women who never married and never had children

Startet af Lisa Petersen, 31 Okt 2018 - 23:49

Forrige emne - Næste emne

Lisa Petersen

I have some women in my family tree who never married and never had children.  I do the usual research — churchbooks, censuses, probates, newspapers, google, DAISY, maybe police records, and track the relatives.  Is there anything else I should look for?  It seems a shame to live a whole life and now the only record of it is birth, confirmation, censuses and death.

Here is one example.

https://books.google.com/books?id=JwVaAAAAcAAJ&lpg=PA63&dq=%22Johanne%20Sophie%20Ancher%22&pg=PA63#v=onepage&q=%22Johanne%20Sophie%20Ancher%22&f=false

Johanne Sophie Ancher lived with her parents until her mother died in 1813, then she lived with her brother until she died in 1845.  I found her birth, death, censuses, newspaper clipping about her death, and traced her relatives.  What more can be found on a single, childless woman?

På forhånd tak.

Lisa Petersen
near Washington D.C.

Grethe Leerbech

Hi Lisa

After my opinion:  nothing more!
Unles she has given birth to an illigitime child or has been a criminel.
At that time unmaaried women stayd by their parents or relatives to take care of them . If the family didn't want that ,they could be a guvernant or a lady's  companion. Or they could be sent away- se below:

In my town Elsinore there are a ceiling upon an old monestary ,where the families placed their old single women, which they didn't want among them any longer. Those ladies got a little chamber with a bed, a writing table, one chair and a dresser. There where even not a door but only a curtain to the common room, where there also was an oven to heat the whole room. They had to wash themselves and their clothes in an awfully room, very cold with drafts- and they got a bath in an old stone bath 1 per month also the hair where only washed once per month. Sometimes they had a little payment per month to buy personal things for, but sometimes they didn't, and if not,  they had to plea their companions or the superintendent (who took care of the rest of the building and the heating and later on the electric light. About the electric light it was some rich family in the town who paid for that because they got empathy with the poor old women (from better families!)
There excist a photo from that time. The family paid for their stay there. it excist up to 1902

So your relatives are lucky, that they stayd home untill they died- sometimes people also put them at the common hospital for poors their last days, if they f. ex. were sick, senile, demented or couldn't take care for themselves.
And I think you also have read about the single women who had the "luck" getting in psyciatric hopsitals for years. 
So if nothing of this happened they lived quitely taking care of their families, washing, sewing, emboidering, reading, sometimes cooking etc.

greetings
Grethe 
Thyholm,Vang, Gislum,Hornum,Hindsted, Slet, Års i Aalborg a. Ginding,Ringkøbing a.Rinds, Fjends,Hindborg,Viborg a. Nybøl, Sottrup,Sønderbog a.sogne i Tyskland, Sunds,Svendborg a.Tuse,Års,Løve i Holbæ

Lisa Petersen

Thank you, Grethe, for the reply and very interesting information about where old single women lived in Elsinore.  Your description gives me a vivid picture of what life was like for them.  And thanks for your opinion that there is nothing more to find on this woman.  I don't think she is in the criminal records, either!  I will work on some other people instead.  Thank you!

Lisa Petersen
near Washington, D.C.