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Shaking Your Family Tree

March 25, 1999
Take a look at any published or compiled genealogy and you'll discover there's a great deal of information about the men in the family, but data about the women will be sparse. The reason for this is simple. Information about female ancestors is hard to locate and finding women in traditional genealogical record sources presents the family historian with a challenge full of hard work. "Looking for women requires a readjustment in how we view traditional record sources,'' says Christina Kassabian Schaefer, the author of The Hidden Half of the Family: A Sourcebook for Women's Genealogy. "Since a woman's identity was usually under that of her husband, a feme covert (literally meaning 'covered woman') must be sought by the ways in which she was permitted to interact with the various jurisdictions of government,'' Schaefer said. Researchers must "look closely at those areas where the female ancestor interacts with the government and the legal system,'' the author maintains. Thus the legal status of women at any point in time is the key to unraveling the identity of one's female ancestors (American women in particular). In 1907, a female U.S. citizen who married an alien lost her U.S. citizenship and took on the nationality of her husband. This law was repealed in 1922, but citizenship was not restored until 1936, when Congress passed an act providing that a woman who had lost her citizenship due to her marital status could apply for repatriation after the death of or divorce from her alien husband. You might not think to check naturalization papers for your female ancestor, but knowing about this law could lead you to explore records that might provide you with some valuable family history. It also would explain why your great-grandmother, although born in this country, later applied for citizenship. The first part of this new book provides information about the special ways women are dealt with in federal records such as immigration, naturalization, land, military, census enumerations, passports, and records dealing with minorities. Valuable tips on finding names, particularly ethnic surnames are provided. For example, in the Soundex -- a special index used with the various census and ship passenger lists -- Chinese names sometimes are anglicized under the preface "Ah'' instead of the surname. Asian names, where the surname could not be identified, are often coded as one name, and Native American names without identifiable surnames are often coded by the first word in a name. The bulk of this reference work deals with the individual states, showing how their laws, records and resources can be used in determining the identity of your female ancestors. Each state section begins with a time line of important dates in that state's history, followed by eight key categories of information, including microform numbers as well as URLs for various Web sites: - Marriage and divorce laws and where to find the records - Property and inheritance - Suffrage - Citizenship - Census information (federal, state, and territorial enumerations) - Other (such as information on welfare, pensions, and laws affecting women) - Bibliography (books and articles relating to women in the state) - Selected Resources for Women's History The Hidden Half of the Family, (310 pages, illustrated, paperback) is available for $38.50 postpaid from Genealogical Publishing Co., 1001 N. Calvert St., Baltimore, MD 21202-3897; (800) 296-6687. On the Web at: http://www.genealogybookshop.com/. Click Here  for Myra's Archive (c) 1999, Los Angeles Times Syndicate Myra Vanderpool Gormley and Julie Case are co-editors of Missing Links, a free weekly genealogy e-zine. To subscribe, send your request to: Missing Links Newsletter Return to Myra Vanderpool Gormley Main Page Return to Columns Main Page
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