Finding Women Ancestors In Your Genealogy Research: Remember the Ladies!

How do you go about finding your women ancestors in your genealogy research? It’s a challenge nearly all family historians have faced. Females account for half of our ancestors, but they often prove more difficult to research.  

My maternal grandmother Lucy (right) with her older sister Janice (left), about 1930.

Why Is It So Difficult To Find Women Ancestors In Your Genealogical Research? 

There are two primary reasons. The first, name changes and conventions, was discussed in a previous post. The second and perhaps more foundational cause was women’s historical legal status. 

 A brief quote from William Blackstone’s 1765 legal commentary sums up the concept of coverture. 

By marriage, the husband and wife are one person in law: that is, the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage, or at least is incorporated and consolidated into that of the husband.

When Maria Hershey married John N. Haverstick in 1852, she became a “feme-covert” under the coverture of her husband. Third great grandparents of the author’s husband.

What were the practical implications of coverture? 

The concept of coverture played out in many ways in women’s everyday lives. Here are just two examples from my own family history. 

My fourth great grandmother Caroline (Rock) Cooper in the 1860s.

In 1859, Caroline (Rock) Cooper began the process of obtaining a divorce from her husband to protect herself and their children. As a married woman, she could not independently take this legal action. She had to enlist a “next friend,” an individual to act on her behalf because she lacked legal capacity. In this case, Caroline’s brother, Allen Rock, served as her next friend. 

Lancaster County (Pennsylvania) Court of Common Pleas, January term 1860, no. 12, Caroline Cooper by her next friend Allen Rock vs. Richard Cooper.

A second example features my great grandmother’s loss of her United States citizenship.

My maternal great grandmother, Alma (Burnum) Groenendaal, about 1910.

A native of Alabama, she married recent Dutch immigrant Peter Groenendaal in 1910. Although she was born and lived in the United States her entire life, upon marriage she acquired her husband’s nationality. Congress passed the Cable Act, or Married Women’s Act, in September 1922, finally giving a woman her own nationality.

How can I overcome these genealogy research challenges to find my women ancestors? 

One of the most common research goals related to a woman is to identify her parents, particularly a woman who married before the 1850 every-name census in the United States. 

First, be methodical. Work your way through the steps in the research plan below. Start with every possible source for your focus female. Then you may need to pursue the records of all her husbands, children, and siblings. The key word is all – not just the one from whom you descend. You never know which one document may contain the clue to her maiden name or parents. 

The final step, researching a woman’s FAN Club (Friends, Associates, and Neighbors), can often lead to her family of origin if the first four steps have not yet identified them. Yes, this can be hard work, but in the process, you will uncover life stories as the harvest of your labor. 

My paternal great-great grandmother Mary (Gross) Millhouse (left) and great grandmother Grace (Kramer) Millhouse (right) smile as they work harvesting tobacco in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania about 1940. 

Explore lesser-known sources to help you find more women ancestors: 

A second strategy is to educate yourself on sources available for your specific location and time period of research and you may find lesser-known gems. An example of one of these local records is shown below. I had located Amos Millhouse in 1810 and 1820 census records in Chester County, Pennsylvania; however, the identities of the children in his household were obscured behind anonymous tick marks. While his sons retained the Millhouse surname and could be traced, many of his daughters married, changed their surnames, and were not linked to their family of origin.  

When the common school movement began in 1809, county commissioners in Pennsylvania began taking account of families who could not afford their children’s schooling. There are original handwritten lists at the end of township tax lists, but some counties have created indexes like the one below. 

Index of “Poor School Children” naming Mary, Beulah, Abigail, and Lydia Millhouse.

This unique source enabled me to turn tick marks on the 1810 and 1820 census of their father’s household into girls identified by name – Mary, Abigail, Beulah, Lydia – with closely approximated years of birth. This record cracked the door open to so much more research on girls whose identities were previously obscured first behind their father and then behind their husbands. 

Remember the Ladies! 

For much of United States history, women did not have the same legal rights and status as men. Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams, wrote these words to her husband in 1776 while he worked with the Continental Congress to lay the framework for a new nation: 

“And, by the way, in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors.” 

It took nearly 150 years for women to gain the right to vote and many of our female ancestors’ stories have yet to be told. Let us help you “remember the ladies” in your family history by discovering, sharing, and preserving their stories for generations to come. 

Anna Maria Rohrer, age 11, 1905. My husband's maternal great grandmother.