Basic Principles for researching and writing about your women ancestors

Over the next few days and weeks I aim to post some of the basic ideas I have gathered over my many years of researching and writing about women.

To begin don't forget to learn from the success of others.  Many researchers and writers have gone before you and a search of the local library and online sources will get your started.

Learn from the success of others

Study how other researchers go about their searches. A golden rule for researching your women ancestors is to search everywhere, ask everyone and look in every possible repository, directory, search engine, website or networking site – think laterally, use wildcard terms for your searches and approach your data from every possible viewpoint.

Here is a list of books and websites to get you started.  Women and Family History
My website www.writingfamilyhistory.com.au has several lists on women including re convicts, work, crime, immigrant and education.  You are welcome to visit and download these.

This is a photograph of my maternal  great great grandmother Mary Ann Partridge (nee Everson) with her daughters and grandchildren.

Finding Florence, Maude, Matilda, Rose: Researching and writing women into family history

We should’ve have listened to Grandma as she knew much more about the family history than anyone else. It is Grandma who kept the photos and letters and who watched and worked to ensure her children and grandchildren were fed, clothed, cared for and loved. Women were pivotal to family and we need to ensure they are included in our family stories. 

This exciting and practical book provides, for the first time, a set of easy to follow and very relevant ideas, strategies, tips and tricks to add into your family histories the women of your family history. Written by Noeline Kyle an experienced and expert historian of women and family this book has everything for the family and social historian aiming to write the rich stories our female ancestors deserve. 

It is timely to think again about women ancestors who lived and worked and struggled as mothers, daughters, grandmothers, great grandmothers within the family, at work and in public life and also about those darker places such as in prisons, on convict transports and in the courts. Women were the perpetrators of crimes as well as victims and researching and writing their lives should include the complexity and contradiction of human endeavour in all its guises.

Noeline Kyle's book Finding Florence, Maude, Matilda Rose is now available on Amazon, 

amazon.com/author/noelinekyle

I have new kindle ebooks at:  amazon.com/author/noelinekyle

I have a series of four ebooks on writing family history with a fifth to arrive soon:

	Writing Family History - Book 1: Formatting the lives of your unique family (Writing family stories) Kindle Edition Current Sales Rank: #342,315 in Kindle Store Average Review: There are no reviews yet
	Writing Family History - Book 2: The who, why & how of writing, finding favourite characters & writing roadmaps Kindle Edition Current Sales Rank: #239,468 in Kindle Store Average Review: There are no reviews yet
	Writing Family History - Book 3: Historical context, creative characters, asking questions & blazing sunsets Kindle Edition Current Sales Rank: #1,380,232 in Kindle Store Average Review: There are no reviews yet
	Writing Family History - Book 4: Constructing your family history book: creative chronology, setting limits and finding a hook to hang your story on Kindle Edition Current Sales Rank: #392,661 in Kindle Store

This has been a first try at uploading ebooks. I would be glad of feedback.  Let me know if you have books on Amazon so that I can promote them here.

RAHS/SAG* Seminar – Women in History
April 11 @ 10:00 am - 3:00 pm $50 - $65
https://www.rahs.org.au/event/seminar-women-in-history/

Join Carol Liston, Christine Yeats, Noeline Kyle and Joy Hughes as they explore topics from women’s history and techniques for researching women in history.

Speakers and Topics:

• Carol Liston – Women Convicts in NSW: Reassessing the Evidence
• Joy Hughes – Damsels, “Old Dames”, Reprobates and Recidivists: Women of Hyde Park Barracks.
• Noeline Kyle – The Dark Side of Nursing: Mythologies, murder, malpractice and mistakes.
• Christine Yeats – Chasing the ubiquitous “Mrs” in family history: wives, mothers, sisters and aunts in nineteenth and early twentieth century NSW.

From Unlock the Past Books

Noeline Kyle’s Writing Family History December specials - 50% discount during December 2017

How to write your family history: a guide to creating, planning, editing and publishing family stories

N. Kyle - 40 pages $2.95 (Usual price $5.95

Go to Noeline Kyle's webpage:   http://www.writingfamilyhistory.com.aqu for print copies of Noeline's UTP books all $10 only until the end of December. 

