Recapturing women's lives in northern Wisconsin

The National Genealogical Society's quarterly Magazine may live in the shadow of its scholarly cousin the Quarterly, but it's a distinguished publication in its own right -- distinguished enough to justify NGS membership in its own right IMHO. One of my favorite regular columns nestles right inside the back cover: "Writing Family History" by historian Harold E. Hinds Jr. of the University of Minnesota, Morris (who under no circumstances should be confused with yr blogger).

In the April-June issue, Hinds highlights Joan M. Jensen's 2006 book Calling This Place Home: Women on the Wisconsin Frontier, 1850-1925. Although closely focused in space, it displays many techniques for reconstructing women's lives from a time when they were not always well documented in obvious places. Hinds places it on the same shelf as the genealogical texts by Carmack (A Genealogist's Guide to Discovering Your Female Ancestors) and Schaefer (The Hidden Half of the Family: A Sourcebook for Women's Genealogy). I recommend the review and look forward to reading the book -- maybe there'll be more to blog about then.