For generations, women’s contributions have been overlooked in historical records.
On Tuesday, 2 September, City of Moreton Bay’s Caboolture Library will host a free seminar led by professional genealogist Helen Smith, teaching attendees how to trace female ancestors and restore their rightful place in history.
“Women were not just passive figures in history,” Helen said. “Every person has an interesting story, just waiting to be found and told.
“Often history, even family history, has focused on the men: the famous, the soldiers, the politicians and the various male occupations. Women, if mentioned, are given supporting roles only, and their important roles and contributions in family and community were forgotten.
“Generations of historians regarded women as irrelevant because they did not often wield economic, legal or military power. This is a very narrow view as single women were the teachers, the nurses, the factory workers, the shop assistants, while married women forced to give up outside work were involved in the family economy. Many women doing piecework at home as well as caring for the family and home, and often also performing unpaid volunteer work in the community.”
Genealogy Seminar: Tracing the Women in Your Family Tree
Helen has researched her own family history since 1986 across Australia, the UK and beyond. An international speaker since 1992, Helen also founded the Genealogical Society of Queensland’s DNA SIG. Her publications include Death Certificates and Archaic Medical Terms and Google: The Genealogist’s Friend.
She said tracing female ancestors was challenging due to surname changes upon marriage, and women being unable to sign contracts, own property and keep earnings, or vote until the early 1900s.
“This means the family historian has to research a bit further in a broader range of records,” Helen said. “They have to learn about societal context to be able to place their female relative into their place in the family, the community and in history.”
Attendees at the September event will learn research techniques that go beyond traditional sources and delve into broader historical and community records.
Helen said it was important to celebrate the first professional women, but equally important to realise and celebrate the role women played in their community.
“From the immigrant ancestress travelling seven months pregnant with young children and her husband to start a new life, to the woman who carried on her husband’s business after his death, to the stalwart women of the bush, the early Queensland women doctors who went to London and worked in an all-female hospital in World War One, the many women who worked on the Home Front in two world wars in a wide range of occupations,” she said.
“Women’s history is everywhere if you look, and their story is just waiting to be told.”
Bookings required. To book, call 5433 2000 or visit What’s on Moreton Bay Libraries online.
Writing Women Back Into Your Family History
- Tuesday, 2 September, 11am-12pm
- Caboolture Library
- 4 Hasking Street, Caboolture
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