Moorshead Magazines is the publisher of Family Chronicle, and Internet Genealogy. Occasionally, the company releases a special collection of articles on a key genealogical topic. Tracing Your Female Ancestors is the latest special release by the company. Published in a magazine format, this release offers 16 articles on key areas of Women’s history and genealogical research.
“The more I though about the challenges facing family historians research the women in our family trees, the more I started to question the way we research women.”
This quote comes from the first paragraph of the introduction. The author continues to state that female ancestors are different and shouldn’t be researched in the same way as male ancestors. Men and women typically had different “paper trails.” This magazine looks at the history of women, their roles in society, suffrage, their stories, and research tips and resources to help in their search by the family historian. Such articles as “25 Online Resources”, “Manuscript Collections”, and “Women in Photos” help the reader directly with the where and hows of research. While other articles, like “Women & Divorce”, “Women and the Vote”, and “Women in the Civil War”, help the reader gain perspective on the roles women have played in society. Understanding these roles help researchers not only better understand their female ancestors, but also can assist in discovering new ways to think about one’s approach to female research; in other words, the research learns to follow the correct “paper trail.”
The bulk of these articles were written by author Gena Philibert-Ortega, who has over 20 years experience in the area of female genealogical research. Maureen Taylor, author and photo expert, contributed the article on “Women in Photos”.
Here is a full contents listing:
Introduction
Tips and strategies to help you get started in your search for your female ancestors
Finding Your Pre-1850 Female Ancestors
We look at some key sources and offer some alternatives to locating female ancestors before 1850
25 Online Sources
A list of key sites you should add to your internet toolbox
Women’s Clubs
When traditional sources aren’t enough, try locating you ancestor in clubs and other organization
Tracing Your African American Female Ancestors
There are many resources available for researching your African American female ancestors
Jane S. Chatham Case Study
A look at one lady’s very difficult life and the sources used to piece it together
Women and Divorce
They didn’t do that in the good old days: researching your female ancestor’s divorce
Women’s Work
Women were more than just housewives; they filled many different roles in peacetime and wartime
Secret Lives of Women
Search for your female ancestor in cookbooks, journals, quilting books and more
Manuscript Collections
Manuscript collections can uncover details to help illustrate the life of your female ancestor
University Library Sources
University libraries are great repositories for additional information that might otherwise go unnoticed
Women in Photos
Renowned photo expert, Maureen Taylor, shines some light on finding your ancestor in photographs
Women and the Vote
Knowing more about the history of female suffrage can point you toward valuable resources
Women in the Civil War
You might be surprised to find out what your female ancestor did during the Civil War
Grandma Was an Alien?
A look at how women became aliens in their own country
Writing Their Story
Telling the story of your female ancestor is an important step in your ongoing genealogy research
Copies of Tracing Your Female Ancestors are available from Family Roots Publishing; a .PDF format is also available, just click here to order the electronic version.