My Ancestor on the NY Voter Registration List

It’s Election Day and I just had to do this post. This past weekend, the Reclaim the Records initiative announced their success in releasing the New York List of Registered Voters in 1924 – all of them now available online through the Internet Archive.  And, it is absolutely wonderful to have!

My own family has New York roots, so I was eager to look for them.  My maternal grandfather, Herman Robinson, was born in New York in 1926. His parents, Lewis (or Louis depending on the record) and Lucinda Robinson moved to New York sometime between 1918-1920. From the 1920 census record, I knew they lived on 63rd Street in Manhattan Assembly District 5.

Since the list of registered voters is organized by Assembly district within each of the 5 boroughs, getting to the Manhattan Assembly District Records was a snap. There are 24 districts in Manhattan, so I quickly navigated to the set for Assembly District 5. The document has optical character recognition, so I searched for the name Robinson and found my family on the very last page, on 63rd street, just where they should be.

Louis Robinson is listed at 230 W. 63rd street – along with others who share the same address, including neighbor Frank Seabrook (who also appears near him in the 1920 census).

Thank you Reclaimed Records for making these records freely available! I hope my great-grandfather voted. My great-grandmother is not on the registration list, so she probably didn’t, but I am glad my family recognized the importance.

I voted early for this year’s election and I hope everyone else has voted or is voting today!