researching the female line

[ninelives]

I'd really like to trace back down the female line, ie mother's mother's mother etc - but of course the difficulty is that women have traditionally lost their names on marriage (except, I believe in early Welsh society). Added to which, genealogy as a discipline is historically rooted in a system that emphasised the male line. Ayhow, if anyone else out there is interested in the same thing, or has any useful tips, I'd love to be in touch.

[trystan]

From a Welsh perspective anyhow, the idea of surnames was one imposed by the English.

Generally, if you were born "Ifor" in a farm called "Rhydloew" (for example), you would be referred to as "Ifor Rhydloew" - and to this day even though the  Welsh have surnames, then that is still the case in smaler communities. The same goes for professions too.  I have an Uncle, known locally in his community as "Meir Milk".

I have a good friend who has stuck to the traditional way of surnames, and he is called "Eifion Ap Llwyd Dafydd" which means, Eifion son of Llwyd Dafydd.

I have another friend, known to everyone as "Richard Rhyddgar" becasue he came form a farm called Rhyddgar - his surname is actually Williams. Funily enough, it is because there are so few common surnames in Welsh, the modified "descriptive" surnames as in practice so much more useful.

As for my Mam, she was known at one time as "Aledwen Tyn Ffordd" - becasue of the house she lived in.

Sorry, doesn't help with your female line 

Trystan

[floridagirl]

Hi,
You might find it surprisingly easy going through the female line, I did.

On one line I went back to my great great great greatgrandmother with remarkable ease and a little bit of help, she was born in the late 1700s.
On my maternal grandfathers side I found his mum and grandmother, and I think I have just found his great grandmother(my g g g grandmother)born in the 1820s.

Its the men I am having problems with, I can't find any record of my great grandfathers births.

I started to think about things that had been told to me when I was a child, and never gave much thought to until I started doing family history,

My mums mum always said that my great great grandfather was the town crier of Oswestry, and I always assumed this was on the male side, I dismissed what she said, then when I started doing the female side, and sure enough the town crier popped up on great grandmothers marriage certificate as her father.

Have a go, and see how far you get.
If you find you need any marriages checking in Liverpool I can check them for you.
Good luck!!!!!
Floridagirl

[Boongie Pam]

Hiya,

You mention Wales - is that where you expect to find your relies?

I only have my mum's tree to do and the entirely female line is in Wales.  I'm back to Anglesey 1780 quite easily and I haven't spent any money on it yet.

Scotland is the best though.  A woman doesn't legally changeher name on marriage so all graves have the mother/wife's maiden name.  On ALL registrations you get the individuals father and  mother including maiden name.  So if a woman died you can get 3 generations mentioned if the witness is their child.

Good luck with your research and yell if you need help 

Cheers,
Pam

[Gardener]

I find the main problem with the female line is the sheer volume of informationthat you need/end up with. I like to look at side branches as I go and if you are doing the female line then it involves so many surnames. If you wind up having to extract a particular name from the church registers then it is easier to stick to one and follow it back, rather than switch every generation So I've put the women on hold for later, that way I'll always have something to do

[floridagirl]

My great grandmother was married before she lived with my great grandfather (can't find a marriage anywhere for them) so consequently she had two families of children, it made it alot more interesting checking this out as it confirmed little bits of info I'd heard as a child.
When I started researching her mother, I found that she had done the same, she had left her first husband and moved up to Liverpool and lived with another bloke and had another five or six children to him.
I know it can sometimes be a pain tracking these other relatives, but if you're at a bit of a dead end with your main line, it gives you something else to check on.
Sometimes you end up with more questions than answers, but then, that's family research for you ,isn't it?
Regards,
Viv

[D ap D]

I'd really like to trace back down the female line, ie mother's mother's mother etc - but of course the difficulty is that women have traditionally lost their names on marriage (except, I believe in early Welsh society).

I looked into this last year when my daughter was born. It would appear that only the males were "given" the patronymic surname. Females would be called X ferch Y, where Y is the fathers name, ferch is the welsh for daughter, sometimes abbreviated to vch or vz (F in Welsh is pronounced like the english v, there being no v in Welsh). On marriage, the female would either keep this patronymic or lose it completely, as she then be part of her husbands family, ie no longer he fathers daughter.

However, we are talking early middle ages here. As Trystan said, most were known by either the name of the farm they were from, or if they moved away, by the name of the village they were from. Mum and dads milkman is still called "Wil Tatws" (Potato Will), because there is already a "Wil Llefrith" (Will the milk), and Wil Tatws also delivers potatoes from his small holding.

By the way I gave my daughter the more usual welsh version, using "ap" and my christian name. Not strictly correct, but here in Germany, no one knows anyway. 

D ap D

[Berlin-Bob]

I am also researching a female line. One of the reasons I started researching family history is my wife's name:

The first daughter is always called Hessie !

The story goes thus: in the American War of Independence a lot of the "British Army" were in fact german mercenaries, borrowed from George 3rd's german cousins. One of the, from Hessian, stopped off in the Outer Hebrides on his way home and settled there. He called his first daughter Hessa, after his homeland, and that became the tradition. In time Hessa became Hessie.

p.s. Back to the roots ?? My daughter was born (and lives) in Germany, in Berlin.  Not Hessen, but still Germany !

I have managed to find 6 generations so far, the first three were easy, I even have a photo of them: daughter, wife and M-in-L.

But - then it gets harder: my daughter's ggg- and gg-grandmother were born in Ireland, and the trail stops there !

I do have fantasies of one day finding the original "Hessie" but, well, everyone needs a few dreams !!

[MeganWilber]

I trace every line of my family male and female.  Women are definitely harder but it is still possible.  We even has some accounts of records back to the 1700's mentioning the women sometimes even their parents.  But it is painstaking work.

Many times I have had to start out on a hunch or a tip to see where it lead.  Or I would use the LDS site to try and get starting points.  Granted these can lead straight to dead ends but I have gotten lucky many times with persistance. 

Most of the women in my family have had almost as much research done on them as the men though.  To my family they are all important since they were all family.  So I know it is not too difficult.  Though I must admit there are a few women we never found out more than information on them (never on their parents).  I am sure that other information is out there waiting for me, I just gotta figure out how to find it.