Happy birthday to.... The In-Depth Genealogist! That's right - it's our first birthday! No longer are we in our infant year. We're heading straight into the toddler phase, so expect us to be running all over the place getting our sticky hands into everything. (Or, is being a genealogist sort of like being a dog... we're one but in genealogy years that's really 75?) Read More »
Have you ever looked at a death certificate and in the place for the parents’ names you find the full name for the father and where the mother’s name should be listed there is that dreaded word “unknown.” For some reason even though moms have to be at the birth of a child, they are often the ones whose names are “unknown.” Read More »
It was inevitable that Gena would find herself following her passion by working in the field of genealogy. Growing up, she was the one who listened quietly as the older generation spoke. While other kids were playing outside, Gena was listening to reminiscences and reading history books. Her maternal grandmother introduced her to her ancestors via stories and images, passing on the genealogical research gene in those summer vacation visits. Today, Gena spends most of her time writing and helping others understand the importance of family history. Gena is the author of hundreds of articles published in genealogy newsletters and magazines including FGS Forum, APG Quarterly, Internet Genealogy, Family Chronicle, Family Tree Magazine, and GenWeekly. Her writings can also be found on her blogs, Gena’s Genealogy and Food.Family.Ephemera. She is the author of the books, From The Family Kitchen (F + W Media, 2012), Cemeteries of the Eastern Sierra (Arcadia Publishing, 2007) and Putting the Pieces Together. New for 2013 is Tracing Your Female Ancestors that she compiled and is published by Moreshead Magazines. Her writings can also be found on the blogs for GenealogyBank and Archives.com Expert Series. When she isn’t writing she is presenting to groups on topics relating to social history, genealogy, and researching women. As an instructor for the National Institute for Genealogical Studies she helps students learn more about American research and social media. Since her work as a graduate student studying Women’s Studies, Gena has been interested in documenting the experiences of women. Her current interests and research focuses on community cookbooks and signature quilts. Look for Gena’s new column at The In-Depth Genealogist in February 2013. Read More »
From the Editors: The In-Depth Genealogist would like to thank Gena Philibert-Ortega for sharing her knowledge of researching the women who proudly hold up the roots and branches of our family tree. We are lucky to learn from her experience! My interest in researching female ancestors began over 20 years ago. The more I thought about the challenges facing genealogists researching the women in their families the more I started to wonder why we were trying to research women in the same way that we were researching male ancestors. Women historically did not always leave the same type of paper trail and didn’t have the same legal rights. When thinking about a female ancestor the first and foremost thing you should be thinking about is what she did that could have left a paper trail. What clubs, churches, membership organizations existed in her community? What was historically happening? Researching female ancestors can be challenging. While you should start with a similar methodology when researching women as you would men there are some additional strategies to consider. The three steps I describe below will assist you with finding your female ancestors when the usual techniques fail. Expand Your Research It can be easy to rely on searching just on a person’s name as you use genealogy subscription websites. But as you research you may find more relevant information if you expand your search beyond the person themselves. Research should include the clusters that were a part of the person’s life like extended family members. In researching women consider expanding your research to also include her community (you can’t know all the resources available if you don’t have knowledge of the community she lived in) and her historical era. Most genealogists start a family history project by focusing their research on the ... Read More »
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