Finding Women's Maiden Names | Featuring Crista Cowan, Corporate Genealogist | Ancestry
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- čas přidán 30. 06. 2024
- One of the most difficult things a family historian faces is tracking the women in their family.
Join Crista Cowan as she shares tips to discover the maiden names of the women in your family!
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Finding Women's Maiden Names | Featuring Crista Cowan, Corporate Genealogist | Ancestry
• Finding Women's Maiden... - Věda a technologie
One tip not mentioned is to check children's second names. I have many instances in my tree where one or more children are given the mother's maiden name as a second [and occasionally as a first] name. Any time I see an _unusual_ given name, I ask myself if this may be a recycled family surname.
And if you have Scottish ancestry, baptism records frequently list both parents including the mother's maiden name! Thank-you, Scotland.
I agree with this! I've had several children with last names as a middle name and many times find that it is their mothers maiden name. Thanks for mentioning it!
Good tips. I never thought of those and I've gone nuts trying to find some people. Thank you!
Angi Jones Caples that is very common in my family. I'm fact both of my sons have mother's and great grandmothers maiden names as middle names and it is traditional.
Yes I have seen this a lot in my tree, the surnames Ellis and Weymouth were used as middle names in many generations of my tree for centuries after the last of these names was used as a surname, I doubt even they knew where the names originated.
Women in Scotland keep their maiden names in all records.
You are an EXCELLENT communicator, Crista. An excellent teacher ! Bless you.
Yes, she is. Thank you very much, Crista.
Crista Cowan rocks. Thank you for another great video
That's exactly what I 1st did when I started getting into genealogy. I only pit the parents m their parents ect. But when you put all the siblings n their kids n so on, it adds to the sources of material you have to look for when you need specific info.
This is really good advice, I always add as many people to my tree as I can all my ancestors brothers and sisters and their wives and husbands and all their kids etc it can take a really long time but it's a great way to confirm your research is correct especially when you're able to link DNA matches to your tree through these extended relatives.
Yes! Same here! I love being able to link the dna matches. I was jumping for joy when that became available to do on ancestry. Before that option became available I remember thinking “so many matches how can I keep track of who I’ve confirmed and who I haven’t”.
And you’re right it does take much longer but once every now and again it pays off when a spouse in one line ends up being the child of a relative in a different line!
Mr. Rowan, I just want you to know that I thoroughly enjoyed both of your DNA CZcams videos, every detail. Thank you and I have referred it to numerous family and friends.
Crista is an incredible genealogist!! She helped me find me birth father and his family!! I can never thank you enough, Crista!!
Crista is awesome. I find I do much of what she says to do before she says it which confirms what I had decided (no pets in trees, no famous people in my tree if not related).
Due to her comments on videos I’m condensing my trees down to one, and I’m putting leading zeros before dates such as 01 Jun 1863. And, thank goodness, I no longer look at brick walls the same. Crista is a famous person I would love to meet. 😊
If you use the birth index on the GRO website, it provides the mother's maiden name from 1837-1919.
I have a whole Irish line who do not have middle names at birth but when they are older and use their names they tend to insert their mother's maiden name as their middle name ; i.e. on passports, naturalization certs. Hence someone is John Hall on his birth cert. but John Dougan Hall on his passport. Sometimes they just use the initial of their mother's maiden name too, and it's never listed but a good clue. This has made it much easier.
Another tip for mother side
Never copy another persons tree for what it states, I have notice many mistakes that have been passed in the tens of trees. Always recheck all documents.
I wish I had been interested in genealogy when I was 13. Ancestry has lots of things but it doesn't have the locations of long lost family cemeteries. Even if they didn't remember exactly where, there were a lot of people living then who could have given approximate locations of family cemeteries and old farms.
Love your videos Crista!!! So informative!!!!
Very helpful tips! I’m getting started now of searching for a great-great aunt now!
