Biography Builders Feb/Mar 2017: Celebrate March "Women's History Month"

Question

The Bio Builders theme for the next thirty days (give or take a couple of days) will be "Women in History". I don't want to make it hard for us to locate profiles. So for purposes of this challenge besides the obvious women who are notable, wives of "founders" and "immigrants", and women who had children (which is certainly making a mark in history) count. 

Biography Builders Goal: To make profiles as complete as possible with well-written biographies and sources. You should research as much as you can find on a person, writing the information onto the profiles to create as complete a life story as you can for that person. Sourcing should be full citations. This includes adding categories and links to events and people connected to that profile and citing all those additions. See the first month for examples of how to participate.

Here's our checklist:

Data Section.

• birth date/place
• names of parents
• marriage date/place and spouse name
• death date/place

Biography Section:

• Written sentences stating the facts above, adding inline sources to each fact.
• As a general rule biographies should be in your own words. Paraphrase and rewrite, don't copy/paste.
• Baptism, burial, military, and other life events with inline sources.
• Something to "humanize" the person, such as career or avocation with sources.
• List of children with at least one pertinent fact.
• One of the suggestions was siblings. I think this takes up real estate.
• Explanatory remarks, if needed (i.e. Disputed persons sections, Research Notes, whatever needs extra explaining).
• Photos or pictures, background. Not a must, but nice (I own the copyright or are in the public domain).
• Categories/Projects.
• Connection to the Global Tree.
• All duplicates merged or initiated
• Links to persons and events, perhaps from Wikipedia.
• Historical context as related to the person's life.
• Sources, Sources, Sources.

You can see some ideas on where to find some of this information on the Biography Builders space page, linked below.

Use comments below to ask questions.

Comments

Hi all, Thanks for participating. Finding given names that began with "F" turned out to be harder than I thought, which is why I made the category broad this month.

Ros Haywood and Connie Graves both reached over 50 profiles this month.

Pat Credit wrote 15 bios.

Nice Job Everyone.

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I made up the rules, but... I started working this morning on a scanty profile from my watchlist (her birthday this week). Anyway I assumed she would have children. She doesn't. She died rich and left lots of money to charity. Do you think I can count her? Lois (Atwater) Chaplin.

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I just found a ggg-aunt who was married to a U.S. Senator.

Harriet (Echols) Caperton (1815-1886)

I have done the first pass at gathering sources for her in familysearch.org, but I know there's more out there, between the records about her husband, and about her brother General John Echols.

I am unlikely to spend more time with this profile before the end of this challenge, so if somebody wants it, please have at it.

**And beware of blending in Mrs. Caperton's sister-in-law Harriet Alexander Caperton, also born 1815!

Answer 1

Fifty profiles! That's 50 more than when I started building profiles back in 2011 (I was dreadful). HUGE thanks to this Challenge and its organisers for encouraging me. Here goes for the next one!

1.  Elsie (Hodder) Bullough: "Lily Elsie", Edwardian actress and 'one of the most photographed women in Edwardian times' because of her beauty
2.  Susan Emma (Farley) Blagdon: 13 children (11 of whom survived past infancy) and 28 grandchildren (27 of whom were alive during her lifetime)
3.  Trilby (Tweedale) Tidy: Child actress, flapper, self-described Mannequin and Film Actress
4.  Thomasine (Dunstone) Avery: Mother of ten children, was a pub landlady for twenty years (on her own after her husband's death) into her mid-eighties
5.  Margaret (Murch) English: Acclaimed stage actress and ancestor of BBC series Poldark actor
6.  Elizabeth (Harris) Pine Blagdon: Died in a house fire in 1852 aged only 33 with her two small children; earlier she lost twin girls at birth, then her other daughter died aged four.
7. Minda Mary (Edgcombe) Ball: Born in Devon, England, lived on an island off Ireland, returned to Devon, moved to Somerset, England.

Comments

Way to go Ross. Your Elsie is gorgeous and I love the hat.

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Thank you. She definitely is beautiful, and I can see why she was photographed so often.  She was described as similar to the Mona Lisa, and her mouth was described as 'kissable'.  And I, too, love the hat!

Answer 2

I'm in. I have a number of women on my watchlist that fit the bill for this challenge.
1.Ruth Fiske-641 She was the wife of one of the first men killed in the American Revolution.
2. Anna Stone-4625 She was the wife of one of the first men killed in the American Revolution.
3. Elizabeth Bond-4594 Bio
4. Anna Parker-11007 Bio
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Comments

Lots of women profiles on Wikitree that need help.

Answer 3

In again. The bio challenge seems to be habit forming.  I am pondering the possibilities of who to select.  Famous or not they all deserve a bio.

1. Polly Wilson (Newkirk-301).

2 Madge (Philpott) Bellamy

3.  Nancy Green

4.

Comments

You could do both, a famous and a not famous.

Answer 4

Hi Anne,

I'm up for this challenge.  I've never done a bio builders before but this sounds interesting.

I started working on Mehitable Graves Hull today.  Can I finish her up and count her as one of my biographies?

Cheryl

Comments

Oh definitely

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https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Chapin-615

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https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Sikes-538

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I was reading the Chapin memorial, thumbs to that woman. I did notice in the references sections # 7 and # 12 are empty. It's probably a <ref name=xxx /> without a <ref name=xxx> source </ref>

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YES, Lydia certainly must have been a strong women - able to cope with life's realities.

