Many counties and municipalities maintain their voter registration records for extended periods of time. While censuses were taken every ten years, a voter registration roll may provide verification in those years in between to help you confirm that your ancestor may have been in an area. It also is helpful to do a little preliminary research into the voting laws at the time. If your ancestor was on a voter roll and the voter residency requirement at the time was one year, that knowledge can verify that your ancestor was in a location for at least that long. By the same token, if a decennial census record shows your ancestor at a location and not on the voter roll, it could indicate that he may have been a new arrival and had not been there long enough to meet the residency requirement.
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