Women also spend their entire lives listed as their nickname, sometimes that nickname has no relation to their given name. If you know she was called Milly and find a Millicent it may be her, but sometimes they go by Sissy or Poppy and their given name is actually Mary or Ann.
Dozer Bones Yes! Just found out my sis- in law of many years is really named Mary(a common Christian practice). But she goes by her middle name!
Great video learned i lot
Very enjoyable with good tips.
Excellent info.
Thanks. Good info
Thank you. I’m hoping what you shared here aids with discovering more of my maternal line.
As a beginner I am still learning!
I learn so much from you. Thank you!
Hi Pamela, we are glad to hear that you have been learning so much from these videos.
Oh my gosh what you said about the six names in England is so true, but I have discovered one more name James I have at least three in my tree, my paternal grandfather his father and his grandfather and when I tried searching I discovered there are a ton of James that could be them, how I new what documents were accurate to my grandfather was I new his mothers first & maiden name (thanks mom & aunt Jackie for remembering it) & his siblings names so that gave me their birth records with their fathers name which gave me an accurate census record for them.
This video is awesome in every way.
I was lucky. My great aunt on my mother’s side started research in the 1930s and did include all women’s maiden names and all their siblings. Using her info (a stack of papers an inch thick) I have a great family tree going back centuries on my mother’s side. Also watch out for people with same names AND birth months. There is a person with the exact name as my aunt born in the same month. A lot of people in my family added her to their trees and I had to correct them.
Yes, very good presentation, Crista, is it?! Oh, by the way I saw you on CZcams and not Facebook!
Hi Joyce. We're glad you stopped by. We'd encourage you to keep finding out as much as you can about your ancestors and their family stories.
with that William/Sarah marriage search I personally would untick exact search because Sarah might be spelt Sara and William might be transcribed as Wm.
This woman is a good speaker. And she has a great smile!
I had no idea thank you I will update my information.
In clicking through to the image, I have found so many relatives living in the same vicinity. I also just recently found the grandparent of another one of my cousins.
Thank you for sharing this with us, Dreama. We're thrilled you've made so many amazing discoveries. 🙂
Thanks for the tips.
Hey Cef Cat! We're so pleased that you found Crista's video and tips of interest and trust that you will make many happy discoveries in the months and years to come. Make sure to call on our team should you have any questions, big or small. In the meantime you might find our dedicated Ancestry Academy a great source of further expert hints and tips www.ancestryacademy.com/browse . Happy researching! ❤️🌳🔎
@@AncestryUS thank you.
We're delighted to hear that you enjoyed the video and got some new research tips from it, we wish you the very best of luck as you continue on your Ancestry journey!
Great information I have to change my mother's last name to her maiden name! 🤗
I’m 67 and started when I was 11, writing everything by hand.
Thank you for sharing with us.
Ms Crista...do whatever you want, just do it right...2 thumbs up
Also another hard thing I'm having a tough time with is GEDCOM and uk records..
Of course my lady I want to look for is a Sarah and of course her husband is a Thomas Butterworth which there was actually a Butterworth Township in England back in the 1800s...so hard to find things sometimes!!
Very good
Oh I LIKE her!!
FYI - In England and Wales the birth indexes in the GRO give the mother's maiden name as well as the other info you mentioned.
Not always - only the later indices. The earlier ones only list name of the child
@@JT1358 Incorrect, since 2016 the GRO online index has given maiden surnames for pre-1911 births. Also, the deaths index now gives ages for pre-1860 entries, which is also very useful.
You are correct with everyone in the UK looking like the list goes forever however DNA links families..
I have a maternal great grandmother who's last name changes when she is 5 to the last name everyone always new her as & loved & gave as a middle name to at least one female cousin, it is also what is on her marriage record but I found her birth record and it shows her last name to be that of her grandfather & he listed as her father, the story I heard was that her father left her mother while her mother was pregnant with her & that he went back to France.
