Once females became citizens in 1921, declarations of intent and naturalizations became commonplace for women. Prior to this date, a female was naturalized if she owned land in her own right.

Declarations of intent normally include much more biographical detail than do naturalization. Dates and places of birth and dates of immigration are usually noted.

In the nineteenth century, look for her brothers declaring their intent to become citizens or to be naturalized about the same time as her husband.

Before beginning a search for a ship manifest, finish your homework. Abstracting information from declarations of intent, obituaries, and the census may help identify the date when your ancestor arrived in America.

NOTE: the 1900, 1910, and 1920 census list the year of immigration.

The Irish, Italians, and Czechs frequently sent the most able-bodied son first. He would work and then send money for his wife and children, or siblings and parents to make the voyage to America. Irish women were just as likely as an Irish man to immigrate during the Irish Famine of 1846-51.

Be cautious when determining the year of immigration. The 1900 census of Schodack, Rensselaer County, New York, p. 56 clearly identified Carrie Dena/Garritdena Frugin's year of immigration as 1853. This agrees with the 1900 census column that states she had resided here for forty-seven years; she is enumerated with her son, William Hillfrank. Her death certificate of 1904 states that she had lived in America for fifty years. However, she actually arrived at Castle Garden, New York City on 27 October 1857, several years later than the records indicate. (NOTE: Castle Gardens was the immigrant processing building and the predecessor to Ellis Island.) Her husband's death certificate also indicates an early 1850's year of immigration.

Be alert to errors in secondary source published passenger lists. The multi-volume set edited by Ira A Glazier and P. William Filby, Germans in America, vol. II (April 1857 to November 1857) Wilmington (DE): Scholarly Resources, Inc., 1990, 413 includes:

Willem Hilverdink, age 23, servant;
Gerret-Dina, age 26, servant,
and Gerret-Jan, age 10 (the 10 apparently refers to the age in months) female infant.
All passengers on the ship, Viking, are listed as German.

The obvious corrections are as follows:

Hilverdink is spelled Hilferink or Hilverink
Garret-Dina is spelled Garritdena and Garret-Jan is spelled Garritjan
Gerret-Jan is a male
Gerret-Jan is seven to eight months old
They are of Dutch, not German, origin.

See also, Diane Snyder Ptak, A compilation of America and Canadian Passenger/Emigration Registers, 1993, and Supplement, 1995 (available to purchase from author).

Revolutionary War pensions may contain marriage information, and the names of several siblings or children, and their whereabouts at the time of the application. A quick genealogical check can be made by examing Abstracts of Revolutionary War Pension Applications (3 volumes) by Virgil White, all Revolutionary War pension applicants are listed in alphabetical order. A similar series has been edited by the same author for the War of 1812 pensioners.

If your female ancestor was involved with the Revolutionary cause, check Charles E. Claghorn, Women Patriots of the American Revolution: A biographical Dictionary, Metuchen (NJ): The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1991.

Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and Civil War pension claims made by the widow frequently contain marriage dates and places, the name of the clery person and occasionally the maiden name of the bride. These records can be obtained by writing to the National Archives and requesting form NATF 80 (there is a $10.00 fee). Before requesting the file, acquire as much information as you can about the soldier. Know variations on the spelling of his name, his age, his wife and his children's names, where and when he enlisted, and his regiment.

In 1863, one Civil War soldier from Logan, Illinois, with pneumonia applied for permission to go home to be nursed back to health by his mother in Genessee County, Indiana. He was granted permission for this leave. His mother's name is listed in his military file.

Three recent publications about women soldiers in the Civil War include:

• Blanton, D., "Women Soldiers in the War," Prologue, the Quarterly of the National Archives, vol 25, no. 1 (Spring 1993), 27-33.
• Burgess, L., ed., "An Uncommon Soldier, The Civil War Letters of Sarah Rosetta Wakeman, alias Pvt. Lyons Wakeman, 153rd REgiment, New York State Volunteers, 1862-1864". Pasadent (MD): Minerva Center, 1995.
• Conklin, Eileen, "Women at Gettysburg, July 3, 1863". Gettysburg (PA): Thomas Publishing Co., 1992.
• Massey, Mary E., "Women in the Civil War", available from AGLL.

The New York State Civil War Town Clerk Registers often include the full names of the parents of a Civil War Soldier. These registers were completed by each town clerk and copies were submitted to the state; however, many of the records from the larger communities, such as New York City, and Albany, have not survived. Buffalo is intact and contains about ten volumes. There is no statewide master index. Check for the soldier's name in the town where he resided. If he is not there, he may be listed with another town for personal reasons or to help that town meet its quota (and he would collect a bounty). These records are available on microfilm at the New York State Archives in Albany, New York.

