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.
