California became a territory of the United States of America on
February 2, 1848 by the treaty of Guadalupe Hildago. It was the
news of the discovery of gold later that same year, however, that
resulted in the explosion of California's population. Prior to
the discovery of gold, the population was estimated at 15,000
persons. The news of the gold discovery quickly circled the
globe and hopeful miners of every nationality migrated to the
California gold fields in hopes of finding their share of the
riches in the precious metal. By the end of 1849 the population
had reached 100,000. In 1852 it was 224,000, in 1860 the
official census showed 380,000, in 1870 the population had
reached 650,000, and by 1880 it was 865,000.
The administration of government with this quick growth required
that formal voting procedures be implemented to create voter
districts and avoid fraud. Voter registration became necessary
and the "Great Registers of Voters" were created. The
earliest Great Registers were produced in 1866 as a result of the
enactment of Chapter CCLXV, Laws of the 16th Session of the
California State Legislature; 1865-1866. This legislation,
approved 19 March 1866, and known as the Registration Act,
provided "for the registration of the citizens of the State, and
for the enrollment in the several election districts of all the
legal voters thereof, and for the prevention and punishment of
frauds affecting the elective franchise."
Section 3 of the Act required that "The manner of registration
shall be as follows: Clear and distinct entries shall be made in
said books, setting forth in separate columns the name at full
length (without the use of initials) of the person registered;
his age, omitting fractions of years; the country of his
nativity; his occupation; the particular city, town, township,
ward, or district of his residence; if a naturalized foreigner,
when, where, and by what Court he was admitted to become a
citizen of the United States; also the date of registry, and a
number affixed to each name, which numbers shall run successively
in the other of registration; and to the truth of the facts
stated in such entries the person registered shall be duly sworn,
which shall also be noted and verified by the word "sworn", to be
entered in a separate column opposite his name.
Each county government was directed to establish a Great
Register for the population of their county. The various
county Great Register of Voters resulting from this
legislation contain a wealth of information concerning the
citizens, especially the naturalized citizens of California.
The names of foreign-born voters contained in this statewide
compilation were derived from the printed county level Great
Registers required by this Act. The year 1872 was selected
because that was the earliest year of registration in which most
of the State of California's existing counties had complied with
the Act and have surviving lists. In some cases the 1873 and
1875 Great Register was used. This was done when the
county did not have a 1872 register or when the 1872 register did
not contain naturalization data but the next register did.
In 1872 the State of California was comprised of fifty counties.
Of these fifty, only one county, Klamath no longer exists, its
territory now part of Del Norte and Humboldt counties. Since
1872, nine new counties have been formed.