Monterey County, California Genealogy

United States &gt; California &gt; Monterey County

Parent County
18 February 1850: Monterey County was created as an original county. County seat: Salinas

Neighboring Counties

 * Fresno
 * Kern
 * Kings
 * San Benito
 * San Luis Obispo
 * Santa Clara
 * Santa Cruz

Church History and Records
LDS Ward and Branch Records


 * Monterey
 * Pacific Grove
 * Salinas

Voters Records
The following is a list of original voter registration records recently transferred from Monterey County Elections Department to the Monterey County Historical Society archival facility in Salinas. To access records, see: http://www.mchsmuseum.com/

Great Register of Voters: Ledger Books: 1866-1870 1 book 1870 1 book 1881-1883,1886,1888,1890 1 book 1892 (Vol. 1, Vol. 2) 2 books 1896 (Vol. 1, Vol. 2) 2 books 1898 (Vol. 3) 2 books 1900 (Vol. 1,Vol. 2) 2 books 1902 (Vol. 1, Vol. 2) 2 books 1904 (Vol. 1, Vol.2) 2 books 1906-1907 (Vol. 1, Vol. 2) 2 books 1908-1909 (A-L, M-Z) 2 books 1910-1911 (A-L, M-Z) 2 books 1912-1913 (A-L, M-Z) 4 books 1914-1915 (A-L, M-Z) 2 books

Scattered records: Voter affidavits*: 1922-23 (Affidavits, Pleyto precinct) 1930-31 (Affidavits, Blanco precinct)

Indexes (no voter affidavits): 1938, August primary (Greenfield precincts No.1 and No. 2)

Description of collection: The ledger books1 titled Great Register of Voters are the original handwritten manuscripts kept by the County Clerk’s (Registrar of Voters) office of the County of Monterey beginning in 1866.2 The entries are made in alphabetical sections (with alpha sub-sections) and show chronological appearance of voters as they were sworn and registered to vote. The entries include place of nativity (birthplace); age of voter; place of residence (post office or precinct); date and place of naturalization, if applicable; whether citizen by virtue of Treaty of Hildago or citizen by virtue of father’s naturalization (and in later years a woman’s citizenship status by marriage); occupation; date of appearance to be sworn; and date of registration. Later registration data includes a physical description of the voter and party affiliation. The Registrar of Voters also appended notes to the entries to indicate reasons for cancellation whether due to removal to another county or state, transfer to another county due to change of boundary lines (i.e. to San Benito County in 1874), death, incarceration or “Section 1106” (failure to vote). These notations usually contained dates if known. Copies of the list of voters not thus cancelled, were made every two years and sometimes more frequently if a special election occurred (polling lists). These copies of uncancelled voters were sent to the state and other repositories on a routine basis. Microfilm of these typeset lists is available at the California State Library in Sacramento, California, and other repositories.3

These original handwritten Great Register ledger books have not been microfilmed or transcribed. There was a partial transcription done of the 1890 Great Register as part of a census substitute project4 but the transcription does not include cancellation information.

Note: The Great Register books contain information for years other than marked on the book spines. For example, the 1866-1870 Great Register contains several entries made after 1870 when cancellations were noted and the 1890 Great Register shows voter registration dates which occurred years earlier.

1 Some years are missing. 2 Beginning in the year 1866, California state law required a list of voters to be kept. 3 Monterey County (California) County Clerk. Great Register of Voters 1867, 1869, 1872, 1875-1876, 1879-1880, 1884, 1886, 1888, 1890, 1892, 1894, 1896, 1898. (Salt Lake City: Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1975). 4 Bettyann Lockwood Hedegard, ed., 1890 great register of Monterey County, California. (Salinas, CA: Monterey County Genealogy Society, c1993).
 * Voter affidavits are registration forms signed by the voters and contain birth date, birth place, residence address, occupation, party affiliation and sometimes cancellation information.
 * List of records

Courtesy of Junel Davidsen

Websites

 * Monterey County CAGenWeb
 * Linkpendium
 * USGenWeb Archives
 * USGenWeb Archives backup site
 * FamilySearch Family History Library Catalog