Be Sure to Visit my new 1900 Galveston Storm Website at: http://freepages.genealogy.rootseb.com/~barnette 

1867 VOTER LISTS UNDER UTILIZED

 One of the more helpful but under-utilized resources available for genealogical use is the 1867 Voters Lists of some of the Southern states. The voters lists were created during the Reconstruction period shortly after the Civil War. The lists are county wide registrations of white and African-American males over the age of  twenty-one who were eligible to vote for delegates in the state constitutional conventions of 1867-1868.

 Because the registrations contain the names of men living in each county, the registrations could be considered a substitute census. The registration lists contain the names of the registrants and their length of residence in the state, the county and the precinct. This length of residence is often expressed as being twelve months.

  The lists also contain the birthstate or country of the registrant. If the registrant were of foreign birth, he would have had to have been naturalized to register. If so, the date, place and name of court or judge granting the naturalization would also be given.

 There are many men who were excluded and would not have been included on the registration list. Among those would be men who served in the Confederate military in the rank of Major or above, those who served at any time in their lifetime in any elected or appointed governmental position and those who owned more than $20,000 in personal property. Men in the excluded classes lost their United States citizenship and were required to apply to the President of the United States to regain it.

 Lists of voters are found in most, but, not all Southern states. There are no known lists for Virginia and the border states of Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri and Maryland did not suffer the agony of  Reconstruction and were not required to register.

 There are microfilmed or published lists for nearly all the counties of Texas, Georgia, Alabama, Florida and South Carolina. In addition there are lists available for some of the counties of North Carolina, Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana.

  The original Texas registration lists are located in the Texas State Archives. At least two microfilm copies of the originals are located in the Houston area. One is at the George Memorial Library in Richmond, Texas and at the other at the Clayton Library in Houston.

ASG ANNOUNCES NEW FELLOWS

 One of the most prestigious groups to which genealogists aspire to belong is the American Society of Genealogists. According to the ASG by-laws there will never be more than fifty members at any given time. To become a Fellow, or, member, one must be elected and invited to join by other members of the ASG. New members are elected at annual meetings when positions are left vacant due to death of a current member.

 At their recent annual meeting in Salt Lake City, the American Society of Genealogists elected Joseph C. Anderson II, CG and Patricia Law Hatcher, CG of Dallas, Texas as Fellows of the American Society of Genealogists.

UGA HOSTS SALT LAKE INSTITUTE

 The Utah Genealogical Association will host the Salt Lake Institute 8-11 January in Salt Lake City. Courses at this year's Institute will include classes on the following types of research: Immigration, Scandinavian, Scottish, American, Military, Methodology and Problem Solving, Computers and the Internet.

 To learn more about the Institute contact UGA at P.O. Box 1144, Salt Lake City, UT 84110 or visit their website at http://infouga.org/insititut.htm.

NEWS FROM THE BOOKSHELF

 Over a period of several years historians Donaly E. Brice and John C. Barron meticulously copied the names of those Texas men who registered during 1867 and 1868 to vote for delegates to the state Constitutional Conventions. When all the names were extracted they were indexed in alphabetical order resulting in an enormous index of 2613 pages.

 The fruit of Brice and Barron's efforts ,  An Index to the 1867 Voter's Registration of Texas, is available on CD-Rom for $37, postpaid, from Heritage Books, 1540 Pointer Ridge Place, Bowie, MD 20716.

 Information on the CD-Rom consists of an alphabetical listing of the names of registrants, their county of residence and their registration number. It also includes an informative historical introduction concerning why the registrations were conducted.

 The CD-Rom uses the powerful Adobe Acrobat Reader for Windows and Macintosh which is provided free on the CD-Rom. The format preserves the look of the original page and allows the user to search the text for names of people and places. When a search is conducted, the hits are highlighted on each page for easy identification. Numerous bookmarks have been added making it easy to move through the book.