In 1930, the United States Government sponsored a pilgrimage to the European graves sites of United States soldiers who died and were buried overseas. All wives and mothers of World War I servicemen killed were eligible. For more information on this source, check the House Document 140 of the 71st Congress, Second Session for 1930.

Pleasant as well as stressful events are recorded in newspapers. You may find the announcement of an upcoming marriage or a notice of births and marriages.

Early newspapers contained notices and poignant tales of family separations due to desertions, divorces, immigrations and kidnappings. The Pennsylvania Gazette, commenced publication in 1728, contains hundreds of stories of men deserted by their wives. The men were often given notice that they refused to make good on any credit offered to their wives as they had previously left "their bed." Sometimes the woman departed in the company of another man. Frequently they brought their children with them. The text Runaway Women, Elopements and other Miscreant Deeds as Advertised in the Pennsylvania Gazette, 1728-1789, by Judith Ann Highley Meier (closson Press), sites over 1400 women who departed under those circumstances.

Obituaries in town newspapers commonly list more biographical data than do city newspapers, unless the woman or her family was of some prominence in the town. A woman of Dutch or Irish extraction is more likely to have her maiden name listed in her obituary. Her age upon arrival as an immigrant, her children's names, and their places of residence will often be listed. If you don't find the record in one newspaper, check the others that covered that community. this detective game often involves the elimination of many sources before we find the pivotal records.

Insolvencies, bankruptcies, and undeliverable letters at the post office are also listed in the newspapers.

Inquire of the reference librarian in the locale where your female ancestor lived to determine which newspapers and what years are available. Statewide gazetteers frequently identify all newspapers and the years they were published. Gazatteers may note early marriages and first-born children in some communities across the state.

Check for texts which include indexes of newspaper birth, marriage, and death records for an area. Fred Q. Bowman in his book "10,000 Vital Records of Eastern New York, Baltimore (MD)": Genealogical Publishing Company, 1989, includes thousands of women.

Several highly acclaimed indexes of American newspapers include the following sources:

• Brigham, Clarance, "History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1600-1820,2 vol.", Worchester (MA): American Antiquitarian Society, (1947) rep. 1962. Identifies early newspapers and their locations as of 1947.
• The Catalogue Public Division of the Library of Cngress (comp. and ed.), "Newspapers in Microform, 3 vol.", Washington (DC):
• Library of Congress, 1984. "Vol. 1 and 2 - United States Holdings"; "Vol. 3 - Foreign Holdings".
• United States Newspaper Program, National Union List (4th ed.), Dublin (OH): "Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), 1993". This is a massive bibliographic database of newspaper on microfilm submitted by libraries and university libraries that catalogued the holdings of all their newspapers.

Leave no stone unturned. Track her to her grave. Verify the spelling of her name and her dates of birth and death. Be cautious. Prior to 1925, there is a 90% error rate on tombstones.

If she died shortly after her marrriage, she will frequently be buried with her family. An infant may be buried with her. One case is where a man is buried with his second wife. The first wife is surrounded by another surname - her mother's maiden name.

Check tombstones as well as the cemetery records; new clues may be provided by each source. In rare circumstances, she may have two gravestones. One may have been erected where she resided at the time of her death, and the other may be found where she lived the majority of her adult life. Compare the information on both stones.

• School Records
  Listings of school children in a township, especially in Connecticut, date back to the early 1800's. In New York State, a brief abstract of a student must be kept on file by the school district for 100 years. Photographs and grades may be available for students attending the school back as far as the 1930's. Further clues may be gleaned from school year books.

• Employment Records
  Widowed and single women often became teachers, dressmakers, milliners, and proprietors. References to their businesses may be found in local newspapers and/or city directories. In 1830, seventy-five percent of the work force in Lowell, Massachusetts was between the ages of fifteen to twenty-nine years. The majority of women were women. The records are housed at the Baker Library at Harvard Business School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

• Books With Resources
  • Jane Errington's book, "Wives and Mothers: School Mistresses and Scullery Maids: Working Women in Upper Canada, 1790-1840", publised by McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal, 1995.
    To get a good grasp of Ontario's social, economic and political history and how it was connected to the world of woman's work.

