Finding Females: Wives, Mothers, Daughters, Sisters & Paramours

Elizabeth Shown Mills, CG®, CGL®
Feb 23, 2024
2.6K views
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About this webinar

One of the toughest challenges faced by genealogists is the difficulty of identifying and tracking females. Wives and mothers traditionally have been “supporting characters” to the roles played by their husbands and sons—bearing no known name other than that of the males they married or bore. Historically, social mores and law codes made them second-class citizens, without a legal identity of their own and few rights or opportunities to create the range of records that genealogists customarily use to trace males. This session presents an array of resources—and, more importantly, techniques and strategies backed by case studies—we can use to establish the identities of elusive females.

About the speaker

Across a long career, Elizabeth Shown Mills, CG®, CGL®, FASG, FUGA, FNGS, has been an innovator of research methods and strategies. Published widely by academic and popular presses, she edited a natio...
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Comments (202)

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  1. RO
    Ross Oberin
    1 year ago

    A comprehensive, cogently argued presentation in support of "thinking outside the square" and not being misled by the easy answer, nor by accepting what is easily discovered and not exhaustively "proving" that the clues discovered are in fact correct. Elizabeth's examples are right on target. Elizabeth provided confidence to me that my general research techniques are not as obsessive as I sometimes feared. I am far more confident now, that thoroughly tracking the lives of associates and similar links can be essential to deliver necessary assurance of the validity of the genealogical links. Thank you, Elizabeth, for encouraging researchers to do the job properly, rather than not simply accept that "close enough is good enough", particularly when trying to trace the "hidden" females in our family history.

  2. BS
    Barbara Spaulding
    2 years ago

    Very Good. I always learn a lot from her.

  3. CA
    Carolyn Atkinson
    2 years ago

    THIS HAS GOT TO BE HER BEST TO DATE!!

    1
    1Reply
    • NP
      Nancy Peralta
      2 years ago

      Really good.

  4. PF
    Patricia Frye
    2 years ago

    Elizabeth Shown Mills is such an engaging speaker/teacher. It's easy to follow her thought process and be able to duplicate to our own situation. Love her and Legacy Family Tree Webinars for all the great content.

  5. CW
    Consuelo White
    2 years ago

    I always learn from Elizabeth. She is my go to for improving my research skills.

  6. PP
    Patricia Powers
    2 years ago

    This webinar on finding women in our genealogy went really quickly. I will watch it again. I have not been putting enough effort into searching for male relatives. I appreciate the case studies and examples of records where these family members may be identified. I always appreciate the handouts!

  7. JS
    Jill Schralla-Stephens
    2 years ago

    Another amazing and informative webinar from the ultimate female version of Sherlock Holmes! ESM always inspires with her outstanding methodology.

  8. JH
    Jonelle Hilleary
    2 years ago

    Very good tips for backing into female records!

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