reveal attitudes about elections and candidates in earlier times.

Interviews conducted for the Federal Writers’ Project specifically asked about political views. You can read them online at <http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/wpahome.html>. The two excerpts that follow are examples of the personal politics expressed in digital archives.

Mrs. Louie D. Bradley of Athens, Georgia, described her politics: “My husband was old-fashioned in his ideas of what women should and should not do. One night he came home from work with a part cross and part hurt expression on his face. I was worried for he was usually in a good humor. I didn’t say anything, just waited for him to speak. ‘Well’, he said, ‘I was certainly hurt and surprised at something I heard this afternoon.’ ‘Why, what have I done, I said?’ ‘I never thought the time would come,’ he said, ‘when my wife would take part in politics.’ Well, I didn’t vote that year. After that, his views began to change and soon he was taking me to the polls every Election Day. I don’t take any active part in politics, but I vote my convictions. I think every woman should do that. I am interested in public affairs, but I don’t go wild over elections like some people. Of course, I think we all get a ‘kick’ over seeing our man go in.”

Anders Lian [Andrew Lee] of Wisconsin, in a letter dated 25 May 1896, mentions four political parties that had candidates running and describes an event he attended. “The Prohibition Party had its State Convention here in Eau Claire a couple weeks ago. I had the opportunity to hear St. John, the ex-governor of Kansas, give a speech. Also Mrs. Gangar of Indiana. She is the best speaker I have ever heard. A farmer there said ‘That was a terrific woman’ and I agree with him in that. She spoke for two and a half hours on the theme ‘Give us work or bread.’ Over three thousand listened to her speech.”

It’s hard to imagine listening to a speech for two and a half hours! But even if the writer exaggerated the numbers that attended the speech, it still gives us information that unemployment and poverty were major concerns in Wisconsin in 1896. The election statistics for 1896 show that the voters of Winnebago, Waushara, Waupaca, Waukesha, and Washington counties in Wisconsin did not cast a single vote that year for either of the two major candidates, Republican William McKinley or Democr at William Bryan.

Winning an Office
Some of our ancestors did more than support a candidate or political party. They ran for office themselves or worked for the government. Data on those in the federal government is easiest to find online.

The Congressional Biographical Directory at <http://bioguide.congress.gov/biosearch/biosearch.asp> allows you to search for a surname so you can do a quick check to see if any of the main lines you are tracing could have had a family member who served in Congress. If the name is common, you can limit it to a specific state. You can also list every representative or senator or limit it by party or year. If you find a potential relative, clicking on the name brings up a biography of the individual. If your ancestor served in the House of Representatives, the Congressional History page reports the leadership of the House since 1789 and, in addition, lists the clerks and chaplains of the House.

If there is a senator in your lineage, the Senate Historical Office at <www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/Senate_Historical_Office.htm> has several interesting pages. Click on Historical Statistics for a variety of lists, including annual salaries since 1789. Click on People for a list of all the senators of a state and some highlights on interesting or unusual facts.

Federal judges are another group for whom there is plenty of information available. The Federal Judicial Center has a biographical database at <www.fjc.gov/history/home.nsf>. It includes “all judges who have served on the U.S. District Courts, U.S. Circuit Courts, U.S. Courts of Appeals, and the Supreme Court since 1789.” The information here is more comprehensive than the PDF list on the Supreme Court’s website at <www.supremecourtus.gov/about/about.html> of its previous Justices since 1789, but you’ll want to visit the Supreme Court website as well.

At the state level, the National G overnor’s Association at <www.nga.org/governors/> is posting a directory online of all past governors of every state with biographical information. State websites or those of a state’s library or archives, may also list previous governors.

Arizona has much of its Blue Book online at <www.azsos.gov/public_services/Arizona_Blue_Book/1999_2000/contents.htm>. It lists not only former governors but also those who held other state offices including secretaries of state, attorneys general, state treasurers, state tax commissioners, and others.

It is unfortunate that all the past members of the state legislature are not listed online. Arizona may be the only state that has posted its history manual online, but it is worth checking at a library for the official history manual of states your ancestors lived in. A new edition is generally published each time there is a new legislature, but for genealogical purposes, an old one will do.

Maine is another state that has provided online information on previous state officials at <www.maine.gov/portal/facts_history/history.html#gov>. Aside from governors, attorney generals, and secretaries of state, it lists its state Supreme Court justices since 1820. Presidents of the Maine Senate and speakers of the Maine House of Representatives are also given. Again, it is unfortunate that all the past legislators are not posted online, since being the lowest level of state government it is the level more of our ancestors had more likelihood of achieving. A good starting point to locate historic websites for various states is the American Local History Network at <www.alhn.org/index.html>.

The Political Graveyard at <http://politicalgraveyard.com/index.html> is an interesting source that records biographical data and the burial places of elected and appointed officials at all levels of government. Although it is a work in progress, it has almost 121,000 politicians, judges, and diplomats in its dat abase. There are a variety of indexes and methods of searching, based on people, places, dates, offices held, etc. The Political Graveyard also includes incomplete lists of delegates to the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, beginning in 1832 for the Democrats and 1856 for the Republicans.

Plain Folks and Politicians
Although many people today are cynical about politicians, in the times when our ancestors lived, elections and the right to vote were important to many Americans. Your family tree may include just plain folks or there may be a politician among the branches. As you research their lives, don’t ignore the political side. Broaden your understanding of the cultural milieu in which they lived by consulting some of the resources suggested here. Dress up your ancestors by hanging their bones with some red, white, and blue political bunting.

Candace L. Doriott, the popular opinion columnist for Genealogical Computing, has served on the board of directors of the Detroit Society for Genealogical Research. She has been recognized for her excellence in writing by the International Society of Family History Writers and Editors. This article originally appeared in the October/November/December 2004 issue of GC.