One of the hardest things to find sometimes is what was your female ancestor's last name before she married. For someone who is just starting their family tree, this can be made more difficult because you may not have any idea of all the sources that may have that information. I thought I'd try and help with some tips I have learned over the years.
As your start your family tree hunt, you will work backwards from yourself. You (hopefully) know your mother's last name which gives you four different families to trace. As you do so, try and obtain birth and death certificates for any many of those grandparents as you can. Certificates are a great source but can sometimes be wrong if the person providing the information just did not know the answers. This happened when my father died. The person providing the information was my mother's sister and she did not know who my father's mother was just because the woman had died when my father was a child and my father had no living relatives except for his children. So look for certificates but look carefully at who provided the information.
Birth certificates are a great source as well but you would be surprised at how the information varies for town to town and state to state. Some will list the parent's full names and occupations and some will just give the bare minimum. My mother's listed her father as O.C. Casto and I had a dickens of a time finding out what that O.C. stood for. However, time and perseverance paid off in the end and now I have Orville Clive Casto's birth certificate in my collection as well.
However, the further back you go, the harder those certificates are to come by. So what other records would have a woman's maiden name? Just as you work backward with your whole family tree hunt, work backwards through the woman's life. Does her headstone list her maiden name?
Have you searched for an obituary for your ancestor? What about family letters? I learned who my father's mother was by information in an old family trunk with letters and information from long before I was born. If you have worked back further in time, past when the county kept records, then you need to look at things like census records. Sometimes, if you are really lucky, at one point in time your grandmother's elderly parents may have lived with her and her husband or in the unique census image below, my newlywed great-grandmother was living with her sister and brother-in-law and her mother just happened to live there, too!
When dealing with census records, you will work back to the point where the couple has only been married a few years and the next census you'll be looking for is the one where she is living with her parents. But you don't know who those parents are - what do you look for? Using Anna Kerwood Casto above as an example, forgetting that I know "Kerwood", I would look for the 1870 census, all girls named Anna, Ann, Anne, Anna E, etc., who lived in that county and were about 1 year old, because we know she wouldn't be turning two until that fall. I just now did that search and came up with only 6 little girls that would have fit that profile. Working through 6 possibilities is a lot simpler than not having a clue where to start!
Now, does that always work? No, it can be very daunting, especially if you have reason to believe the family moved from one location to another or there are too many names to follow. You can also search for the siblings. Did Grandma ever mention a brother or sister? Look up their census records, too, because if the great-grandparents didn't live with your grandparents, it doesn't mean they didn't live with one of their other children. While you're looking at census records, also pay close attention to the neighbors because it wasn't unusual for the two families to live close to one another and the people you're looking for could be right on the same page!
Another great source which pre-dates even our census records are wills. Wills have played a vital role in distributing property and wealth for hundreds of years and the married daughters will be listed, sometimes naming her spouse as well. So even though you are looking for Anna Casto's maiden name, for example, don't hesitate to look for all records that mention an Anna Casto because one could be her father's will. (I found a legible sample below but not for Anna):
Also pay attention to the cemetery where your ancestors are buried. Why are they buried there? Was it just location, religious reasons, or is it a family cemetery where many family members are buried? Don't get too focused on your direct line that you ignore all the information from the brothers and sisters. If you can't find your great-grandmother's obituary listing her parents, what about her siblings' obits and death certificates?
If you ancestor found in a war or had a pension, those documents also sometimes contain the wife's maiden name because documentation that the marriage was valid was required. You may try looking in those types of records.
And, of course, don't overlook the obvious - marriage certificate!
For all the mothers who came before us, I pay tribute to you by making sure you were not forgotten. For all the women who never had children, I like to think I pay special attention to you so that your name is also remember in the family history. For all the mothers out there now, I appreciate the love and effort you put into your family and your children because just by taking care of our own, you are helping to make the world a safer and better place! HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!
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