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Scv signal martha michael12/26/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() I simply never gave up – no matter how cold or rainy it was, nor how sure I was that I’d seen every single headstone. One thing I gained from combing through cemeteries is a tenacity I hope to apply to other aspects of my life. She’s right – there’s so much to learn from this exercise. “With genealogy we can bring out these lost stories and hopefully learn from them.” Even today this is still happening,” she said. “The women of their time may have been forced to give their child away and never speak of it again. Cultural limits of the past, including taking the husband’s surname, can create a challenge for genealogists.įemale genealogy is also of great importance when Christie helps research families with adoptions in their history. Those who didn’t marry and raise a dozen kids had greater professional opportunities. I took note of the limited options women had. I saw the house where my great-grandmother, who became blind, lived with her sister, who took care of family members rather than married. Most of the women outlived their husbands and turned to each other for support. When I stood on the windy plains I thought a lot about the female experience – before indoor plumbing … washers and dryers … and Midol. We sought out the family farm, and the house, built in 1907, is still sheltering a family a century later. Of course, they obtained the land from the men when they were widowed, but I was still proud to see it. We looked at plat records (maps showing ownership of property) and I was delighted to see not only the names of my great-grandfathers and their fathers, but the names of my female ancestors owning big pieces of Kansas farmland. We went to a Missouri woman’s house and she pulled record books off her shelves while we talked about her kids and grandkids – who happen to live in Santa Clarita! One man opened up an old schoolhouse that wasn’t exactly in my family’s township, but we surprisingly found a high school football photo of my grandfather from 1915. I’ve found that heritage hobbyists (or whatever you call the subculture) tend to go overboard to help you. ![]() Luckily, I have a husband who’s a good sport, plus I have numerous documents, from marriage licenses to deeds, so I could scope out houses, farms and Main Streets where these women, and my ancestors before them, lived.īefore the trip, I contacted genealogy groups and historical societies in those counties. I knew where my grandmother was born (a small Missouri town) and where she and my mom both grew up (a small Nebraska town), but I had never traveled there – and neither of them are alive to take me there now. So, I thought there was no time like the present to attempt a “genealogy vacation,” which you may think is an activity reserved for “eccentric” types.
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