Picking up the threads: Re-weaving the fabric of your female ancestors' lives

\here did you get the values that define your life? Most of us would say from our parents, but where did THOSE values come from? Usually it is through the female line that we find the trail of values that affected us, but how were those passed down? Women, especially 19th century immigrant women, historically left very few records. Many of our female ancestors could not read or write in English, if they did write their lives or thoughts down these have usually been lost. Yet their influence still lives in us and in our families, helping us to make major decisions about our and our children's lives. Which woman passed which value down to your grandmother, your mother? (2 gr, 4 gg, 8ggg)

Saturday, Feb. 9, at 10:15 a.m.

Tracing female ancestors most challenging piece of creating a family history. Many women did not have the opportunity of schooling and left few written records. Some were educated and still did not leave any.

How do you go about reweave these women's lives?

Today I would like to present some possible paths that you night take in order to uncover these long- forgotten sources (but not without influence).

We may remember our grandmothers, but less often our great or twice great grandmothers. In my study of my great grandmother, Mary Perry, I was astonished at how much this Irish immigrant affected my entire life even though I never knew her. When I started out I knew her name and her husband's name and had one photo of her. I knew that she was born in Northern Ireland, died in LA, and knew one of her daughters (my grandmother). That was IT. And that she was my mitochondrial ancestress.

Old newspapers, address books, photos, and family stories help fit your family past together and see how that template made you who you are today.

For those of you who are lucky, you have available a family tree which names your female ancestors, but this dry data looks like this: START

Start out with names, dates, births, christening, marriage, immigrations, naturalization, children, death, burial, obituaries.

Study the historical context of the times. Look for how your ancestor fit in to that era. How did those events change your ancestor's life? What of that filtered down to you (depression)