In my experience, death records, such as obituary or death certificates are not always reliable. This can be due to the age of those giving this data. Further considerations may be the poor health, poor memory, exhaustion or grief of the survivors. I've found that marriage or birth records are an excellent primary source and may or may not support death records in research.
Way out of date for the UK records, GRO site provides mother's maiden name.
Is it bad that I'd just sit and listen to you talk about your family and the stories?
I've known Cowans. In Tenn and St Louis. All were Afro Anerican. One I remember well in Tenn 1st name. Lou Cinda
I’ve seen that people don’t click through to check the image. They just add. Noticed this recently when someone added a 2nd cousin to their family tree that had a common name. If they would’ve clicked the image, they would’ve seen that he wasn’t their person.
I'd really love to know how to add those relationship links to a source where Ancestry hasn't already done it.
Even with more than a decade and well fleshed out trees, I still have frustrations. I wind up calling random county records offices to research an 1886 marriage only to find out that the groom’s mother’s name is left blank. OF COURSE. I think there’s one or two on every tree I do.
Yes exactly how I found my Great grandmother
My last name makes searching so hard. My 5th great grandfather was Charles Wood and my 6th great grandfather was John Wood wife Sarah. So difficult to search.
Check for others with the same names in the cemeteries. Often there are maiden aunts or bachelor uncles that turn up, or infants who are not identified beyond gender and last name. If cemetery locations are specified, you may find who the baby actually was born to. Families often were buried by church affiliation, or by burial societies.
My ancestors in the Canadian census in the 1800s are listed as F. C. Presbyterian. It means "Free Church" Presbyterian.
I don't have New and Improved DNA Match List -- How do I get it?
How do you find the card catalog mentioned at 18:24 in the above video?
click on Search at the top of the screen. In the drop-down menu the card catalog is at the bottom of the menu.
I do very well finding the US records of names, but when you get to some place like Bavaria that is also Mittel Franconia which also is Bayern which is also Austro-Hungary which is also Prussia which also includes Baden which also includes Rhineland which is also Germany.....
And knowing that German names are supposed to be German, the name can also be Latin. Or the name can be Hungarian. Or the name can be French. Or the name can be Italian. Or the name could be Jewish.
Take for instance my great-great grandfather's children Andrew, Peter and John, however those were the same names as his brothers.....
Andrew, Andreus and Andrewj
Peter, Petrus, Pieter, Pietr
John, Johann, Johannan
And their dad was George or Georg or Giorg
And my great-great grandmother's surname was Theobald, Tibbalt, Theovault, Tewalt, Theobault, Tevault, Teevalt. Now while they all sound kind of the same, often she had other first names like Maria Elizabeth, Catharina Elizabeth.....
Could you possibly tell me the best way to go about finding marriage certificates. For example my mom had nine brothers and sisters. Which they were all married. My parents have been married for 45 years and I’ve still not been able to find a marriage certificate on them. However they did show me the marriage certificate. Her other brothers and sisters have unfortunately passed away. So I am not exactly sure of the dates of their marriages. But I have been trying to find the marriage certificates and I have only been able to find one. Which the funny thing was I was not even looking for because I forgot she was even married. If you could give me some suggestions I would appreciate it.
We are so close to finding my wife’s biological father but we are new to this, we could use your help if that is at all possible
I've always entered the maiden name since day one. If I don't know it, I enter 5 underscores. The same goes for unknown given names.
Hi, RJB. Thanks for your comment. We always appreciate hearing from our members. Giving tips and tricks to others can be very helpful.
I have found additional children by not filling in the name or surname but only by fathers first name and mothers maiden name. This finds the kids that had their surname misspelled by the record keeper or transcriber.
How much i am searching for my mothers relations she died when i was young can remember a few names.
My great grandmother has 3 possible maiden names...I hope this tutorial helps.
