Women were historically less visible in records than men, particularly under their own names instead of those of their spouses. If you don’t already know who they married, it can be easy to lose track of them either before or after they changed surnames. Because of this fact, identifying and tracking women can sometimes take extra work; here are 5 tasks to help get to know more of the female relatives on your tree.
1. Interview a female relative
To interview an older female member of your family (mother, grandmother, aunt or sister), ask her for some time alone so you can discuss her life story, experiences and memories. Ideally this should take place face-to-face; otherwise software like SnagIt may allow for audio/video recording of this session online.
As part of your preparations for an interview, discuss with your subject the topics you intend to cover and offer her the power of veto over anything that she does not want discussed. Inquire whether there’s anything (or anyone) she would particularly like to tell you about, as well as permission to record for family history purposes – be prepared to stop recording if any part of your discussion needs to remain private (and then keep your word).
Things have evolved in women’s lives over time. Don’t forget to ask your female relative about any changes she has noticed–and what her thoughts on them are. Ask what hasn’t changed either for better or for worse–listen carefully as she shares her perspectives without trying to change them; appreciate her for who she is as you appreciate listening carefully without trying to influence or change them yourself; thank her sincerely for sharing her feelings regardless if you agree or not; here are more tips for interviewing relatives.
2. Track down female Ancestors As time marches forward, more information about your female ancestors may become buried among records about men. Check husband documents (especially father documents and children documents), brother documents ( particularly elder brothers), parents documents ( especially father documents), children documents and marriage records for clues as to her maiden name (more strategies here for discovering it).
In older times, searching for women may require extra diligence. Particularly in the South, brides may appear in marriage bonds or the dower release portion of land records; widows might appear as widows on military pension records as widowers of deceased husbands; once I verified a woman by finding mention of her in her brother’s delayed birth record (read more here).
3. Sort Out Multiple Marriages and Recognize Step Relations Aim to be as accurate and precise about your family tree marriages and relationships. Be on the lookout for clues that might indicate one parent is actually another step-parent; that a mother has more children you’ve already counted; or someone was previously or later married to someone else; try gathering as much information about earlier or subsequent marriages including whether they ended through death, divorce, bigamy etc.
Note that when attaching records to individuals online trees, certain websites may automatically assign children to stepparents who appear as parents in census records. In order to correct any potential misconnections that have been made by such sites, you may need to remove or update relationships on your trees in order to correct any potential mistakes that have been made.
4. Follow All Daughters Into Adulthood
Your great-aunts and cousins deserve more than being left on a family tree without more information than what’s provided through census records. While it may not be necessary to fully reconstruct their lives, try at least accounting for them later in life.
Did they marry, move away or remain nearby? How and when did they die? Note anything new on their tree profiles to further your understanding of those you care most about; discovering for instance that your great-grandma’s little sister became a Catholic nun or that her older sister helped raise her after their mama died can give an additional insight into who she was as well. You may come to recognize patterns within that family lineage too:
5. Prioritize Maternal DNA
Once you’ve taken an autosomal DNA test, sort through your matches in AncestryDNA’s updated Matching experience to discover more about mom’s side. Here you can also see who matches up on each parent’s side (assuming this information has been recorded):
Take an mtDNA test to better understand your direct maternal lineage. “Since we all carry our mother’s mtDNA, anyone can take an mtDNA test to gain more information on maternal-line origins – and even family history!” writes Diahan Southard in this article. Your origins information will come in the form of an mtDNA haplogroup assignment, such as H1a1a2b. You also get a list of people with whom your haplogroup profile matches – unlike autosomal DNA matches however, which tend to share recent ancestors; since mtDNA rarely changes over time there’s no reliable way of telling whether a match could be your second cousin or 22nd cousin.”
If you test early enough in March, your results could arrive by Mother’s Day (Family Tree DNA is one major provider offering maternal T-DNA testing for genealogy purposes and requires 6-8 weeks to process your test).
