Hello all, As genealogists, Mother's Day also means we focus on our Maternal Lines...8-) Many years ago, an elderly lady told me that the only real challenge left to those who have been doing this a while is to trace the Mothers...and their Mothers...and...you get the picture! To honor the memory of all the women whose strength and love and dedication nurtured the families we research, I'm going to send you three posts over the next three days that will give some new insights into tracing our Maternal Lines. Each post will contain two of a series of articles from the newsletter put out by the Ancestry.com folks. Hope you enjoy them! LaRae GRAY COUNTY listmgr. ------------- One Crimson Petticoat: Female Lines and Real Lives - Part 1 – Yvonne P. Divak _____________________ Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates. ----- Proverbs 31:31 Ranluff Glanville, chief justiciar in 1180, under King Henry II of England, is supposed to have written " . . . legally a woman is completely in the power of her husband . . . and his wife is bound to consent to this as to all other acts of his which do not offend against God . . . " If you think that American women have progressed well beyond this belief, think again. Not too long ago, I stood in a beautiful little cemetery in the town of Broadalbin, Fulton County, New York, copying interesting tombstones. A woman drove up, parked her car a few feet from me, and emerged with a pot of fresh, red geraniums in her hand. She very carefully proceeded down a long row of ancient tombstones, some of which were so weathered that it was impossible to read them. Halting before one near the end of the row, she paused, then placed her offering at the base of the stone. "My great-great-great grandfather," the woman told me proudly. "He was in the Revolution." "Really?" was my sage reply. The woman continued to gaze reverently at the ancient stone for a few more minutes, then entered her car and drove away. Somewhat later, as I admired the flowers, it occurred to me that the woman had neglected to place any flowers at the base of her great-great-great grandmother's grave, which was to the right of the man's. Born in 1756, this woman too had lived during the American Revolution. Though she hadn't carried a musket or fired a cannon, perhaps she had made bandages for the wounded, or perhaps, as many women did, she made sure that the crops were harvested and that the stock was fed while her husband was off fighting the British. Perhaps she had lived at the very edge of eighteenth-century civilization and had had to look constantly over her shoulder for hostile Indians. Was she not a veteran too? Unfortunately, no one seemed to be heeding the brief motto at the base of her tombstone: "When this you see remember me." Nothing in American history seems so ethereal as the married woman of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth centuries. She literally disappears before your eyes into lists of "married women under 45," or she is named only as the "wife of . . . ." How many times have you searched cemeteries for the distaff side of your heritage, only to find a gravestone such as this one? Hannah Wife of Pilgrim Durkee Died Nov. 9 1841, In the 68 Year Of her age. Ah, Hannah! Where did you come from? What was your name before you married Mr. Durkee? Where were you born? At least the above stone does give you a clue as to the year in which she was born. Some stones of married women do not even do that. The main problem here is that when Hannah Whatever-Her-Maiden-Name-Was married Pilgrim Durkee, she became Hannah Durkee, and as far as the legal system of her time was concerned, she no longer existed. She could not sell any property she may have inherited from her father. That property now belonged to her husband to do with as he pleased. A married woman could not even sign a legal contract. When the great novelist Harriet Beecher Stowe was ready to publish her masterpiece, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," in 1853, her husband had to sign the contract with the publishers for her. Mrs. Stowe was forty-two years old at the time and the mother of six living children. But the law considered her to be invisible. So how can genealogists locate someone who is "invisible?" It is not easy. But it is not impossible. I have seen many researchers give up because they cannot locate a great-great-great grandmother's maiden name. The following article lists a few methods that I have tried over the years in search of the elusive American married female. The methods have not always been successful. Sometimes, I have run into stone walls. But, sometimes the methods do work. The important thing to remember here is not to give up. She is your ancestor too; and if she had given up, you would not be here today. =========================================== One Crimson Petticoat: Female Lines and Real Lives - Part 2 – Yvonne P. Divak __________________ According to "History of Saratoga County," by Nathaniel B. Sylvester, published in 1876, Seth Sadler was one of the first white settlers of present-day Saratoga Springs, New York, coming to the area after the close of the Revolution. In fact, the first burying ground in Saratoga Springs was on his land. Though later information indicates that Mr. Sadler fathered several children, no mention of Mrs. Sadler was made by Sylvester. This deliberate omission was quite common in the nineteenth-century histories--the invisible factor at work again. The 1820 federal census listed an Olive Sadler as a widow, living in Saratoga Springs. Were Seth and Olive married at one time? Were they even related? No wills, inventories, or dowers' rights existed--all of which, by the way, can be excellent sources. This was clearly a puzzle. Looking for something else one day, I came across a short article that stated that a William Sadler was "descended from Revolutionary War veterans." No one that I can recall had ever mentioned that Seth Sadler was a Revolutionary War veteran. However, he was a mature adult in the 1780s as was Olive Sadler. It was certainly worth looking into. The Daughters of the American Revolution have published literally hundreds of volumes concerning the veterans of the Revolutionary War, cemetery records, Bible records, pension records, and short biographies of veterans including their military service, their wives' names, and sometimes, lists of other family members. I looked, and not only did I find that Olive was indeed Seth's wife, but that her maiden name was Battle, that she and Seth had married in 1774, and that Olive had died in 1823. (Seth's death date was unknown, but he had preceded Olive by at least three years.) Even if you doubt that your male subject was a veteran of the Revolution--even if you have never heard of any service--give it a try. Even a brief stint in the local militia qualifies as military service. You might find him listed in among the veterans and his wife right beside him. Clues that are too often overlooked are the names of children. Ellen Hardin (1832-1915) of Illinois and Kentucky, married Mansfield Walworth (1830-1873), of Saratoga Springs, in 1852. Of their eight children, three were given the middle name of Hardin. And their second son, John Hardin Walworth (1855-1862), bore the name of Ellen's father, John Hardin, who was killed in the Mexican War. This was also true for Doanda Risley Putnam (1768-1835), the wife of Gideon Putnam (1763-1812), another early settler of Saratoga Springs. She named her eldest son, Benjamin Risley Putnam (1788-1846), after her father. Risley became a popular name in the Putnam family and was used for several generations. Is there a name in your family that seems to have been handed down from the beginning of time? A name that no one can recall the origin? Perhaps, it is the maiden name of your long lost female ancestor. Cemeteries can also be valuable sources. Granted, one finds far too many, "Mary, wife of . . . " tombstones; but, occasionally, gold is struck. Remember poor Hannah, wife of Pilgrim Durkee? Well, not far away from her tombstone is the following: In memory Eliza wife of George Finch and Daughter of Pilgrim & Hannah Durkee who Departed this life Feb. 6, 1831 in the 31 Year Of her age With this stone we have the subject's maiden name as well as her married name. As an added bonus, we have the names of both of her parents, so there can be no mistake when a search is made of her life history. The Scots-Irish, who settled the northern parts of Saratoga and Fulton (New York) counties just prior to the American Revolution, often included the maiden name of a married woman in the following fashion: In Memory of MARGRET KIER Wife of Patrick Rob Who departed this life July 28, 1832, in The 82 Year of her Age. She was a native Of Perthshire Scotland The above stone, located in a Perth (Fulton County), New York, cemetery is a great help, in that it provides very important information about this woman: her maiden name, her married name, the date of her death, her age at death, and her birthplace. Armed with all of this data, along with the fact, or at least the strong implication, that she died in or near Perth, New York, you cannot help but find something about her in a local obituary, will, or article. Mrs. Margret Kier Rob is no longer invisible. Here is another slightly different tombstone located in Greenridge Cemetery, Saratoga Springs, New York: Temperance Kempton Mother of Phebe Patten. Died: Jan. 10, 1853 Aged: 79 Years. >From this stone, we receive some "roundabout" information. Phebe Patten was originally Phebe Kempton, unless, and watch out for this one, her mother had married again after Phebe's birth. Second and third marriages can be real headaches for any genealogist. The term "tied in knots" comes to mind. All I can suggest for anyone caught in this situation is to move very slowly. --------------