searching for female ancestors?

Question

I have been doing genealogical research on my family and I have been able to trace male family members easily through US census records, but how can I find out what the female's maiden names are? Does anyone know a good website? Ancestry.com is fairly useless for this. Thanks!

Answer 1

Like the above, usually you can get maiden names on death certificates and birth certificates; however, often I may find the mother or father of the girl living in her home at some point if I follow the census records long enough.. Other good sources are newspapers from the area - amazing how much information they listed about people, visitors, history, etc.

I also use wills or cemetary records to help sometimes..

Be wary of info on the net though... have found more than one time that someone copied some lady's name from someone else and posted it all over the internet when I have documents to prove that wasn't her name at all... sometimes a marriage that they mistake for maiden name, sometimes I think they lost their mind... make sure you use information that is sourced - the lds site, www.familysearch.org is good for giving you hints, but go back and try to validate all they have - for example if they list Jane Smith as the wife from Iredell NC, then go to NC and try to find marriage record to your family member... Good luck.

Answer 2

You can also try looking at a the first or middle names of the primarily the male children particularly in the 19th century. If a male child is named Chester Boyd Jones. Try searching the Boyd surname that may be his mother's maiden name. It usually the oldest male child named for his mothers family. In the South the mother's maiden name was often used for the first name of the eldest son.

Answer 3

Try a census record for where your ancestor lived with her husband ....sometimes a sibling of a female lived in the same household. Also look for obituaries. there are websites that have accessible records without having to pay a membership fee. Check these sites........
usgenweb.com (free, this will get you to the state you want)
ancestry.com(paysite, but good info if you can access it)
One other place to try is your local library..alot of the time they can order microfish or microfilm of newspapers dating a ways back.

Answer 4

The best sources for tracing female ancestors are marriage records, obituaries and church records. Christian churches that baptize infants track women by their maiden names throughout their lives. That's how they keep people straight in the books of registration and sacraments. The best part of that is that if a woman was married before marrying your grandfather, she's still listed by her maiden name with the names of her parents alongside her name.

Answer 5

Most of the time the only way to find the maiden names are from two sources: birth certificates (usually tell the mother's maiden name) and marriage certificates.

Answer 6

the acceptable position to look will be marriage certificate. in case you dont have those, your tremendous grandmother's maiden call would typically be on your grandmothers start certificate and an similar on your tremendous tremendous grandmother. did you comprehend the position both of them were born? if so, the registry workplace closest to their birthplace would have files of them. Failing that, Libraries carry a wide quantity of information about tracing human beings, ask someone there!

Answer 7

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Answer 8

I have had some luck on rootsweb.com.