For women's history month...

I find that often, clients want to research their patronymic line - the line of ancestors going back with a surname/ last name - in my case it would be the Green line. This can be very rewarding, to go back and see all the previous generations of your last name, but don't forget about your female ancestors! I have found some of the most interesting and unexpected things while tracing female lines in my family tree. There is so much to discover about your ancestry, not limited to those ancestors who carry your, or your family's last name. Don't forget the women! 

This book, by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack, is a great resource for how to research the women in your family tree, and ways to get around the fact that women's identities were, and are, often hidden - because of taking a husband's last name (and even his first name - i.e. Mrs. James Hamilton gives you hardly any idea of who this woman is). Another reason why women's identities in records was hidden was because they were deemed not important. Often before the twentieth century, obituaries were only for men. There were other ways in which women were hidden from records as well, and DeBartolo Carmack outlines ways to get around those, how to ask yourself different questions, how to chip away at that lack of records and dig deeper. If you are having trouble finding records about your female ancestors, this is definitely worth taking a look!