An underutilized resource for many genealogists are
political records. Accessing them may be an unfamiliar process, as D. Joshua
Taylor discussed in his program, “Key Player, Participant, or Partisan Follower:
Discovering an Ancestor’s Political Leaning” at the recent NGS conference. “These materials are not organized around specific individuals or surnames, but
by political movements or parties”. Taylor broke down the steps to begin
digging into political records:
Understand local political history à Discover potential
affiliations à
Access and search political records
The majority of political party records of genealogical
interest will exist on a local level. Discover your ancestors’ potential
political affiliation by examining the local political environment. Get familiar
with the local political environment by referencing mug books, scholarly
articles and historical studies, local newspapers, party histories, and congressional
district maps.
Understanding the historical political parties of the past
will help guide your research. If, for example, your ancestor was a
Presbyterian, a farmer, and lived in Northeast United States between 1810 and
1840, you would want to consider the records of the Anti-Masonic Party, which
was composed mainly of Northeastern Presbyterian farmers.
There is no “master index” to members of historical
political parties. Your search must go beyond genealogical repositories to
include state and federal archives, university libraries and special
collections, manuscript collections, and private collections of historical
memorabilia. Types of political records you might find include membership
lists, donation logbooks, fundraising registers, mailing lists, propaganda,
party events, convention reports, party leadership records, internal voting
records, party correspondence, and miscellaneous records.
Should you hit the jackpot and discover you have an ancestor
who was a member of Congress, look into the Biographical
Directory of the United States Congress. Clayton Library call number: 328.092273
U58 USA, or view it online, Congressional
Biographical Directory.
JO
