Religious Archives Reveal the Lives of Two Sisters
Sister of St. Joseph of Buffalo, St. Mary's School for the Deaf, circa 1880. March is Women's History Month! It's time for the spotlight to shine on the ladies in our family trees. I'll be writing all month on women I've researched. I encourage all family history lovers to take the month to seek out the stories of our foremothers! They are often under-documented, but they have a lot to teach us. I've just finished reading Sunny Jane Morton's new book Searching for Sisters: A Guide to Researching Catholic Nuns in the United States. Catholic women religious are a frequently overlooked subject of genealogical research, for many reasons, including, as Morton states in her Introduction, "They were Catholics in a culture dominated by Protestants. They were women in a culture dominated by men...They were unmarried and not mothers in a culture that defined both as near-essential for women." These reasons are amplified in many cases by the women'...
Congratulations on your award!
ReplyDeleteThank you. I am glad I was able to memorialize these three ancestors.
DeleteGreat job on your entry! I have a few religious members among my family, too!
ReplyDeleteWell that's super cool. It was fun to track down their information. Religious archives are a real boon! Thanks for reading.
DeleteBonjour Nancy. Merci d’avoir mis en évidence ces prêtres et religieuse. Dans la grande histoire de ta famille, ils ne doivent en effet pas être éclipsés par leurs frères et sœurs qui se sont mariés et ont eu des enfants. Dans mon livre, je compte aussi inclure un chapitre consacrés aux ‘religieux’ de ma famille et ton texte ainsi que les recherches que tu as faites pour moi à propos des descendants des Trauscht m’inspireront sûrement.
ReplyDeleteMerci beaucoup, Daniel ! C'est vraiment un privilège de faire des recherches et d'écrire sur ces ancêtres, qui ont mené une vie de dévouement discret à leur vocation. J'attends avec impatience vos prochains chapitres. À bientôt.
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