Finding Your Female Ancestors
©1999 Susanne "Sam" Behling (GFSSam@aol.com)
You are by now aware, of course, that half your ancestors were female. : ) If you have spent any time doing research, however, you are also aware that finding information about them is uniquely challenging. But the task is not insurmountable.
In the past, laws and society relegated women to a nearly non-existent status. Married women were considered the "property" of their husbands and thus had few legal rights. With few exceptions, they did not buy or sell property, pay taxes, vote, serve in the military or leave wills. Finding female ancestors is complicated further by multiple marriages and name changes.
These problems have been compounded by genealogists themselves who, until very recently, wrote and published their findings only about male ancestors, often using social history to fill in the gaps and aid in bringing an ancestor to life. We have all read these biographies - for example, using a few known dates and facts about a private who served in the Civil War, the author then takes social history (what is known about a society who lived during a certain period) and uses it to tell us what kind of uniform the soldier wore, what he ate, what illnesses he suffered from and what campaigns he most likely participated in. But you can also use this same social history to learn what the lives of his wife, daughters, mother and sisters were probably like. (See "Using Social History to Research Women.") http://www.genealogyforum.com/gfnews/october99/social.htm
In order to research female ancestors, you not only have to use records common to all ancestors (censuses, wills, probates, land deeds, etc.), but you must use records that were exclusively or primarily geared toward women - records which are often overlooked by many genealogists.
Look for records created by women. As our country grew and prospered, so did literacy and most girls attended school at some time in their lives. Women have always been great family record keepers - bibles, diaries and letters by the millions are still in existence, some passed down within the family, many more kept in collections at libraries, universities and historical societies. While some of the material found here has been used in recent years as sources for several terrific mainstream books on women's history (i.e., Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey), the large majority of the documents found in these collections have yet to see the light of day. This is a huge, untapped resource. Keep in mind, though, that many of these documents may not be found in the state where your female ancestor lived. For instance, many of the letters have been donated by the recipients of the letters (who may have lived elsewhere) rather than the letter-writer, your ancestor.
There is, unfortunately, no easy way to do research here; however, many of these institutions are now on the Internet and are posting indexes so you can at least see what is in their collections. The main point here is to make you aware of this incredible resource.
After the Revolutionary War, hundreds of women not only went to school but became teachers, and after the Civil War, many more thousands of women joined this profession. In addition to elementary schools, there were boarding schools, normal schools, women's seminaries (many founded in the 1800's), colleges and universities. Look for records at the school itself, if still in existence, or check with your local historical society for the location of records. Keep in mind that many states did not allow married women to teach, and thus the vast majority of all schoolteachers before this century were female, young and single.
Even though full Woman's Suffrage was passed in 1920, some states passed suffrage in the mid 1800's. Look for state and national legislative petitions for woman's suffrage and voters registration lists.
Look at guardianship records. After a husband died, a male relative was often appointed as guardian to minor children, even though the widow was probably perfectly capable of taking care of them herself.
Check out records for insane asylums. Many perfectly sane women were committed to these institutions for one reason or another - anything from post-partum depression to a husband who simply wanted to get rid of his wife and found commitment to be a perfect solution. Abraham Lincoln's widow, Mary Todd Lincoln was herself committed to such a place after the President's assassination by her own son. (It took the combined efforts of several friends to get her out - she had no say in the matter.)
Public welfare records contain applications for aid to minor children, the elderly and indigent, almshouse and poorhouse records, public burials.
Explore midwives' journals, hospital records and tuberculin sanitarium records. Tuberculosis was a leading cause of death in the past and tuberculin sanitariums sprang up everywhere in America. Midwives were far more common than pediatricians and gynecologists before these century. There were large numbers of midwives practicing and many kept journals. One such journal is the basis for the popular book, A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary 1785-1812 by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich.
Women's clubs and women's volunteer organizations should not be overlooked. There are local, state and regional clubs, lineage and patriotic societies, school sororities, the Girl Scouts and Camp Fire Girls, the YWCA, unions (i.e., International Ladies Garment Workers) and sisterhoods (i.e., Eastern Star, P.E.O.).
Of course you must always use traditional genealogy records. Use vital records to find birth, marriage, divorce and death records. Look in court records for marriage records, bastardy cases, divorce cases, insanity/commitment orders, fornication cases, guardianships, wills, estate inventories, criminal hearings and civil cases. Church records can provide baptism or christening records, membership, admission/removal and women's groups.
Look to immigration records for passports, passenger lists, naturalization and citizenship. Look for tombstone inscriptions, mortuary or funeral home records and burial records. From newspapers you can find obituaries, funeral notices, birth announcements, legal notices, marriage notices, and advertisements for runaway slaves or indentured servants....and sometimes wives.
Don't forget oral history and home sources, such as recipes, family traditions, needlework, quilts, letters, diaries, photographs, dishes, jewelry, clothing, medical records, family Bible, etc.
Finally, I strongly recommend two recent publications that have become my own genealogy "bibles" for doing research on women:
A Genealogist's Guide to Discovering Your Female Ancestors: Special strategies for uncovering hard-to-find information about your female lineage. By Sharon DeBartolo Carmack. Published by Betterway Books, 1507 Dana Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45207. 1998. To order from Amazon.com, see http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=1558704728/notablewomenanceA/
The Hidden Half of the Family: A Sourcebook for Women's Genealogy. By Christina K. Schaefer. Published by Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1001 N. Calvert St., Baltimore, MD 21202-3897. 1999.
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