Finding Maiden Names for Women in Your Family Tree | Tips & Tricks Virtual Event | Ancestry

As America marks its 250th year, Women’s History Month offers a powerful opportunity to explore the lives of the women who shaped your family’s story. In this session, Crista Cowan highlights the records, research strategies, and historical context that can help you uncover the experiences of the women in your family tree. You’ll learn how to bring their often-overlooked stories into focus and understand their contributions within the broader arc of American history. You’ll leave inspired to honor the women who influenced your family’s journey across generations. Subscribe now:    / @ancestry   0:00 - Introduction to Researching Women’s History 4:33 - Proper Formatting for Placing Women in Your Tree 6:57 - Using Visual Indicators for Missing Information 13:17 - Correcting Names and Spring Cleaning Your Data 16:00 - The Challenges of Naming Pronunciation and Spelling 17:40 - Navigating U.S. Census Shifts from 1950 to 1880 21:49 - Identifying Relationships in the 1870 Census 26:12 - Why Information Becomes Sparse Before 1850 29:42 - Strategy #1: Tracing All of a Mother's Children 31:31 - Decoding Surnames Hidden in Middle Names 33:06 - Evaluating Marriage Records as Primary Evidence 34:41 - The Strengths and Weaknesses of Death Certificates 37:55 - Overcoming Record Loss in Burned Counties 40:00 - Finding Maiden Names in Military Pension Files 42:23 - Using Wills and Probate to Establish Parentage 46:30 - Managing Research with Stickies and Tree Tags 49:01 - Mining Small Details in Historic Newspaper Snippets 50:58 - Techniques for Searching Without a Surname 55:44 - A Special Homework Assignment for Women’s History Month Discover. Preserve. Share. Get started on your family history journey for free at: https://www.ancestry.com/t102854/rd.a.... With our unparalleled collection of more than 60 billion records, over 3 million subscribers and over 25 million people in our growing DNA network, you can discover your family story and gain a new level of understanding about your life. Over the past 40 years, we've built trusted relationships with millions of people who have chosen us as the platform for discovering, preserving, and sharing the most important information about themselves and their families. Follow Ancestry on TikTok:   / ancestry   Follow Ancestry on Instagram:   / ancestry   Like Ancestry on Facebook:   / ancestry