The Hidden Half of the Family: A Sourcebook for Women's Genealogy

• The Family Tree Problem Solver: Proven Methods for Scaling the Inevitable Brick Wall
• A Genealogist's Guide to Discovering Your Female Ancestors : Special Strategies for Uncovering Hard-To-Find Information About Your Female Lineage
• Courthouse Research for Family Historians: Your Guide to Genealogical Treasures
• Genealogical Proof Standard: Building a Solid Case
• Walking with Your Ancestors

Whether listed under their maiden names, married names, patronymic/matronymic surnames or some other permutation, or hidden under such terms as "Mrs.," "Mistress," "goodwife," "wife of," or even "daughter of," it is clear that women are hard to find. But while women may never be as easy to locate as their male counterparts, Christina Schaefer here pioneers an approach to the problem that just might set genealogy on its head! And her solution is simplicity itself: Look closely at those areas where the female ancestor interacts with the government and the legal system, she advises, where law, precedent, and even custom mandate the unequivocal identification of all parties, male and female. According to this thesis, the legal status of women at any point in time is the key to unraveling the identity of the female ancestor, and therefore this work highlights those laws, both federal and state, that indicate when a woman could own real estate in her own name, devise a will, enter into contracts, and so on. The first part of the book--a lengthy and informative introduction--deals with the special ways women are dealt with in federal records such as immigration records, passports, naturalization records, census enumerations, land records, military records, and records dealing with minorities. All such records are discussed with reference to their impact on women, as are a group of miscellaneous, non-governmental records, including newspapers, cemetery records, city directories, church records, and state laws covering common law marriages and marriage and divorce registration.

The bulk of this absorbing new reference work, however, deals with the individual states, showing how their laws, records, and resources can be used in determining female identity. Each state section begins with a time line of events, i.e. important dates in the state's history, following which is a detailed listing of eight key categories of information: (1) Marriage and Divorce (marriage and divorce laws and where to find marriage and divorce records); (2) Property and Inheritance (women's legal status in a state as reflected in statute law, code, and legislative acts); (3) Suffrage (information as to when any voting rights were granted prior to the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920); (4) Citizenship (dates when residents of an area became U.S. citizens); (5) Census Information (special notes on searching federal, state, and territorial enumerations); (6) Other (information on welfare, pensions, and other laws affecting women); (7) Bibliography (books and articles relating to women in the state, historical and biographical sources, and publications regarding legal history and jurisprudence); and (8) Selected Resources for Women's History (addresses of state archives, historical societies, and libraries; women's studies programs, women's history programs, and more). This engrossing new work is as amazing as it is informative: amazing because it shows how women have been written out of genealogical history; informative because it demonstrates how their identities can be recovered. This is a new and promising path in genealogy, suggesting fruitful avenues of research and many new possibilities.

Meeting with new genealogyresearchers is always fun. Almost to a person, beginners think only oftracing their paternal line, completely forgetting that the women inthe family played an all important role in one's heritage. Perhapsthese "newbies" just give up because of the seeminglydifficult task of tracing women, whose names change at marriage. Moreexperienced researchers encounter laws of the land giving a husbandhis wife's inheritance from her family, further compounding theissue.

Christina K. Schaefer's The Hidden Half of the Family cutsthrough the confusion providing well-organized listings by state ofthe resources one should consult when researching the female side ofthe pedigree chart. For instance, under Vermont, pp247-249 one findsthe following information:

-- Important dates in Vermont statehistory

-- Marriage & Divorce

-- 1779 first divorce lawenacted

-- 1798 a divorce may be granted on the grounds ofimpotence, adultery, intolerable cruelty, or three years' willfuldesertion or absence with presumption of death.

-- 1902 marriagecertificates must be recorded by the town clerk. 1906 town paupers arenot allowed to marry without consent of the selectman or overseer ofthe poor.

- Where to find Marriage & Divorce Records"Marriages have been recorded in the earliest town records sinceabout 1760. State registration began in 1896. The town records havebeen filmed and are available through the FHL (Family History Library)and at the Vermont Public Records Division in Montpelier. There is aseries of indexes at the Division: Statewide index vital records,1760-1870 (film 0027455 ff) Statewide index to vital records,1871-1908 (film 0540051 ff) Statewide index to vital records 1909-1941(not at the FHL) Statewide index to vital records, 1942-1952 (film1953789 ff) Other Vermont topics include: property & inheritancelaws, suffrage, citizenship, census, bibliography, selected resourcesfor women's history."

The last category has five listingsincluding: Women's Studies Program Middlebury College Monroe HallMiddlebury, VT 05753

The glossary includes definitions forconsanguinity, allotments, coverture, entail or fee-tail, feme covert,partible inheritance and other terms unfamiliar to all but experiencedgenealogy researchers. An eighteen page bibliography provides thereader ample alternatives when tackling the challenge of tracingfemale ancestry.

From the publisher: "By law and by customwomen's individual identities have been subsumed by those of theirhusbands. For centuries women were not allowed to own real estate intheir own name, sign a deed, devise a will, or enter into contracts,and even their citizenship and their position as head of householdhave been in doubt. Finding women in traditional genealogical recordsources, therefore, presents the researcher with a unique challenge,for census records, wills, land records, pension records--theconventional sources of genealogical identification--all have to beviewed in a different perspective if we are to establish thegenealogical identity of our female ancestors.Whether listed undertheir maiden names, married names, patronymic/matronymic surnames orsome other permutation, or hidden under such terms as"Mrs.," "Mistress," "goodwife,""wife of," or even "daughter of," it is clear thatwomen are hard to find. But while women may never be as easy to locateas their male counterparts, Christina Schaefer here pioneers anapproach to the problem that just might set genealogy on its head! Andher solution is simplicity itself: Look closely at those areas wherethe female ancestor interacts with the government and the legalsystem, she advises, where law, precedent, and even custom mandate theunequivocal identification of all parties, male and female. Accordingto this thesis, the legal status of women at any point in time is thekey to unraveling the identity of the female ancestor, and thereforethis work highlights those laws, both federal and state, that indicatewhen a woman could own real estate in her own name, devise a will,enter into contracts, and so on."

I highly recommend The HiddenHalf of the Family, and believe it is destined to become one of the"standard works" of genealogy! (A comment I wouldn't makelightly!)

Myrt :)...