3 Basic Strategies for Finding Women in Genealogy

Finding women in genealogy can be daunting. There weren’t many records that have their full names or any part of their names listed. They changed their name when they got married. Sometimes they were known only by their husband’s name. If they were married, most of the documents were written under their husband’s name with the added “and company” to show she was a part of it. So they obviously dealt with women and records differently than we do today. So how do you find your women ancestors and how do you know you have the correct ancestor?

Start with the Men in Your Family Tree

You probably have many men in your family tree by now or you wouldn’t be trying to find the women. Census records are the first place you see family dynamics. Meaning they have a head of household, usually a man, then you have a wife and kids underneath him. So now you have a starting place to find the woman. Now gather as many records as you can around that man and you may discover more about that woman. For example, you know they got married from the census record. So when you find their marriage record you now have her maiden name or her parents’ names. Then you can search for her childhood family.

If there’s no easy record to find or if Ancestry or FamilySearch hasn’t found it for you, then you might have some digging to do. Again, find the men associated with this woman first. Then search in land records, wills, tax records, or cemetery records, their children’s records for any mention of her. Some of the best places to find women and their relationships is through land and probate (wills) records because they usually had to sign their name or be mentioned in order to fulfill that event. Sometimes, other relatives will also be mentioned in these records that will give you a clue to how these women were related to the relatives.

Finding Women in Genealogy Using Surrounding Clues

You need to start looking at clues surrounding your woman ancestor. Where were they living and at what time? What was her husband’s occupation because that influences her life and the records surrounding her life. Look for clues in when her children were born. Where were her children born? At home? In a hospital? Who lived next to the family? Were some of them related? Also, don’t forget to look at the witnesses for birth, marriage, or death events. Some of those names could be relatives with your ancestor’s maiden name.

For example, I couldn’t find my ancestor’s maiden name in any of the easy records such as censuses, marriage records, etc. It was just too far back in time to get full information from these records. So I looked at her children’s birth records and I noticed a common surname in the witnesses section. I took a risk and started researching the male names with this common surname. And eventually I found her name as part of this family. So I was able to attach her to this new family and now I knew her maiden name.

Ask Living Relatives

I think we underestimate the power of our living relatives. They know a lot more than we give them credit for! I know it might be awkward reaching out to some relatives you haven’t spoken to for awhile, but give it a try anyway. They may be able to help you and if they can’t, they can direct you to someone who might know.

This also includes online public family trees. There’s lots of living people working on these trees that you can email or call to see if they can help you. They may even have a document that you don’t have that shows your ancestor’s maiden name or relationship.

Last Thoughts for Finding Women in Genealogy

These strategies are just a few ways you can start finding your women ancestors. They are the most basic ways and then you can grow from there depending on where your research takes you. Next week, I’ll talk more about different types of records that women can be found in and hopefully show you some examples of that as well.

And as always…good luck and happy hunting!

Tiffany

P.S. Related Reads…

• How to Find Women in Scandinavian Records

P.P.S. Make sure to contact me if you are having trouble finding your women ancestors. I would be more than happy to help you plan out your research strategy to help you with your own research. Or you can have me to do the research for you to free up more of your time for other things that matter to you.