March marks Women’s History Month. The origins of this annual event date back to 1981 when Congress passed Pub. L. 97-28. The law authorized and requested President Ronald Reagan to proclaim the week beginning 7 March 1982, as “Women’s History Week.” Five years later, the National Women's History Project successfully petitioned Congress to pass Pub. L. 100-9, which designated the March as “Women’s History Month.”
The original 1982 proclamation noted:
American women of every race, creed and ethnic background
helped found and build our Nation in countless recorded and unrecorded ways...
As we celebrate America at 250, let us commemorate the role
American women played in our history by focusing on our female ancestors and
identifying resources to tell their stories.
American women—especially Indigenous and enslaved women—can
be difficult to research due to a change of surname upon marriage and their
lack of historical legal rights which mean a lack of government records that
genealogists rely on. If you need some ideas for research, two National
Archives web pages provide resources for researching historical women. Peruse
these to find history and websites that are relevant to your female ancestors.
- National Archives – Archives Library Information Center – Women
- National Archives – Archives Library Information Center – Pathfinder to Women’s History Research
The Internet is home to historical databases that list women’s names and other genealogical relevant information. Historians working on projects about historical communities develop databases that are also useful for genealogists. They can be more difficult to identify so make sure to use your favorite search engine to conduct searches for the words that best describe your female ancestors (a religion, a location, etc.) and the word “database” or history. Some examples include:
- Enslaved: Peoples of the Historical Slave Trade
- Slave Biographies
- The Quilt Index
- Women Working 1800-1930
- Sampler Archive
- Women in the Holocaust
Obviously, women are found in genealogy website databases
for the census, vital records, and military records but don’t forget to search
your favorite genealogy website’s card catalog for the keyword “woman,”
“women,” or “mothers” to find databases that have records that document women.
You also shouldn’t limit your search to just
a woman’s name. An example from the Ancestry Card Catalog for the keyword
“mothers” shows the database World War I Mothers
Pilgrimage for mothers and wives who lost a loved one in Europe during
World War I. These images have women’s names as well as the name of their
soldier.
Without a doubt, researching your American female ancestors is challenging. That’s a fact. But searching for women also can lead to deeper understanding of history and what records for a particular historical period may include your female ancestor. So don’t limit yourself only to the familiar genealogy website search. Ask, “Where are women recorded?” and enjoy the search for their records!