Mine has 2. It caused some problems when she applied for Social Security. Unfortunately, neither of the maiden names help me find who her parents were. This is one of my largest brick walls.
@Nicky L I have thought of this, and am on a search for her birth certificate, but it apparently doesn't exist--so I'm looking for baptism now--with not much luck yet. I have her death cert. but it has her mother's second husband's name listed (she was married and with a family of her own when her mother married the second time.) Thank you for your input :) Stay safe!
@@LeOhio817 My Clara is also one of my largest brick walls. I only know for certain who her mother was...I have 2 census results with one name, then another name on cert. when she got married. Can't find "proof" for either name's origin. Thanks! Stay safe.
@@howImetyourfather , do you know where she or siblings might be burried? Possible have records that may show more info in their records.
@@howImetyourfather Do you have an LDS Church near where you live?
That would have been nice to know.
We hope this is helpful to you in your research going forward!
@@AncestryUS It will. I think this should be on the screen where you ask: "Add as alternate?" Or a linked (?) on a woman's name. Thank you.
Thanks for your feedback, @Trumblocity, we appreciate it! You can also share any suggestions or extra feedback you might have with us, we have a way for you to so this on the Ancestry website, linked here: support.ancestry.com/s/article/Providing-Feedback-About-Ancestry. Thanks again, we hope you had a good day! 😊
how do you find where family member is buried like oklahoma
A little off subject but I have a women’s name and the date she gave birth to a child and the state.... can I search for her? Would this be enough information to search?
LOL I have an ancestor named Joseph J Smith. So when I try to search I get a ton of information on the Mormon guy. LOL Of all the last names to have is Smith.
Leslie Lang I’m a Jones...I get it. My dad was Tom
I'm trying to find John Johnson, lol! Grr. Good luck!
Sooner or later, everyone has a Smith in their family tree...
According to this video, it is wrong to enclose in parenthesis the women’s marital name(s). However, Ive found it difficult to track the almost repetitively named people without doing so. Going against her advice, in this case, helps me to better stay on track with the research; because until I started placing the new names in parenthesis, I was ready to toss the whole idea of keeping a mostly accurate record of the tree via their on-line tools.
Use the Suffix field for ‘notes’ - get them out of the name fields. . . . you’ll be much happier with the search results
@@Quercifolia, that’s where I put the marital names - in the Suffix field.
So what do you do if you dont have most of this to go to? I ask because ive been on a search trying to find my dads first biological daughter. And in this search i discovered that about a year or 2 after this daughter was born he was married and then divorced ive talked to family and anyone that was in contact with him. They all say they dont think the women he married was the mother of his daughter but arnt positive. The only info i have is his ex wifes first name, middle initial the first name of his daughter ( to my knowledge she didnt get his last name) and the date the divorce was processed as well as the state it was processed in. I was hoping to find this ex as if shes not this girls biological mom we think she met my dad shortly after this girl was born and may be able to provide more info. Is there a way to find his exs maiden last name without ordering the divorce record?
Its Tilda short for Matilda or can Tilda be its own name
How do you find out information about someone that was adopted before they started keeping records?
Just curious... what do you mean? Are you looking for a pre-adoption birth certificate?
I have a hard time because it looks like I'm related on moms side her mom and dads side and my dads side his mom and dads side then they twist all 4 sides? The siblings are unreal..
I FOUND ALOT OF PPL IN MY FAMILY ON ALL SIDES, MY GG GRAND PARENTS ALL 16
In Puerto Rico, a woman always retains her maiden name no matter if she's married. Unless she decides not to & must do so legally. Not even if she marries more than once, her name is always the same: first name, initial (if any), father's last name followed by morher's last name. Single, married, devorced, widow...always the same. Less complicated. Except for legal adoption.
Is my ancestor on the census alone with children married or widowed or never married?? She’s also the only woman owning property in that area in the early land platts Lawrence county Alabama. Nancy Agee. Any ideas?? This is great mystery in our family.
