Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Fearless Females 2011: Favorite Female Ancestor

Lisa is repeating her Fearless Females 31 Blogging Prompts to Celebrate Women’s History Month and I am planning to do a few, but hopefully different ones than last year.

March 1 — Do you have a favorite female ancestor? One you are drawn to or want to learn more about? Write down some key facts you have already learned or what you would like to learn and outline your goals and potential sources you plan to check.

Last year I wrote about my Aunt Em, who is my favorite female that I know.  This year I am wondering more about my maternal great grandmother Mary Ann Holmes Chaplin.  I wrote my first entry about her here.   I had just seen her picture for the first time.  I think her first name is Mary but to me she is Mary Ann, I don't want to confuse her with the other Mary's in my family.

I would like to know what made her who she was.  How did she deal with the hard things in her life.  She buried a husband, 3 sons and a granddaughter before she died.  She had 10 kids.  She moved a lot from the census records I have looked at and her husband did a variety of jobs.  Was this the norm for the time she lived in or something that had to be done for work.  I wonder how she meet my great grandfather.  I wonder about her faith, her dreams and the kind of things she enjoyed.  The few pictures I have seen of her, I think she enjoyed family. 
She was still alive when I was born so she knew about me, I wonder what she thought when she heard of my birth.  And what she thought when she learned about the death of my mother.
I like her face! 

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