History is not what you thought it was, is it?

History is nor what you or I thought it was?  What do you rhink?

2017 has been a busy year for me,  and it continues…I have presented  talks and seminars and workshops, published and launched a book, written and submitted several articles and, as well, I continue my volunteer role at the Kempsey Museum, and support the local community with their writing. In addition, in my role at the Kempsey Museum, I conduct research, write and submit grant supplications and more recently co-curated an exhibition with Julia Morrell at the Slim Dusty Museum. 

 

 

More info Noeline Kyle’s books and writing

 

 On my book Womens Business Midwives on the Mid North Coast of NSW

 http://www.macleayargus.com.au/story/4909521/women-through-the-ages/

http://www.macleayargus.com.au/story/4758932/midwives-of-yesteryear/?cs=12

http://www.macleayargus.com.au/story/4957965/here-comes-the-bride/

http://www.portnews.com.au/story/4755966/midwives-of-yesteryear/

 

On my book  Nurses and Midwives in Australian History

http://www.nswnma.asn.au/book-me-june-2015/

 

 

On Women’s History

https://smsa.org.au/events/event/noeline-kyle-finding-florence-maude-matilda-rose-researching-and-writing-women-into-family-history/

 

On my book Constance Kent and the Road Murder

https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/kaye_ruth_emilie

www.boolarongpress.com.au/content/bookstore/bookDetails.asp?bookid=420

https://www.sistersincrime.org.au/a-greater-guilt-by-noline-kyle/

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/constance-kent-and-the-road-murder/3089188

There is a review of my book A Greater Guilt on Marion Diamond’s blog, oh well, there it is, the one book I wrote that is well outside my expertise is given a rather insipid  review…still at my age one cannot be  that fussed, I have written a lot of words, a lot of books and I have delivered many talks and workshops…I shall soldier on still doing it as people continue to ask me to do so, perhaps I am doing something right. 

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12619206-how-to-write-and-publish-your-family-story

https://www.sistersincrime.org.au/a-greater-guilt-by-noline-kyle/

https://gsq-blog.gsq.org.au/category/book-reviews/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1844896/

https://booksfromboulder.info/22893439-writing-family-history-made-very-easy-a-beginner-s-guide-by-noeline-kyle.html

https://search.informit.org/documentSummary;dn=288964248687897;res=IELAPA;subject=Law%20(General)

http://www.auswhn.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Lilith-4-SUMMER-1988.pdf

https://modhistorymusings.com/category/public-history/page/2/

http://ampnovo.com/QWxsYWhIbk1sV3dFV0JkRmVCQm9va0JDZWNlZENRV2V3RXdRQWxsYWgtYS1ncmVhdGVyLWd1aWx0.books

 

Let  me know if you find reviews or comments on my books or my talks as I am happy to know about  anything you find, whether negative or positive, on the internet.  I am compiling a list and hoping to draw something from the wisdom or not of others….

The quote is from 1066, and in full reads:

History is not what you thought it was. It is what you can remember!!  

Here is a pic from a recent exhibition, it is of a dressmaker Nelly Partridge who made many gowns for the women  of the Macleay Valley.  The Photograph is from her wedding during WW1 in England:

Nelly's story will be added soon.

RAHS Day Lecture – Women’s Business: Midwives on the Mid North Coast of NSW to 1950

November 1 @ 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Dr Noeline Kyle will discuss her research into 200 midwives and more that 80 private hospital on the Mid North Coast of NSW. This research began in 1979 when she was writing a biography of her great grandmother Mary Kirkpatrick and culminated in her latest publication Women’s Business: Midwives on the Mid North Coast of NSW to 1950. Noeline will discuss the training, career details, and family life of midwives who worked in country towns and outline the complex and extraordinary lives of these women who were the major health providers of women and babies in country regions of Australia.

Dr Noeline Kyle is a professional historian and retired academic and has published women’s history, Australian history, biography/memoir and family history.

https://www.rahs.org.au/event/rahs-day-lecture-womens-business/