  • If a Midwife pops up in your family, examine:
    • Donegan, Jane B., "Women and Men Midwives: Medicine, Morality, and Misogyny in Early America", Westport (CT): Greenwood Press, 1980.
    • Litoff, Judy B., "American Midwives, 1860 to the Present", Westport (CT): Greenwood Press, 1978.

  • If cowgirls and frontier woman left tracks in your ancestral past, check out:
    • Jordan, Teresa, "Cowgirls: Women of the American West", Anchor Press, 1982.
    • O'Meara, Walter, "Daughters of the Country: the Women of fur Traders and Mountain Men", New York: Harcourt, Brace, and World, 1968.
    • Stratton, Joanna I., "Pioneer Women: Voices From the Frontier", New York, Simon and Schuster.
    • Tardiff, Olive, "They Paved the Way: A History of New Hampshire Women, Exter (NH)": Woman for Woman Weekly Publishing, 1980.
    • VanKirk, Sylvia, "Many Tender Ties: Women of the Fur Trade Society, 1670-1870", Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1983.

  • For further information on women and the world of work, examine:
    • Ptak, Diane Snyder, "Surnames: Their Meanings and Origins, 1993 and Surnames: Determining Origins wtih Biographical and Ethnic References", 1995. Both books available from the author.

• Funeral Homes
  A rarely used research source is the funeral home business. Determine funeral home names in the early city directories, and then check to determine if that home is listed in "The Directory of Funeral Home Directors". For example, Halley Undertaking Company on Oakland Ave., Detroit, serviced downtown Detroit from 1906 to 1937, and then relocated to Highland Park section (the Northern boundary of Detroit), from 1937 to 1972. At that time, the business was renamed Halley Funeral Directors. In 1959 the owner opened a second funeral home on Northwestern Highway, Southfield, Michigan (servicing the communities of Southfield and Lathrup). The businesses were later consolidated into the Northwestern Highway location. The majority of the families serviced were Catholic and Lithuanian. Some early records survive. All records after 1936 are intact. Each file contains the obituaries (including maiden names), religious denomination, the social security number, last residence, surviving kin, services provided, whether a limosine was used, place of burial-cemetery, and lot number. burce Calder is the present director.

  If the Fitchburg area of Massachusetts is of interest to you, nearly 4,000 Acadian death records have been abstraced and published in "Extracts of Death Records from Aubuchon Funeral Parlor, (1914-1966)", available from the Acadian Cultural Society, P.O. Box 2304, Fitchburg, MA 01420.

  The William J. Rockefeller Funeral Home on 165 Columbia Turnpike on Rensselaer, New York, has serviced the needs of East Greenbush and Rensselaer residents and maintained theose records for more than one hundred years. The early records contain primary care-of-the-body business records.

• Published Town/County Histories
  Biographical vignettes included in histories frequently provide many details about families of the area.

• Published Family Histories
  Family histories, if you are fortunate enough to find one early in your search, can help establish the framework from which to build the stories surrounding your females. Verify all documentation first. Just because it is in book format does not mean the information is correct.

• Diaries - other texts of interest may include:
  • Hamalian, Leo, "Ladies on the Loose: Woman Travelers of the 18th and 19th Centuries", New York: Dodd, Mead, and Co., 1981. Biographical sketches are included on eighteen women.
  • Holmes, Kenneth L., "Covered Wagon Women", 10 vol., Glendale (CA): Arthur H. Clark Co. This text includes diaries of women who traveled west by wagon train.
  • Hull, N.E., "Female Felons: Women and Serious Crimes in Colonial Massachusetts", Urbana (IL): University of Illinois Press, 1987.
  • Ireland, Norma O., "Indexes to Women", Westwood (MA): F.A. Faxon Co., 1970. This text indexes the women in nearly 1,000 collections and represents in excess of 10,000 women.
  • Sionssat, Anna, "Colonial Women in Maryland", Maryland Historical Magazine, 2 vol. (1907), 214-226, 379-380.
  • Schlissel, Lillian, "Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey", 1987. This text records the courageous stories of women who ventured along the Overland Trail from 1840-1870.
  • Thomas, Ella M., "Virginia Women in Literature: A Partial List", Richmond (VA): B.F. Johnson, 1902.

Gradually, the pieces of the story will fuse together, documentation and preponderance of evidence will grow. As increasing shreds of evidence are examined, the image of the female ancestor will be clearer and no longer shrouded in a veil of smoke. Be persistent and you will be successful. Good luck in the chase for your elusive women.

By Diane Snyder Ptak

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