Women’s History and Female Ancestors Resources

Websites

• American Memory: American Women
• ThoughtCo. Women’s History ThoughtCo.’s guide to links.
• American Women’s History: A Research Guide This archived site gives you citations to more than 2,100 print and online reference sources (including collections of primary sources, such as letters and diaries) for furthering your research. You can browse indexes organized by state and subject, and follow links to more online listings, such as government documents, newspapers and oral histories. The site’s author also suggests visiting Discovering American Women’s History Online.
• Cyndi’s List — Female Ancestors Nearly 100 links categorized by general resource, military, foremothers, societies and groups, and women’s history resources.
• Ethnic Women of Cleveland Oral History Project
• The Feminist Chronicles, 1953-1993
• Hearth: Home Economics Archive
• H-Women Archival and Manuscript Collection
• The Literature on Women Immigrants to the United States
• National Women’s History Alliance (formerly the National Women’s History Project) Here you can take quizzes, find a detail on commemorative events and profiles of this group’s National Women’s History Month honorees. You also can shop for goodies such as Robert P.J. Cooney’s book Winning the Vote (American Graphic) and a Rosie the Riveter poster.
• Notable Women Ancestors Hundreds of biographies of famous and everyday female ancestors.
• Pathfinder for Women’s History
• University of Arkansas Libraries: Women’s Studies
• What Did You Do in the War, Grandma?

Summaries also contributed by Diane Haddad

Historic Sites

• Eleanor Roosevelt House and Center at Val-Kill
• The Susan B. Anthony House
• Women’s Rights National Historic Park  

Books

Narratives that focus on women’s lives

• “A Good Poor Man’s Wife”: Being a Chronicle of Harriet Hanson Robinson and Her Family in 19th-Century New England by Claudia L. Bushman (University Press of New England)
• The Way of Duty: A Woman and Her Family in Revolutionary America by Joy Day Buel and Richard Buel Jr. (W.W. Norton & Co.)
• Growing Up in the 1850s: The Journal of Agnes Lee edited by Mary Custis Lee deButts (University of North Carolina Press)
• Rachel Calof’s Story: Jewish Homesteader on the Northern Plains edited by J. Sanford Rikoon (Indiana University Press)
• The Murder of Helen Jewett: The Life and Death of a Prostitute in 19th-Century New York by Patricia Cline Cohen (Vintage Books)
• Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England, 1650-1750 by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich (Vintage Books)
• Separate Lives: The Story of Mary Rippon by Silvia Pettem (The Book Lode)

General guides for discovering female ancestors

• A Genealogist’s Guide to Discovering Your Female Ancestors by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack (Betterway Books)
• The Hidden Half of the Family: A Sourcebook for Women’s Genealogy by Christina K. Schaefer (Genealogical Publishing Co.)

A version of this article appeared in the April 2001 issue of Family Tree Magazine.

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