During the War of 1812, Catherine Spring, a 23 year old widow, married her second husband, Daniel Dugan, a veteran of the earlier war waged against Britain to gain independence. Daniel was 40 years Catherine’s senior when, according to records, they married on August 19^th 1813 after a Methodist meeting in Moreland Township, Lycoming County, PA.  This was Daniel’s third marriage, having fathered seven children with his previous wives.  Catherine had five young children with Mr. Spring, one of them a baby boy, named Peter, who had been born within the year, indicating her husband had recently died.  Continue reading →

Hunting for one’s foremothers can prove challenging in the United States, where a woman usually takes her husband’s surname when she marries. If she marries more than once, she becomes further removed from her initial surname. Early records might even list her only as Mrs. Smith or Widow Smith additionally distancing her from her original identity. Then generations that follow often confuse their maternal ancestor’s birth names as evidenced by records, like death certificates, that have muddled a mother’s maiden name.

In 19^th century America, a female had fewer rights than men for owning property or conducting her own business and often needed a man to assist her. When she transferred land, created a will or even administered her husband’s estate, she would often turn to someone she trusted, like a brother, cousin, son or father to aid her in the matter. Finding documents created by women, especially young women or widows, can aid us in identifying our female ancestor’s lineage, if we closely observe the names of the people mentioned and include them in our research.

Following this thinking, last spring I ventured to track my 3^rd great grandmother, Sarah, for whom I had only a handful of facts. I had established the following: Continue reading →