Honoring My Great-Grandmother for Women’s History Month

Here at Lineage Tracer, I want to honor one of my female ancestors as we approach the end of Women’s History Month. But before I do, I want to encourage anyone reading this, to learn about one of their female ancestors. You can read stories already written, you can research their life through genealogical records, or you can ask living relatives to share about one of your female ancestors. If you find new information, I also encourage you to document it so your posterity can find joy in learning about who they came from.

I have so many great women in my line, but the woman I choose to celebrate today is my great-grandmother Dora.

A Photo of my great-grandmother Dora

She was a fellow genealogist and spent many hours researching both her ancestors and the ancestors of her husband. She also wrote short family histories about many family members. Those stories have been a huge pleasure to me as I have read and learned about the joys and struggles in their lives.

As I read Dora’s autobiography this month, a few sentences were very relatable. “By fall [1918] the schools were closed down, due to a terrible flu epidemic. We even had to wear masks in public... Not long after [New Year’s Day] the schools were reopened.” Interesting how we can live in different time periods yet still experience very similar events.

Dora’s writings were full of heartbreak and sadness. Her family was constantly getting sick with things we now are vaccinated for or with things that can easily be treated with antibiotics. One time her kids had what was diagnosed as scarlet fever. Then Dora got it. Her mother came to help out and went home a few days later because she wasn’t feeling well but didn’t tell Dora. It took Dora three months to get better only to find out her mother was on her death bed from the same illness. Dora blamed herself for her mother’s death. That was a really hard year for her.

Dora's brother-in-law teased her that she was better suited for the workforce than for the life of a housewife. She was very good at being a secretary and had a great job for a provost of a school. She also had a job in an office and was the first female employee ever for that office. But Dora married and became a housewife and gained the struggles that came with it! I’m grateful I don’t have to boil water outside to do laundry or make my own pasta noodles. But I’m grateful she could laugh at herself and tell funny stories like when she didn’t cut the noodles before they dried so they just broke the dried noodles into pieces.

It was interesting to hear things that were so different back then, like when she moved, she took her kitchen linoleum floors with her!

And some things were the same, such as her experiences visiting the same National Parks I have visited.

Great-Grandma Dora was a talented woman. She was skilled in the piano, good at school and secretarial work, and a good family historian and genealogist.

As I have learned about my great-grandmother, I can see lots of similarities. I like that she was open and honest about her life, both the good and the bad. I have felt a special connection to her for several years now. I like to think of her as my guardian angel, watching out for me. I am grateful for the time she took to document her life and the lives of her loved ones.

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