Hi Carrie - What does the census say about her marital status?
So... I hit a brick wall with a Mary Wells (b. ca1826 in NC). I don't know if Wells is her maiden or married name. Her children have the last name Wells, but there's no husband listed on anything I can find. How would I go about that?
So you have her children's names, if you can follow them through the records and figure out when/where they died you could then get death records for each child and sometimes their mother's maiden name is listed. Good Luck with your search.
That's a fairly common name (both first and last). What are the names of her children? What county did they live in? Have you found the family in any census records? Black or white?
I'm looking for anyone who comes from the LUICK family tree. My Mom's Dad was a lighthouse keeper @ Split Rock, his brother Emmanuel was also a lighthouse keeper @ Sand Island, Mn.(I think). According to what info my Mamma found this side of the Luick/ Lueck was established by 3 brothers who escaped from Russia. This is all the info I have. My Mamma has passed on and I'm still going through her personal items so all help will be greatly appreciated. THANK YOU
literally saw the thumbnail and thought it was the actress who played Kitty in that 70s show but aged
None of that is useful for the Irish records, any tips for maiden names in Ireland, as it seems impossible..
for my wives without maiden names, I got so I put their maiden name as
Unk (Picard) with the husbands last name in parenthesis (my ancestor in case of multiple husbands), because otherwise I had hundreds of Mary Unk and didn't know what family they belonged too. Now I can slowly go back and try to use these tips to find their maiden names. Thanks
Unfortunately that causes the search engines to look for that ( Unk (Picard) ) as the real name. Any unknowns that you need/want to put in for your own use can be put in the Suffix field. That data entry field is not used in searches.
Have you used familysearch Ms. Cowan? Its a free family history website.
It’s so hard doing this with Mexican heritage. There are no singular last names.
Hi Michael - You can search with double-barreled last names in the last name field.
SOME African American have a hard time finding woman maiden names before 1900
Christa, I couldn't disagree with you more. I add all of the married names. I have done it your way and as soon as I started adding the married names information comes up. If Ancestry would have a separate spot for a maiden name and nicknames like they used to it would make life so much better. Why did they ever take that away?
You can still add as many alternate names as you wish.
@@AncestryUS there's no separate place to put them so where are you recommending to put them?
@@AkSonya1010 There is an alternate name fact. However, it is really superfluous data as the system recognizes her husband's surname as an alternate name for her as soon as you enter him as a spouse.
A census record got my grandma’s birth state wrong. Is that common? She was born in New York, but the census said Ohio.
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My mother came here in 1947 from Germany, Manson name Faltermeier, no brothers or sisters. We’re to I go from here?
Hi, Susan. We will be happy to help share some good resources for researching. We have a great article that has some great tips on ways to get past that brick wall in your research. You can access that here: support.ancestry.com/s/article/Overcoming-Roadblocks-in-Your-Research?language=en_US
I enter an X as the maiden name until I get her maiden name. When I get it I change it to her maiden name.
Unfortunately you MAY be hurting your search results . . . the Algorithms search on that field, not many people have an X as a name. In previous videos as “The Barefoot Genealogist, she has stated to put Underscores . . . Worth researching to see if any Non-Alphabetical character is ignored or is it only the underscore. But an X would definitely be seen as a name. Crista has said it you put that sort of info in the Suffix field that will be fine as they algorithms ignore that one
@@Quercifolia Sorry I guess I was not clear. Thank you for your comment. I put the X after the first name. So Jane X in the first slot and leave the surname completely blank. When I obtain her maiden name for example Doe, I remove the X and change it to Jane Doe
Drives me crazy the assumptions researchers often make. Example. My 3rd gr grandfathers mother was Betsy Russel of NC. Other researchers were stumped so they decided to attach her to being the daughter of Albert Russell because he was a bondsman. They claim her to be one Catherine Bess Russell. However it is not a possibility. Betsy is short for Elizabeth. For the two to be one and the same, she would have to have divorced her husband circa 1825 and remarried, leaving behind children of the first marriage who were raised by the first husband's second wife. No record exists of betsy's death. No record of a divorce. Sorry. I dont buy it. They are 2 different people. Talbert likely was an uncle not betsys true father. I can not comprehend this CBR marrying and relocating hundreds of miles away leaving her children behind etc. Doesnt make sense and there is no record of my 3rd gr grandfather going to visit or live with his mother. None of her known children ever mention or claimed to have siblings. Etc etc. 2 different women. Betsy (short for Elizabeth) Russell is NOT Catherine Bess Russell. No evidence truly supports their theory.
