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• Administratrix: a woman assigned by the court to administer an estate where there is no valid will
• Bondmaid: a female slave or indentured servant
• Concubine: a woman who lives with a man to whom she is not married
• Consort: companion; term for when the woman predeceased her husband
• Dowager: a widow with a title or rank (the queen dowager) or property from her husband
• Dower: a legal provision for a woman’s support and that of her children after her husband’s death; typically one-third of the husband’s property; also known as “widow’s thirds”
• Dowry: property the bride brings to her marriage
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• Executrix: the woman named in a will to distribute the estate
• Goodwife: the wife or household mistress
• Goody: a woman or housewife, especially an older woman
• Grass widow: a woman whose husband had deserted her; also used to refer to a woman who has illegitimate children or to a discarded common-law wife
• Now wife: in a will, refers to the current wife (implying there was a previous wife)
• Relict: a widow
• Spinster: an unmarried woman regarded as beyond the age of marriage
• Testatrix: a woman who leaves a valid will
Find your ancestors’ court records with help from these resources at Family Tree Shop:
- Secrets to Tracing Female Ancestors video class
- County Courthouse Book by Elizabeth Petty Bentley
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