Mother’s Day is next week. What does that mean for your genealogy research? It means that now is a great time to focus on learning more about your female ancestors. Two fun projects include researching maiden names and interviewing your mother or grandmother.
Maiden names can lead you to new branches on your family tree. After all, every woman comes from a family of her own. When a woman marries, her family tree connects to that of her husband and adds a new dimension to the ancestry of both families. Where can you find the maiden name of a female ancestor? Fortunately, there are many types of records that provide this information. Marriage records, cemetery records, church records, land records, death certificates, census records, and probate records are all places where you could find her maiden name.
Interviews of family members make wonderful family heirlooms. You can preserve your interview on audio or video, and you can also make a written transcript of the interview into a nice family history book with the addition of some pictures. Interviews can be rather emotional, and they can strengthen the relationship between the interviewer and the interviewee. For example, if you interview your mother she may feel flattered that you care enough to want to know more about her than you already do. Make a list of questions before you do the interview, and try to mix some fun questions in among the more serious ones. For example, you could ask her what her favorite family vacation was like, or what she liked to wear when she was in high school. If you sense that Mom or Grandma is uncomfortable with some of the questions that you ask, respect her privacy and gently steer the interview onto another topic. Any new information that you uncover will help you to know a little more about the woman who raised you – or the woman who raised the woman who raised you.
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