Helpful tips for those living in Massachusetts to find the missing women in their family tree.

1. FINDINGYOUR FEMALE ANCESTORS
Family Portrait With Mother, Father,Two Small Boys And Baby: pone5.com
By Erik Bauer, MA - Archivist for the Peabody Institute in Peabody MA.

2. CHALLENGES
Marriage or multiple marriages
Divorce
Loss of citizenship
Other

3. Massachusetts
Peabody Institute Records
Non Government Records
Additional State Records (General)
Federal Records
Abridged

4. MASSACHUSETTS
1621 the New plymouth Colony makes marriage a civil contract.
1639 the first divorce is granted in English North America
1692 clergymen are permitted to preform marriages
1693 act requires marriages to be recorded
1855 divorce laws are changed to be more women friendly

5. WHERE TO FIND THESE RECORDS?
Essex County Court records can be found at the Essex County
Courthouse in Salem and they cover ca. 1636-1795.
Middlesex records cover 1600-1799 and can be found at the
Clerk of Courts at the Middlesex Courthouse in Cambridge

6. Marriage records up to 1901can be found at the Massachusetts
State Archive and they are on microfilm.
Marriages after 1902 can be found at the State Registrar ofVital
Records at 50 MtVernon St #1, Dorchester.

7. State archives a will have divorce records from ca. 1760-1786.
Supreme Judicial Court of keeps an index of divorce records
from 1812-1867
State census can be found at the Massachusetts State Archives

8. PEABODY ARCHIVES
Voter Registration Records form 1920 to 1922
Poll Tax Records from 1920 to 1962
List of Polls from 1932 to 1966
Card Catalogue in Research Room
Valuation Records from 1920-1925
Probate books of Massachusetts from 1635-1681

9. South Danvers & Peabody Marriage Intention 1855-1883
DanversVital Records, birth, marriage & death from 1755-1843
Vital Records until 1850 for many MA cities and towns
Back issues of the New England Historic & Genealogical Register
North Carolina Historical & Genealogical Register
Back issues of the Essex Institute

10. NON GOVERNMENT RECORDS
Newspapers
May have engagements, marriage notices, anniversary
announcements, divorce notices, obituaries and death notices,
probate proceedings, port arrivals among other information.
Cemetery Records
Include information similar to what you find on a marriage
certificate. Peabody Historical Society has those records.

11. City Directories
Church Records

12. ADDITIONAL STATE RECORDS
Dower Releases
Land transactions where the
husband & wife sold property.
Usually a paragraph where the
wife releases her dower.

13. Dower is a legal provision for a woman’s support and that of her
children after her husband’s death.
The widow’s third
Usually a paragraph where the wife released her dower.
Often do not give the maiden name, but provides a time frame
when looking at pre-1850 ancestors.
Massachusetts was very lax about dower acknowledgments.

14. FEDERAL
RECORDS

15. CENSUS & INSANITY RECORDS
1840, 1850, 1860, 1870 & 1880 census had a column for insane
people a check or hash mark would be in that column.
1880 census look at the separate 1880 Schedule for the
Defective Dependent, for more detailed information.
Can be found on ancestry.com

16. Can also look at probate and surrogates’ court records. If you do
find that ancestor write to local historical society or library to
see if they have the records or if the institution still exists.
Will need to prove that you are related or get a court order to
get that information because of privacy laws.

17. IMMIGRATION PEAKS FROM 1820TO 1950
(NOT A COMPLETE LIST)
1824 West Indies
1851 France & Ireland
1882 China, Denmark, Germany,The Netherlands, Norway &
Sweden
1883 Switzerland
1888 Great Britain

18. 1907 Austria-Hungry, Greece, Italy and Japan
1913 Belgium, Russia,Turkey (mostly Armenian refugees)
1921 Czechoslovakia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain
1924 Canada, Newfoundland, Mexico and South America

19. IMMIGRATION, CITIZENSHIP AND
PASSPORT RECORDS
Before the Constitution English women were transported in bondage
or as indentured servants. Many came from the port of Bristol in
England. Prior to 1855 there was no specific reference to women’s
citizenship.
Between 1855 & 1922 any married women automatically became a
U.S. citizen when she married a U.S. citizen or a man who became a
citizen.
From 1907 to 1922 women wold retain her U.S. citizenship if her
marriage ended in divorce, as long as she continued to reside in the
U.S. or registered for within one year of leaving the U.S.

20. From 1907 to 1922 if a woman married a foreigner she would
lost her citizenship and took on the nationality of her husband.
She would have to apply for U.S. citizenship.
1917 the Federal Immigration Act put restrictions on unmarried
women with children. Single women could only enter if they had
a sponsor, mostly a male and written proof of sponsorship. In
some ports women would marry their husband as proof they
were not here as part of a prostitution ring.
After 1922 women no longer lost their citizenship if they married
non-Americans.

21. National Archives in Waltham has the passenger arrival lists for
Boston (1820-1943). The lists are on microfilm
The Massachusetts State Archive has passenger manifest from
1848-1891 and is searchable, but incomplete. Best to go there in
person if possible.
http://www.sec.state.ma.us/arc/arcsrch/
PassengerManifestSearchContents.html

22. LOSS OF CITIZENSHIP
From 1907 until 1922 if a female U.S. citizen married an alien she
lost her citizenship and took on the nationality of her husband
Law was repealed in 1922, but citizenship was not restored until
1936 and could only regain her citizenship after death or divorce
of her husband.
The form “Application to Take Oath of Allegiance to the
United States under the Act of June 25, 1936, as Amended, and
Form of Such Oath.”

23. Documents included U.S. birth certificate, marriage license,
copy of divorce decree, a husbands death certificate, etc.

24. PASSPORTS
Not required by U.S. citizens before World War I except for the
Civil War.
Passport information from 1791-1925 are on microfilm at the
National Archives in D.C. ancestry.com also has them
From 1925 to present they can be found at the U.S. State
Department.
http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/passports/services/
obtain-copies-of-passport-records.html

25. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
The Hidden Half of the Family:A Sourcebook forWomen’s Genealogy
by Christina Kassabian Schaefer
New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston
American Antiquarian Society,Worcester
Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston

26. www.cyndislist.com/
Menand, Catherine S. A Research Guide to the Massachusetts and
Their Records (Boston: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court,
Archives and Records), 1987
Boston Anthenaeum 10 Beacon Street Boston MA
The Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in American
https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/schlesinger-library

27. Carangelo, Lori. The Ultimate Search Book 2015 Edition (Baltimore:
Genealogical Publishing Company, 2015).
DeBartolo Carmack, Sharon. Finding Female Ancestors (Baltimore:
Genealogical Publishing Company, 2013.)

28. Questions

29. End