My Grandmother Rode A Horse

As the writer built her family tree, it seemed the women were ignored. Their stories were hidden behind the patrilineal family tree and secondary, only important because of the children they produced. She wanted to know the women and to find out how they fit into the family stories. This book is the first in a series that illustrates how invisible women can be in family history. It is used as a biography as well as using the stories of her mother and grandmothers as well as their forebears as examples of reading the women between the lines. Historical research, family stories, and documentation merge together to paint pictures of women that were, holding their families together while simultaneously being labeled as having no occupation, no work, and no productive livelihood. As there are few documents to show their lives, they are unknown to history, their lives secluded behind her husbands if married and often erased if not. Some history will always be lost with the passage of time; this text is a lesson on how to read the women and find herstory.