Oh, and yes, I noticed those blanks too.  I don't know why the #7 & 12 are empty.  I'll look at it tomorrow and try to figure it out.

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https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Chapin-1110

Answer 5

Sad that we have to use husbands or other males as a reason to say the woman was a Woman in History. Don't we have women that were notable in their own right?

I think I will try to polish up Hetty Green, Witch of Wallstreet. There is already a profile, maybe I can add to it.

Comments

Of course we do. I included them "besides the obvious women who are notable," I was trying to make the category broader by including women who would not be considered notable by Wikipedia standards

Answer 6

Count me in for another ten this month.

Comments

Excellent, Thank you Laurie.

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1. Isabella Valancy Crawford  Canadian poet
2. Harriet Clench Kane  Artist
3. Pauline Mills McGibbon Lieutenant-governor
4. Agnes Macphail First woman elected to House of Commons
5. Lady Isobel Stanley Women's hockey pioneer
6. Dr. Jenny K. Trout, Medical pioneer
7. Elsie MacGill, Aeronautical engineer
8. Jean Blewett Journalist and poet
9. Lady Aberdeen Author and social reformer
10. Penelope Macdonell War of 1812 heroine
11. Prudence Heward Artist

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Good choice Laurie

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Good choice for a challenge, Anne. It's rather satisfying giving these women the recognition they deserve.

Answer 7

OK, I'm in as well although I've never done it before.  It'll be light relief from moving house next week :-)

1. Elizabeth (Brodie) Gordon last Duchess of Gordon and evangelical patroness.

2. Anna Buchan novelist who wrote as O Douglas and sister of novelist John Buchan. 

Comments

Definitely "lighter" than moving house. Thanks.

Answer 8

1. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Unknown-187031 founder of Hartford wife
2. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Fuller-3918 Harriet
3. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Whiting-1461 Mrs Ingersoll Hannah Mother of a signer of the Constitution.
4. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Gregory-1987 Persis
5. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Marcet-11
6. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Blakeman-25
7. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Unknown-95341 Mrs. Margaret Bennett, committed manslaughter.
8. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Middlebrook-78 PGM

Answer 9

A start, Ada Louise Richards, my maternal grandmother.

Comments

All right! David. Go back and look at the profile Fred's name is in Red. You probably put in the wrong ID or forgot one of the brackets. [[  ]] Two on each side

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Think I've got it fixed!

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Yes he's fixed now.

Answer 10

Woohoo! Number two completed, my paternal grandmother, Claribel Elizabeth Oldfield Peter

 

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TEN COMPLETED! (Feels really good to get 10 brief biographies done. I'm going to continue to flesh these out AND plan on adding even more biographies to my tree)

1. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Richards-5825 Ada Louise Richards, maternal grandmother
2. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Oldfield-295 Claribel Elizabeth “Beth” Oldfield, paternal grandmother
3. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Smith-84205 Grace Maud Smith, paternal great grandmother
4. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Allen-18229 Bertha Allen, maternal great grandmother
5. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Hoover-2274 Euphrasia Hoover, maternal great great grandmother
6. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Graham-8144 Mary Anne Graham, paternal great great grandmother
7. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Craig-3956 Eugenia Campbell Craig, paternal great great grandmother
8. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Baird-1984 Edith Lenora Baird, paternal great grandmother
9. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Standerfer-20 Joanna Standerfer, paternal aunt
10. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/McGraw-861 Elizabeth “Eliza” McGraw, maternal great great great grandmother

Comments

Peter, do you see that you can edit your G2G answers (or comments). Just use the edit link and it reopens the box so you add 2nd and 3rd etc. profiles.

Answer 11

Edna Regina Lewis (1916 - 2006)

I didn't add her this month, but she's one of my notable women profiles.
Edna was a female African American chef and author. I was watching the show "Top Chef " and the challengers were asked to cook in honor of this notable woman. Curious, I dug up her profile on Wikipedia and began building. I added her parents,siblings and found Census Records to confirm DOBs.

 "Woman in History" People like Edna make WikiTree tree building a real privilege!

Comments

Welcome to the bio builders Kelly. The bio builder's doesn't have a rule about when profiles were entered, they can be new or old, unless we made the rule specific for one month. Looks like a good profile, I think I'm hungry.

Answer 12

Bio for Margaret Magnusdaughter, https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Magnusdaughter-2 celebrating a life lived at the end of the 18th century and half of the 19th century on one of the Shetland Islands!

Comments

That was lovely and very informative.

Answer 13

Hey, I've got one this month!

8. Eudora Welty (1909-2001), Pulitzer prize winning author

 

Comments

Eudora is not part of my family. Is there a way to turn Notables over to a project for management? I'd like to stay as PM of her parents until I finish working on their bios but not after that.

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Thanks for jumping in Debi. I remember reading "Why I Live at the P.O." in a short story course after which I decided I hate short stories.

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Contact the notables project.

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LOL. Hated short stories after the class or that one story? I've not read it, generally avoiding short stories because they just leave me wanting more.

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It was the whole class in general (or perhaps more the professor than anything), but that's the story I remember from the class.