FINDING YOUR FEMALE ANCESTORSFamily Portrait With Mother, Father, Two Small Boys And Baby: pone5.comBy Erik Bauer, MA - Archivist for the Peabody Institute in Peabody MA.

CHALLENGES

Marriage or multiple marriages

Divorce

Loss of citizenship

Other

Massachusetts

Peabody Institute Records

Non Government Records

Additional State Records (General)

Federal Records

Abridged

MASSACHUSETTS

1621 the New plymouth Colony makes marriage a civil contract.

1639 the first divorce is granted in English North America

1692 clergymen are permitted to preform marriages

1693 act requires marriages to be recorded

1855 divorce laws are changed to be more women friendly

WHERE TO FIND THESE RECORDS?

Essex County Court records can be found at the Essex County Courthouse in Salem and they cover ca. 1636-1795.

Middlesex records cover 1600-1799 and can be found at the Clerk of Courts at the Middlesex Courthouse in Cambridge

Marriage records up to 1901can be found at the Massachusetts State Archive and they are on microfilm.

Marriages after 1902 can be found at the State Registrar of Vital Records at 50 Mt Vernon St #1, Dorchester.

State archives a will have divorce records from ca. 1760-1786.

Supreme Judicial Court of keeps an index of divorce records from 1812-1867

State census can be found at the Massachusetts State Archives

PEABODY ARCHIVES

Voter Registration Records form 1920 to 1922

Poll Tax Records from 1920 to 1962

List of Polls from 1932 to 1966

Card Catalogue in Research Room

Valuation Records from 1920-1925

Probate books of Massachusetts from 1635-1681

South Danvers & Peabody Marriage Intention 1855-1883

Danvers Vital Records, birth, marriage & death from 1755-1843

Vital Records until 1850 for many MA cities and towns

Back issues of the New England Historic & Genealogical Register

North Carolina Historical & Genealogical Register

Back issues of the Essex Institute

NON GOVERNMENT RECORDS

Newspapers

May have engagements, marriage notices, anniversary announcements, divorce notices, obituaries and death notices, probate proceedings, port arrivals among other information.

Cemetery Records

Include information similar to what you find on a marriage certificate. Peabody Historical Society has those records.

City Directories

Church Records

ADDITIONAL STATE RECORDS

Dower Releases

Land transactions where the husband & wife sold property.

Usually a paragraph where the wife releases her dower.

Dower is a legal provision for a woman’s support and that of her children after her husband’s death.

The widow’s third

Usually a paragraph where the wife released her dower.

Often do not give the maiden name, but provides a time frame when looking at pre-1850 ancestors.

Massachusetts was very lax about dower acknowledgments.

FEDERAL RECORDS

CENSUS & INSANITY RECORDS

1840, 1850, 1860, 1870 & 1880 census had a column for insane people a check or hash mark would be in that column.

1880 census look at the separate 1880 Schedule for the Defective Dependent, for more detailed information.

Can be found on ancestry.com

Can also look at probate and surrogates’ court records. If you do find that ancestor write to local historical society or library to see if they have the records or if the institution still exists.

Will need to prove that you are related or get a court order to get that information because of privacy laws.

IMMIGRATION PEAKS FROM 1820 TO 1950(NOT A COMPLETE LIST)

1824 West Indies

1851 France & Ireland

1882 China, Denmark, Germany, The Netherlands, Norway & Sweden

1883 Switzerland

1888 Great Britain

1907 Austria-Hungry, Greece, Italy and Japan

1913 Belgium, Russia, Turkey (mostly Armenian refugees)

1921 Czechoslovakia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain

1924 Canada, Newfoundland, Mexico and South America

IMMIGRATION, CITIZENSHIP AND PASSPORT RECORDS

Before the Constitution English women were transported in bondage or as indentured servants. Many came from the port of Bristol in England. Prior to 1855 there was no specific reference to women’s citizenship.

Between 1855 & 1922 any married women automatically became a U.S. citizen when she married a U.S. citizen or a man who became a citizen.

From 1907 to 1922 women wold retain her U.S. citizenship if her marriage ended in divorce, as long as she continued to reside in the U.S. or registered for within one year of leaving the U.S.

From 1907 to 1922 if a woman married a foreigner she would lost her citizenship and took on the nationality of her husband. She would have to apply for U.S. citizenship.

1917 the Federal Immigration Act put restrictions on unmarried women with children. Single women could only enter if they had a sponsor, mostly a male and written proof of sponsorship. In some ports women would marry their husband as proof they were not here as part of a prostitution ring.

After 1922 women no longer lost their citizenship if they married non-Americans.

National Archives in Waltham has the passenger arrival lists for Boston (1820-1943). The lists are on microfilm

The Massachusetts State Archive has passenger manifest from 1848-1891 and is searchable, but incomplete. Best to go there in person if possible.

http://www.sec.state.ma.us/arc/arcsrch/PassengerManifestSearchContents.html

LOSS OF CITIZENSHIP

From 1907 until 1922 if a female U.S. citizen married an alien she lost her citizenship and took on the nationality of her husband

Law was repealed in 1922, but citizenship was not restored until 1936 and could only regain her citizenship after death or divorce of her husband.

The form “Application to Take Oath of Allegiance to the United States under the Act of June 25, 1936, as Amended, and Form of Such Oath.”

Documents included U.S. birth certificate, marriage license, copy of divorce decree, a husbands death certificate, etc.

PASSPORTS

Not required by U.S. citizens before World War I except for the Civil War.

Passport information from 1791-1925 are on microfilm at the National Archives in D.C. ancestry.com also has them

From 1925 to present they can be found at the U.S. State Department.

http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/passports/services/obtain-copies-of-passport-records.html

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

The Hidden Half of the Family: A Sourcebook for Women’s Genealogy by Christina Kassabian Schaefer

New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston

American Antiquarian Society, Worcester

Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston

www.cyndislist.com/

Menand, Catherine S. A Research Guide to the Massachusetts and Their Records (Boston: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Archives and Records), 1987

Boston Anthenaeum 10 Beacon Street Boston MA

The Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in American

https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/schlesinger-library

Carangelo, Lori. The Ultimate Search Book 2015 Edition (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2015).

DeBartolo Carmack, Sharon. Finding Female Ancestors (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2013.)

Questions

End