Finding Women's Maiden Names
About a month ago my mom found a helpful article in the Daily Herald titled, Strategies For Finding Women's Maiden Names. The article was written by LaRae Free Kerr and gives 9 different ideas for locating a women's maiden name. They are:
1. Inspect your own family records
2. Check the family records belonging to other people
3. Find the County (or city) marriage record
4. Check the big databases such as FamilySearch, Ancestry.com and Genealogy.com
5. Search newspapers for your family
6. Search Daughters of the American Revolution Bible records
7. Search Censuses for mother-n-laws, brother-n-laws, etc.
8. Research land deeds
9. Check probate records
To learn more about each step, please visit the article. LaRae also gave one other helpful suggestion.
There is one aid essential to finding female maiden names. It is Reassembling Female Lives, a National Genealogical Society Quarterly, Volume 88, Number 3, Sept. 2000, available for about $7 at NGS Bookstore, 4527 Seventeenth Street North, Arlington, VA 22207-2399 or e-mail to bookstore@ngsgenealogy.org.