Book Review: Searching for Sisters by Sunny Jane Morton

So far as I know, there are no Catholic nuns in my family tree or my husband's family tree. But if I did have a female ancestor who became a nun, I would absolutely buy this book in a heartbeat.

Written by the well-known genealogy expert Sunny Jane Morton, Searching for Sisters is a highly readable, highly practical guide to researching the lives of Catholic nuns in your family tree.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: An Introduction to Religious Life for Women (including proper terminology and community structure)

Chapter 2: Did She Become a Sister or Nun? (finding out whether the ancestor actually took the vows)

Chapter 3: What Institute Was It? (identifying the ancestor's religious order)

Chapter 4: How to Find the Archives (online searching and beyond)

Chapter 5: What's in the Archives? (very meaty discussion of what records may exist for Catholic nuns in the United States)

Chapter 6: Looking for a Sister in Other Records (researching the non-religious side of a nun's life)

Chapter 7: Concluding Thoughts on Telling Their Stories (recognize and respect the complexity of their life stories)

Must-Read Case Studies

Appendix A, B, C, D, and E each contain a compelling case study. I am such a fan of methodology that I skipped to this part of the book first. Each case made the reader feel like a detective along on the hunt to solve a genealogy mystery.

The cases demonstrate a variety of creative ways to approach the research challenge of finding female ancestors who were Catholic nuns. Clues, research steps, discoveries, documentation, photos--these cases have it all, including detailed footnotes if you want to see the full citations in black and white.

Archives Listing in Appendix F - Plus a Great Index

Another appendix gives the reader a head start in looking for archives that may hold records pertaining to Catholic nuns. Nearly seven full pages of archives are included.

Too often, a genealogy book's index feels skimpy. Happily, the index of Searching for Sisters is excellent, with much more detail than the table of contents.

Heartily recommended! 

Please note: I received a free copy of this book for review purposes from Genealogical Publishing. However, the opinions in this review are entirely my own and not influenced by receiving a complimentary copy of the book.