Family History The Female Line

The Female Line
Many people, whilst conducting family history research, concentrate solely on the male line of their family tree and neglect their female ancestors.
Of course, it is easier to follow a family tree for your male ancestors because, other than misspellings or inaccurate transcriptions, a man’s name, usually, stays the same throughout his life.
However, have you stopped to consider, that by ignoring the family roots of the women in your tree, you could be missing out on some interesting or famous family connections?
Arthur Bevington Gillett
Arthur Bevington Gillett was born in London, Middlesex in 1875, to banker George Gillett and his wife, Hannah Elizabeth. If Arthur was your ancestor, and following the male line of your family tree only, you would ignore Hannah’s family tree altogether. When, in fact, Hannah’s family name is one that every child in Britain, over many generations, would recognise. Hannah Elizabeth was born in 1840 in Yorkshire to Joseph Rowntree and Sarah Stephenson. She was the younger sister of Joseph Rowntree (1836-1925), the famous philanthropist and chocolatier, who gave us fruit pastilles, KitKat, Polo, Aero and Smarties. Who amongst us would not have wanted Joseph as an uncle?
William John Thomas Collins (1788-1847)
William Collins was a successful landscape painter, whose work still hangs in the Victoria and Albert Museum. One of his sons, William Wilkie Collins (Known as Wilkie) was a famous author, playwright and novelist. His other son, Charles Allston Collins was, like his father, an artist. A celebrated family, indeed, but, once again, neglecting the female line can mean losing important family connections. On the 17th July 1860, Charles Collins married into another famous family by marrying Catherine (Kate) Elizabeth Macready Dickens, the daughter of Charles Dickens.
 Mary Susan Parker
Mary Parker was born in 1836 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire to Henry Parker and Marianne Darwin. Her uncle was the naturalist, geologist, biologist and author, Charles Darwin, who gave us the Origin of Man and his famous Theory of Evolution. Mary Parker’s connection to the famous did not end with her uncle. Both her uncle, Charles Darwin and her aunt, Emma Wedgewood (Charles Darwin’s wife), were grandchildren of Josiah Wedgewood, of Wedgewood China fame. Charles and, of course, Mary’s mother, Marianne, were the children of Josiah’s daughter, Susannah, whilst Emma was the daughter of his son, Josiah Wedgewood, the second, who from 1832-1835 was Member of Parliament for Stoke-on-Trent.
Women in your Family Tree
Whilst the temptation to follow the paternal lines in your family history are obvious, so much could be lost and/or ignored by not researching the maternal lines too.
The Exception that Proves the Rules
It is accepted that men usually keep their family name for life, but it is not always the case. When William Edward Shore’s great Uncle Peter died (the uncle of William’s mother Mary Shore (nee Evans), as part of the terms of Peter’s will, not only did William inherit the family estate but also assumed the name and Coat of Arms of Nightingale. Had William not, then, been known as William Nightingale, then “the lady of the lamp” would have been known to us all as Florence Shore and  not the famous Florence Nightingale.