Census records for England after 1841 have occupation , relation to the head of the house (or sometimes the person giving the information) adress at the time. The 1911 census also has how many children were born and are still living. 1939 census has very accurate birthdates. FreeBMD has useful info about maiden names after 1911 as they were recorded along with the childs fathers surname if available.
oh
Every video I find talks about how to find a female's maiden name. That is not my problem. I need to find out if my female ancestor/s died or got married between census records, or even just moved out of the area, but ultimately disappeared between census records. Especially if that time period was between 1880 and 1900 since the 1890 census is not available. I cannot find church, marriage, death, etc. records for a few of my female ancestors from the time they were children in their parents' home to the next census when they were adults and not in the parents' home anymore. Nobody is talking about this. I have some 19th and 20th century ancestors I need to find. I have the maiden name but nothing else.
Hi there. Thanks for getting in touch with us! We understand it can seem difficult to track down specific records like these. We'd like to help. You may be interested to know that Crista has uploaded a few tips and tricks on the topic of not being able to find marriage records, which you can check out here: czcams.com/video/xXEGhjPaev4/video.html
We hope this video can shed light of a few routes of inquiry for you to go down! Thanks very much for reaching out so we could provide this, and have a lovely rest of your day!
@@AncestryUS But what if the female ancestor simply moved out of the area and is no longer living near her parents? Or she moved and married, or died without marrying? Many people share the same names, so how would you tell which one might be yours? It isn't always about marriage.
RALEIGH NC 919
I ask for a refund back in September of this year and never got it as of today, they said they gave it me but it is not in my bank account.
Hi all, I wish I could do my family tree, I cannot get past my mother and father. My mam died when I was 14 and my father was not around. Now my father either cant remember or doesnt want to his family and names and there is no living family on my mams side to help. I am an only child so i am really stuck. I live in the UK and it is hard to do, and i havent a clue where to start, without any names,places and dates . Any advise and help please. X
Speaking of names: Every man born in Ireland is James Connors. I also have the names Christ, Lord and Priest in my tree. If I google them I get a gazillion churches. 😠
you think you have problems? try being the son of a smith that married a jones.
What do you mean by "verified"
You have documented evidence.
My mom an O'Brein.ate we on DNA together,?
Talks to fast
learnt nothing id like to see her on my dna to do this
because she would get nowere as I have 250 cousins starting at 60cm
Obviously you 'learned nothing'! 🤣 You, still, cannot spell or punctuate! You will continue to get 'nowhere' until you learn the basics! 🤔
I bet you think you already know everything, anyway, right? 🤣🤣🤣🤣👂👂
Good luck.
@@thequieterubcomethemoreuhe1198 there I edited it for you clown
@@seanburgess5949 Bahahahaha! 🤣🤣🤣
So it is all grammatically correct, now, in your opinion?🤔🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Okay. I tried to help you. Forget about it! 🤣🤣🤣
@@thequieterubcomethemoreuhe1198 wow you helped me with spelling thanks I dont see what my spelling or how I say things have anything to do with my DNA
@@thequieterubcomethemoreuhe1198 please tell me how spelling is going to make my matchs match with ppl who dont have a common ancestor
This lady talks as though she out of breath. 🤔