1948 Voter's Registration Lists for the Henry Fecht Family

Voters' registrations lists are a wonderful source, particularly after women were given the right to vote.

If didn't already know of the connection between Henry, Catherine, Gloria, and James H.Fecht, this 1948 voter's registration list from Los Angeles, California, would have hinted at it. The four Fecht are all living at 11005 Hesby Street at the time of their registration. The roster does not indicate their relationship, but Henry and Catherine are husband and wife and Gloria and James are their children. The "R" after their names indicates that they are registered Republicans.

Los Angeles Precinct 2672 Register of Voters for 1948; digital image,   Ancestry.com, 20 January 2013

This 1948 register did indicate that the Fechts moved to California in time to register and appear on the 1948  Register of Voters. I'm not certain of just when they would have had to have registered in order to appear on that roster. In my case, pinpoining their migration that precisely is not necessary--so I'm not overly concerned about it. What was crucial was to know that the parents moved to California in addition to the children. These voter lists could be combined with city directories to provide a more detailed picture of the family as the directories would give ocupations.

In this case, it is easy to see that these individuals were living at the same address. In the cases of more common names, go through all the entries for a specific surname to determine if there are others living at the same address.

Henry, Catherine, and Gloria are living at 1944 East 70th Street in Chicago, Illinois, at the time of the 1940 Census. Son James is not enumerated with them--possibly due to his enlistment in the military. As we've seen in other posts, the Fechts were in Chicago for at least part of the duration of World War II.

Stay tuned...