“Women and Children First: Remembering Them All”

Casey Zahn presenting
“Finding Women in Records: 1700-1800” – Casey Zahn

Featured Speaker: Judy G. Russell, J.D., CG, CGL presenting
“Don’t Forget the Ladies – A Genealogist’s Guide to Women and the Law”
In early America, women were all too often the people who just weren’t there: not in the records, not in the censuses, not on juries, not in the voting booth. The common law relegated women to “protected” – second-class – status, and understanding how they were treated under the law provides clues to finding their identities today.

“Dowered or Bound Out: Records of Widows and Orphans”
Widows and orphans have always had a special place in the law. But it’s not always the place that 21st century researchers might expect. An orphan in the early days wasn’t a child whose parents had died, but rather a child whose father had died. The law didn’t care much about the mother. She was just the widow, entitled to her dower rights and generally not much more. Learn more of the way the law treated widows and orphans, and what the records may tell us about them.