March is Women's History Month. In January I blogged about Amy Johnson Crow's challenge to write about 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. Few of us will find the time and energy to achieve those numbers, but during the month of March, my challenge to you is to write about at least one woman in your family tree. In a posting on the Olive Tree Genealogy blogspot (http://olivetreegenealogy.blogspot.com/), Lorine McGinnis Schulze provided the following ten ideas to prime our thinking about women who deserve recognition in our stories:

• Which of your female ancestors were alive when women achieved the right to vote.  How do you think they reacted to the ongoing suffragette movement? Different countries extended the right of voting for women in different years and even within one country, different areas sometimes had different rights. For example in Ontario Canada women who owned property could vote for school trustees as early as 1850. In 1917 women in Canada gained the right to vote in all elections. It was 1920 before women in the USA were given the right to vote. In the UK women over the age of 30 who met certain property qualifications could vote but it was not until 1928 that all women over the age of 21 achieved that right.
• Do you have a  female relative (direct ancestor or collateral lineage) who played an active role in women's issues? Perhaps one who was a Suffragette or was a pioneer in a male-dominated role or occupation?  Perhaps she sailed to the New World to start a new life in the 1600s or was a refugee from a war-torn or religious-intolerant location...
• Choose one female ancestor and the historical context during her life. Pick one historical event that would have impacted on her life. Perhaps she lived through the Spanish influenza in the early 1900s, or she was widowed during the Civil War, or lived through the Depression.
• Write a biography of your favourite female Ancestor. Be sure to tell us why she's your favourite.
• Make a list of your direct line maternal ancestors beginning with your mother. So you will list your mom, her mom, her mom's mom and so on, back as far as you can. Now figure out how many children each female ancestor had. Did the females in your direct maternal line tend to have the same numbers of children each generation? Did they have more? Less? Were they prolific or are there few children born to each woman? Is there a pattern emerging?
• Write about your mtDNA findings. If you haven't been tested yet, order an mtDNA kit!  There are several companies offering DNA tests... .
• Did any of your female ancestors participate in some kind of war-related activity? My mother and grandmother both worked in a Munitions Factory in WW2.  Perhaps your ancestor rolled bandages or knitted socks for the troops. Write about one ancestor who was active in some way during a war or skirmish.
• Which female ancestor do you most identify with? Tell us what she did or what she was like and why you identify with her.
• Was there a female (teacher, minister, friend, relative) who impacted on your life?  Tell us about her.
• Did any of your female ancestors or relatives follow a non-traditional female role either in their relationships, occupations or in society? 

 I'd love to post some of your stories! Feel free to send them to me at blog@irishgenealogical.org.