Family Tree Magazine issued a press release describing an article in the March-April issue of magazine that gives hints on finding female ancestors in male-dominated records. The article was written by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack, author of A Genealogist's Guide to Discovering Your Female Ancestors (Betterway Books, $17.99). In her cover story for Family Tree Magazine, she lists books, Web sites, and other resources to help you start tracing your female ancestors. Highlights and suggested resources are available free on the magazine's Web site (www.familytreemagazine.com).

"Your female ancestors are simply tougher to trace than the men in your family," Carmack says. "Women led private lives, unlike their husbands who led public lives. When a woman married, everything she owned became her husband's. She couldn't enter into any legal contracts without her husband's consent."

But that doesn't mean it's impossible to fill in the female blanks in your family tree. Here are some of Carmack's tips:

• Check all the federal censuses for your female ancestor's lifetime.
• Look for vital records, such as births, marriages, and deaths.
• Seek possible published family histories.
• Often you need to trace your female ancestors by first tracing their husbands and fathers, simply because men left more written records.
• Also try researching other family members and even neighbors—a technique called "cluster genealogy."
• You can find clues in family items typically created and kept by women, such as needlework, quilts, diaries, letters, family Bibles, recipe books, and household ledgers.

Whether or not you find family tree facts about your female ancestors, Carmack points out that you can still get a glimpse into their lives by learning more about the time in which they lived and women's daily lives in history. Her article offers ideas and resources for deepening your understanding of your female ancestors' lives as you celebrate Women's History Month.