MARCH IS NATIONAL WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH
Brenda Kellow
March 18, 2012
The women’s movement for recognition began in the 1960’s and came to the forefront in the 1970s when history began to change from political to social history. This gave birth to Women’s Studies. Today it is possible to get a Ph. D. in this field.
In 1981, Congress passed a resolution declaring the week of March 8 as Women’s History Week. The entire month of March became National Women’s History month in 1987. This is the month to celebrate women past and present.
Did you know women always served in the military? In the beginning, they cared for the sick and wounded and did the laundry, while others disguised themselves as soldiers and spies. Fold3 is celebrating the female all month long. On their site, they feature former slave Cathay Williams who went undercover as a man named William Cathay and become a Buffalo Soldier. The spotlight section introduces many others at http://spotlights.fold3.com/tag/women-in-the-civil-war/.
The Library of Congress dedicated a page in its Veteran’s History profiling the women of four wars, www.loc.gov/vets/stories/ex-war-women4wars.html.
Please do something to celebrate the recognition of our gender’s accomplishments and obstacles that we have overcome. Take your mom to lunch and present her with roses to honor her. Write a letter to a female role model, have a luncheon with your female friends, write a short story about one of your female ancestors or just have lunch with your daughters.
INDEXING CLASS ON 1940 CENSUS: Images of the 1940 census population schedules will be available free at 8 a.m. on April 2, 2012. However, there is no index so FamilySearch, Archives.com and Find My Past are sponsoring a volunteer project to create an index. You can help. I hope that we all can index a page or two so the indexes will be finished quickly. If you would like to see the index finished by September, as some are hoping, and would like to participate, there will be a demonstration by Barbara Coakley that includes how to sign up to index, download the software, and do the indexing on March 31, 10:30 a.m. in the Haggard Genealogy Library, 2501 Coit Road. To sign up for the class send an email to [email protected].
COLLINSWORTH CEMETERY: This month on YouTube and Plano TV’s “Eye On Plano” this month is a piece by Evan Reitzel. Descendent Charlotte Carpenter Johnson and cemetery club organizer and homeowner Kathy Nelson talk about the cemetery’s history and its role in a modern high-end neighborhood in west Plano. Thanks to the homeowner’s association for their volunteer work to keep it mowed and weeded. Check it out, www.youtube.com/user/cityofplanotexas.
CEMETERY TOUR: Candace Fountoulakis, with Plano Television Network, is preparing a story on the Historic Cemetery Driving Tour to be featured in April when more flowers are in bloom. Watch for it.
WEBINARS: If you use Legacy Family Tree as your genealogy database, then you are getting notices about the many Webinars scheduled for the rest of the year. Recently I have attended several, at home on my home computer, and I think you should look into these if you are not already attending them. They are free. Those of you not using Legacy should be interested in several of the topics. All you have to do is go to the home page, www.legacyfamilytree.com and check out the Webinars. After the live presentations, they are often available for a few days simply by clicking on “Register.” The last one I watched was on the new census tools added as a free update this past week. I learned from the Q&A session also. If a topic you are interested in has already been presented, then you can get it on CD. I listened to the census tools, but ordered my own copy because that feature is so powerful there is no way I would remember how to accomplish all it will do. If you need further help, attend one of the monthly Legacy User Group sessions at 1:30 on the fourth Tuesday in the Genealogy Library. If you have a question, email Joanne Corney at [email protected].
Brenda Kellow has a bachelor's degree in history, teaches, and lectures on genealogy. Before retiring to publish her family’s histories in 2007, Brenda held certification as a Certified Genealogist and as a Certified Genealogical Instructor. Send reunion announcements, books to review, and genealogy queries to: [email protected].