The Women's History Month Winner is....

So I posted over a week ago that I was going to give away some reading materials. I've picked the winners and I'm excited to get them their packages.

I decided to pick 3 winners instead of two. Winners were randomly selected by the computer using King Sumo.

The winners are ....

Rosemary Rowland
Gaynol Fales
Marie Capaldi

Congratulations! 

Thank you to everyone who entered and read my blog. I appreciate you!

Women's History Month 2020: Suffrage and Genealogy Resources Part 2

Image by Tami Osmer Mize, Conference Keeper

So the real question after a month of suffrage posts is, "where do you find the records?" The answer is they can be anywhere and nowhere.

I hate that answer but it's the reality of historical research.

First, we are looking for a variety of records. Yes, voting registers. But also poll tax receipts. If your ancestor was a suffragist than there are records for that too in archival collections.  And don't forget newspapers. They provide everything from mentions of your ancestors to social history which is so important to telling a story. 

Second, records are housed in all kinds of repositories including genealogy websites and archives. Start with the FamilySearch Catalog and conduct a Place search. Don't forget their Digital Library.  Then go to Ancestry (or your other favorite subscription websites) and do a location search to see what records they have for your ancestor's location (For Ancestry, click on Search at the top black toolbar then All Collections then scroll to bottom and choose a place from the map).

Below I've listed  a few more resources to peruse.

To close out Women's History Month I want to say that research is a process. Researching women requires us to look at all aspects of her life. It is a lot of work. But in the end, it allows us to truly understand her.

Good luck!

Digital Collections

Library of Congress – Digital Collections – Suffrage 
Women’s Vote Centennial

Libraries and Archives

ArchiveGrid
Digital Public Library of America
FamilySearch Research Wiki – United States Genealogy – Voter Records
FamilySearch Research Wiki – United States Genealogy –United States Taxation
LibGuides Community
LSE Digital Library – Women’s Rights Collection
WorldCat

Newspapers

Accessible Archives – Women’s Suffrage
Chronicling America
Fulton NY History
GenealogyBank
Newspapers.com
Online Historical Newspapers
The Ancestor Hunt

Digitized Books and Periodical Indexes

Google Books
Google Scholar
Hathi Trust
Internet Archive
JSTOR
PERSI

Women's History Month 2020: Suffrage and Genealogy Resources Part 1

Lucky for us we live in an era where we have bountiful resources for our genealogical research, both online and off. I want to start discussing resources by sharing one book that I think is a must for everyone. In fact, I'm a big fan of all of this author's books.

The Hidden Half of the Family: A Sourcebook for Women's Genealogy by Christina K. Schaefer. (Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1999)

Ok, so you're saying "But Gena that book is OLD!" Yes, I guess it is but it has resources you need to do a better job researching your female ancestors. This isn't a book of websites, instead it's a reference book of states, timelines, and what records you can expect to find for women. It takes into consideration how the laws of the time impacted women's appearances in certain genealogical records.

This book is organized by state. Here are the pages for Colorado.

Now you may notice that my copy has a coil binding. It doesn't come this way, I did this so I could lay the book flat. If you're interested in doing this to some of your genealogy books, you take the book to your local print place (I went to an big box office supply store) and ask them to cut the book's binding off and coil bind it. You can also ask them to add a plastic cover and back if you want. 

Do you have this book? It's a vital US genealogy resource because it not only provides info about suffrage but it also takes into consideration other records and women's place in society during different time periods.