How to Get to Know Your Women Ancestors

How would you get to know your women ancestors? Would you research them? Find out more of their culture? Would you make their recipes? I recently went to an activity where we had to research our maternal line as far back as we could go. We could only follow the women in that line. It was a fascinating experience for me.

My Earliest Women Ancestors

I’ve researched a lot! But I’ve never just followed my maternal line before. I challenged myself to get to know my earliest woman ancestor on my maternal line. Her name is Nancy Anne Green and she was born in 1824 in New York, but by 1846 she had moved to Michigan. I didn’t have much personal information on her, so here’s what I learned about her.

Personal Life

I learned she was part of the movement of New Englanders that left during the 1830s and 1840s to Michigan. They were finding new land and new mines, which created new jobs. By 1850 she had four children and her husband was a farmer. She was 26 years old. She went on to have five more children all in Michigan.

By 1860 her husband was a Drayman, which I had to look that word up! So it means someone who drives a flatbed wagon with no sides, only a bottom for transporting large, awkward items. This would have fit nicely with the growth that Michigan was seeing at this time. And that’s all I had for her personal life. Although, I found other records that mentioned her, but she wasn’t likely living when they were made. So what now? Where was I going to go to find out more about her? I turned to Google to learn more about the historical events in her life.

Culture

Even though Michigan became a state in 1837, it still was considered frontier land. So Nancy would’ve been moving to the outer limits of the United States when she moved with her family during the 1840s. She was a true pioneer creating everything nearly from scratch. She would’ve been a farmer’s wife because that was still the main industry at that time even though mining had increased. Michigan remained a frontier society up until the Civil War. And the state was one of the first states to support the antislavery reforms during the 1840s and 1850s. So she would’ve seen and maybe have been a part of that. Because she would’ve have been in her 30s and 40s during this time. So I imagine that she influenced her neighbors and friends quite a bit with Union patriotism.

As far as I can tell, Nancy lived in Michigan the rest of her life. Although, I don’t have a death record for her yet. So she would’ve seen the Civil War, more economic growth, more educational growth, railroads, etc. How she felt about them, we’ll never know, but she would’ve been alive for them.

Last Thoughts on My Women Ancestors

So you see how by just researching her personal life and her cultural life, I was able to know her a lot better. This is genealogy! I’m so grateful that I had the opportunity to do this. I would’ve never known all these things about her. Also, I wanted you to see how you can get to know your women ancestors better. I was able to know so much just by doing two things. By the way, most of that research was done by other living relatives who found those census records and marriage records all on FamilySearch. I was able to fill in a couple things, but that’s it. We all worked on finding Nancy Anne Green.

So if you want to know more about your women ancestors, then take the challenge! Go back as far as you can following only your women ancestors. You’ll be surprised what you didn’t know.

And as always…good luck and happy hunting!

Tiffany

P.S. Related Reads…

• 3 Basic Strategies for Finding Women in Genealogy
• Records That Will Help You Find Your Women Ancestors

P.P.S. Again, If you’re ready to take your research to the next level, then contact me for a free 30 min. consultation today and we can get a plan ready for you.