Women’s early role in social change
The April 3, 2024 Family History Interest Group program featured Craig Swan and Vicki Gaylord describing the amazing social changes brought about by women in their families and the successful searches for documents describing their work.
Women’s early role in social change
Wed, Apr 3, 2024, 10am
UMRA members Vicki Gaylord and Craig Swan will share stories of their ancestors’ participation in social change movements in the late 19th and early 20th centuries—and how they discovered those stories—when UMRA’s Family History Interest Group meets via Zoom from 10 to 11 a.m. on Wednesday, April 3. Here is how they describe their presentations.
Vicky Gaylord: As a baby boomer, I grew up surrounded by social change movements, and I became part of such movements as an adult. When I began sorting through boxes of treasures handed down to me from my ancestors of the 1800s, I found items that suggested such activism went back several generations in our family. In this presentation, “A Sister in the Work of Temperance,” I’ll share a little of the story of my great-grandmother’s aunt Mary Williams Jenkins and her involvement in a grassroots social change movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries led by women: the temperance movement.
Craig Swan: My grandmother Ethel Elliott Swan was heavily involved with women’s groups when she lived in Minneapolis from 1909 to 1921. Her activities led to her deep involvement in women’s patriotic work during World War I. I knew nothing of her efforts until seven years ago. I will share stories about her involvement and how I learned about them.
An email invitation will be sent to UMRA members a month before the meeting and a reminder will be sent one week before the meeting. We hope you can join us.
— Lynn C. Anderson, FHIG co-chair
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