Female Ancestors in NY Get the Vote in 1917

 

New York State granted women the right to vote on November 6, 1917. Women were soon allowed to show up in person to add their names to the list of voter registrations all around the state. 

Ancestry.com has released a new database of digitized voter registration ledgers from Manhattan. TY to the sharp-eyed folks on the New York City Genealogy FB page for pointing this out! 

For International Women's Day and Women's History Month, I prioritized looking for my female ancestors who lived in Manhattan during the period covered by this new database (1915-56).

Women registered in 1918

I was happy to see that some of my female ancestors in New York City showed up to register the first time they were legally permitted to do so. 

The image at top shows how many people in all were added to the registration ledger for a particular election district over a two-day period in February 1918, counting my female ancestors too. Yet the ledger was officially known as the 1917 voter registration list. Hold that thought.

Let me say that I'm very proud of the women who registered in February, 1918 so they could vote for the first time in a New York special election held during March, 1918. 

Check the source carefully

This is also a reminder to check into each source carefully. As I said, this particular voter registration ledger was titled 1917 and correctly transcribed that way by Ancestry.

However, as shown in the excerpt at the top and on individual pages of the scanned ledgers in database, women (including my female ancestors) who registered in 1918 were added to the 1917 listing. 

The lower part of the summary of registered voters notes that as of May 1918, 140 women registered to vote in this specific election district.

So I would indicate 1918 as the date of my female ancestors' voter registrations, despite the official name of the ledger being the 1917 voter registration list. 

International Women's Day: Honoring the Women in My Family Tree

 

Today is International Women's Day!

To honor the women in my family tree, let me present:

• Daisy Schwartz Burk, my Mom
• Hermina Farkas Schwartz, my maternal Grandma
• Leni Kunstler Farkas, my maternal great-grandmother
• Henrietta Mahler Burk, my paternal Grandma
• Rachel Shuham Jacobs, my paternal great-great-grandmother
• Tillie Jacobs Mahler, my paternal great-grandmother

Thinking of them with affection and appreciation today, March 8, 2023.

What Age Was My Longest-Lived Female Ancestor in 1950?

On April 1, I hope to learn more about my oldest female ancestor, great-grandma Tillie Rose Jacobs Mahler (1852ish?-1952), daughter of Rachel Shuham Jacobs and Jonah Jacobs and husband of Meyer Elias Mahler.

At left, a 1900s photo of Tillie beautifully colorized by MyHeritage in Color.

The story passed down is that great-grandma "fooled" the family into giving her a 100th birthday party...and then died at the age of 99. Even today, nobody knows her true birth month, day, or year, only that she outlived everyone else in the family tree (by a lot).

Census records were inconsistent

I consulted US and NY Census records about Tillie's age and found, as the years went on, a number of inconsistencies. How did Tillie age so quickly between 1920 and 1925, for example? Or between 1930 and 1940? 

Likely it was not Tillie talking with the enumerator, IMHO, but someone else in the household (or a neighbor) giving an age guesstimate in later years. Take a look at how her age changes:

• 1900 US Census: Tillie is enumerated as 39 years old (Census day: June 1)
• 1905 NY Census: Tillie is enumerated as 45 years old (Census day: June 1)
• 1910 US Census: Tillie is enumerated as 50 years old (Census day: April 15)
• 1915 NY Census: Tillie is enumerated as 55 years old (Census day: June 1)
• 1920 US Census: Tillie is enumerated as 60 years old (Census day: January 1)
• 1925 NY Census: Tillie is enumerated as 67 years old (Census day: June 1)
• 1930 US Census: Tillie is enumerated as 73 years old (Census day: April 1)
• 1940 US Census: Tillie is enumerated as 86 years old (Census day: April 1) - see image excerpt below. (Note: Neither Tillie nor her daughter has a circled X next to the name, which would ordinarily suggest they were not the informants. Since no names on that page have an X, this enumerator didn't indicate which member of any household gave the information.)
• UPDATE: 1950 US Census, Tillie is enumerated as 100 years old (April 1).

What will 1950 US Census say?

Looking ahead: If Tillie was 99 years old when she passed away in 1952, she would be enumerated as 96 or 97 years old in the 1950 Census. NOPE, she was supposedly 100 yrs old as enumerated in 1950 US Census.

Remembering Great-Grandma Tillie with affection on International Women's Day.

This is my post for the Genealogy Blog Party of March, 2022.

Enhancing, Colorizing, Animating Tillie and Leni for International Women's Day

Today is #InternationalWomensDay, a good day to honor the memories of two immigrant ancestors in my family tree by focusing on bringing their faces to life using My Heritage's amazing photo/animation tools.

Possibly I'm one of the last genealogy fans on the planet to finally try My Heritage's "Deep Nostalgia" animation tool. I also enhanced and colorized their photos with My Heritage's wonderful photo tools. 

Great-Grandma Tillie Rose Jacobs Mahler (1852?-1952)

Tillie was my father's Lithuanian-born grandmother, who came to New York City in 1886. She was widowed in her late 50s, with 7 of her 10 children still living after the death of her husband Meyer Elias Mahler (1861-1910). Tillie made her home with one or more of her grown children after being widowed, and died at the age of either 99 or 100 (no one was ever quite sure).

Above is her picture. I used My Heritage's automated tools to enhance (sharpening facial features) and colorize (more lifelike, although I don't know how accurate the result actually is). 

Great-Grandma Leni Kunstler Farkas (1865-1938)

Leni was my mother's Hungarian-born grandmother who came to New York City in 1900, a year after her husband. Soon afterward, they sent for their children to join them and all were settled in New York by 1903. Leni, who ruled the household finances with a firm hand, outlived her husband Moritz Farkas (1857-1936) by only two years. 

The enhancement and colorization brings Leni's face to life for me and other descendants who never had the opportunity to meet our great-grandma.