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Shaking Your Family Tree

May 06, 1999
	Notable Women -- Our Mothers by Myra Vanderpool Gormley, C.G.
"Tell me about your mother, Grandmother.'' I used to plead. And my grandmother, in her soft Alabama drawl, would relate stories about the dark and feisty Araminta, a woman who died long before I was born. Araminta who could ride like the wind -- sidesaddle, was a child during the Civil War and lost her home in its wake. She sang like an angel and believed in "haints,'' but feared nothing and no one. At 21, she married a Confederate veteran, bore him nine children, and made the trek by wagon from Alabama to Indian Territory in 1894 pregnant with her youngest child. No known pictures of the young Araminta survive, but I have a portrait of her in mind -- thanks to my grandmother. Few genealogists can trace matrilineal lines, from your mother to her mother, to her mother's mother and so on. The surnames change with each generation and records about females are much more difficult to find and sift through than they are for our male ancestors. However, one woman, Susanne "Sam'' Behling, decided to do something about this. She started a website and a newsletter where she gathers and publishes biographical and genealogical information on female ancestors. "All women are notable,'' Behling says. "There are been thousands of women whose roles in history have often been overlooked ... There are an even greater number of women who, while possibly not contributing anything historically significant, nonetheless managed to lead very interesting lives.'' The Notable Women Ancestors website is located at http://www.rootsweb.com/~nwa/. It has a large and growing database about women. The majority of the pages located at this site have been contributed by descendants or relatives of the women. The categories are: adventurers, African Americans, artists, authors, educators, feisty women, firsts, great mothers, aunts and grandmas, health care/humanitarian, heroines, humorous, Native Americans, notorious, pioneers and emigrants, politicians, political wives and suffragists, religious leaders, royalty, survivors, and witches. There is a place to add your ancestress. At the Notable Women Ancestors website you can read about such women as: - Sarah Tuttle, who was prosecuted in New Haven, Conn., for "sinful dalliance'' (publicly exchanging kisses) with a Dutch sailor in 1660. Seven years later Sarah was brutally killed by her brother during a quarrel that turned violent. - Edith Lusetta (Waite) Delaney, who thought her brother inherited the "Mosher Millions.'' She learned differently at the reading of his will. Notable Women Ancestors, the quarterly newsletter, is available by annual subscription ($16, check or money order) from the editor, 2500 NE McWilliams Road, No. D8, Bremerton, WA 98311. A recent issue includes tips on "Civil War Women: Finding Individual Women in Local, State, and Federal Records,'' information about "Nineteenth-Century Women and Their Secrets,'' and a biography of "The Unforgettable Cherry Sisters,'' touted as the worst-ever vaudeville act from the 1890s through the 1930s. "Let it be to us, then, the family historians and record-keepers of this generation to uncover the long-hidden stories of our female ancestors are waiting to tell and to share them with our families, other genealogists, teachers, and historians,'' Behling says. What could be a more a fitting tribute to our mothers and grandmothers than preserving information about them and their lives? I think that would please my dark and feisty Araminta. (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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