Clues to the Lives of Women


“In fact, women formally constructed their matrilineal genealogies and their relationships to one another in their cookbooks, binding together the different generations.” –Janet Theophano, Eat My Words: Reading Women’s Lives Through the Cookbooks they Wrote.

As a genealogist, I am very interested in the records that our female ancestors left behind. Family history researchers often get frustrated by the lack of records for women and the difficulty in reconstructing the life of a female ancestor. This concern led me to thinking, what records exist that are unique to women? What resources are not normally considered genealogy sources but may hold clues to women's lives? Where can we find clues to the lives of our female ancestors?

This blog focuses on a source unique to women. Cookbooks are a resource used by our ancestors. Most of us are familiar with the various types of cookbooks available in any bookstore, some written by food companies, manufacturers, celebrity chefs, and a host of others. But it's the community or charity cookbooks that provide information about what women really cooked and shared with their families. Community cookbooks began to be published during the time of the American Civil War. They provide recipes from a group of women and at the very least include their names and affiliation. Sometimes they include much more information that tells us something about their lives. These cookbooks are a virtual city directory of information about women who share a common concern, religion or neighborhood. For many women they were the only place where their name and something they wrote was published.

This blog explores community cookbooks, what they tell us about women's lives, their genealogical value and where you can find them. In this blog I share community cookbooks, archives and ideas about remembering our female ancestors. Community cookbooks help provide clues about women’s  lives.

Welcome to this blog. I hope it gives you ideas about the great sources left behind by our female ancestors.
Enjoy your discoveries!
Gena Philibert-Ortega

Comments

  1. Neat site and I love the idea of cookbooks as a resource for genealogy!

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  2. Great idea in the female domain at the family level. LM

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  3. Great idea in the female domain at the home and family level. LM

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  4. Discovered your site through geneabloggers. How interesting to focus on those undervalued community/church/club cookbooks!
    I agree with you that not only the community cookbooks, but the cookbooks from particular eras give us clues as to how people lived. Cooking and setting out antique dishes and silver always makes me feel my ancestors are there looking over my shoulder. I'm using that thought to put together articles at my site, Ancestors in Aprons. I have a page dedicated to cookbooks, and although I have not yet put up the community cookbooks I have, they're coming! Thought you might be interested. (Recipes with their stories are generally published on Thursdays)

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for stopping by Vera Marie! I always love to hear about others who are combining food history with family history.

      I love your blog title!

      Gena

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  5. What a neat blog you have! My main cookbook is a vintage Betty Crocker's (1956) that was given to me by my mother-in-law. I noted the "Cereal Coffee" recipe: because I use vintage cookbooks I keep bran, molasses, and corn meal as staples in my kitchen. A vintage recipe is hard to beat. I look forward to spending more time here.

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