Biology indicates that half of our ancestors are female. For those of us working in American records, a knowledge and understanding of the legal system is important.
There was a time when women could not own property, could not will property, could not be guardians for their children, etc. etc. In some cases, a failure to understand the law of the time may create brick walls that do not exist.
For example, my ancestor Sarah Turberville, left a will in Virginia in 1761, mentioning no real property. What? How can that be? The family had a farm, etc. etc. The reason is that in 1761 Virginia women could not own property in their own right...that is why.
We've posted more articles on searching for female ancestors on our site at:
http://www.rootdig.com/females.html
Michael
And some of us might not have the same number of male and female ancestors, but that we'll leave that for a later post.